SCAND 50 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Exoticism, Industrial Revolution, Transcendentalism
Document Summary
Focus on the individual - me, my thoughts, my beliefs. Art and music are expressing grand images and ideas. An artistic and intellectual movement that emerged after the enlightenment in the late 18th, early. Listen to heart over mind, emotion over reason. In touch with nature = in touch with a spiritual truth. Literature celebrates artists" characters, the artist is the hero Rejection of the empiricism of the enlightenment. Prior to romanticism, nature was primarily portrayed as a savage, dangerous, evil place. Fascination with the exotic - far away, long ago: settings like ancient china (nightingale) and somewhere in africa (the shadow) Romanticism coincides in europe with the industrial revolution. Exoticism is a shortcut to creating mystery, using a setting that is far away, unknown, idealized. Threat of the industrial - the mechanical nightingale. Conflict/competition between the natural and artificial bird. Automatons are recurring images in romanticism (the nutcracker, the mechanical nightingale)
