Stephanie Forward
About our expert
Stephanie Forward is an Associate Lecturer and Research Associate in English Literature with the Open University and teaches in Open Studies for Warwick University. She is also an active member of the Open2 bookclub.
Stephanie wrote the script for the CD The Churchills and their Palace , narrated by Robert Hardy, released in July 2004 to tie-in with the tercentenary of the Battle of Blenheim. She edited Dreams, Visions and Realities , an anthology of short stories by women writers (1877 – 1910), and co-edited , with Ann Heilmann, the four-volume set Sex, Social Purity and Sarah Grand. Currently she is researching the lives of the Coventry reformer Charles Bray and his wife Cara.
Further reading
Have you been inspired to delve further into the realm of the Romantics and age of liberty? We've a selection of books and links which you may find of interest. Read on in our section books and weblinks.
Related programme
Nowadays the word ‘romantic’ tends to trigger associations with love and sentimentality, but the period known as the Romantic era encompassed so much more! Romanticism is notoriously difficult to define and has been interpreted in various ways in different countries. However, it is true to say that it flowered originally against a backdrop of violent revolution during a period of economic, political and social transition. It was a European phenomenon, and had an impact upon many spheres of thought and activity. Advocating freedom and independence, many artists and philosophers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries challenged the way people looked at the world, emphasizing the integrity of the individual and refusing to bow to convention.
Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats and Shelley were pre-eminent among the Romantic poets. Regarding themselves as intuitive prophets, they rejected the pure rationalism and order of the Enlightenment, maintaining that nature and the healing power of the imagination could enable people to transcend their everyday circumstances. Creative powers could be used to illuminate and transform the world into a coherent vision, to regenerate mankind spiritually. Given the centrality of the poetic imagination, poets could therefore claim to be interpreters of reality. Shelley asserted that ‘Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.’
The Romantics found fresh ways to express themselves: their reverence for nature, in its awesome majesty, was to prove a lasting legacy. Drawing upon the environment for inspiration, they encouraged people to travel, both literally and metaphorically, into new territories. Their attitudes to life were liberating and made the world seem a place of infinite potential. The ramifications of their approach have continued to have an impact on culture subsequently.
Certain literary character types stem from the Romantic period: for example, the dark, brooding, rebellious Byronic hero and the mysterious femme fatale such as Keats’s ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’. Romantics often embraced the macabre, hence the popularity of Gothic novels. There was also keen interest in scientific discoveries and developments. In particular, Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ has endured and it has been argued that this pioneering text paved the way for science-fiction.
Literature was not the only art form to be affected by Romanticism. Composers also veered away from the formal clarity of classicism to experiment, striving for deeper emotional depth. Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Berlioz and Liszt were early pioneers. They were followed by Verdi, Wagner, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, all of whom produced innovative music, and in the twentieth century Schoenberg, Debussy, Bartok, Mahler, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Puccini and Rachmaninoff continued the Romantic tradition. Virtuoso conductors and performers attracted attention. There are a number of modern composers who are referred to as Neo-Romantics, including George Rochberg and David Del Tredici.
In the 1980s Gothic rock inspired trends in fashion and in music. The early years of the decade also witnessed the rise of New Romanticism. Whereas the eighteenth-century Romantics had rebelled against Enlightenment didacticism, the New Romantics emerged to counteract the anarchic austerity of Punk. Successful bands such as Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, ABC, Japan and Human League relied heavily on the use of synthesizers to produce their slick music, which some detractors felt was narcissistic and indulgent. Glamorous, flamboyant clothes were the order of the day, as the performers strove to achieve a personal look.
Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats and Shelley were pre-eminent among the Romantic poets. Regarding themselves as intuitive prophets, they rejected the pure rationalism and order of the Enlightenment, maintaining that nature and the healing power of the imagination could enable people to transcend their everyday circumstances. Creative powers could be used to illuminate and transform the world into a coherent vision, to regenerate mankind spiritually. Given the centrality of the poetic imagination, poets could therefore claim to be interpreters of reality. Shelley asserted that ‘Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.’
The Romantics found fresh ways to express themselves: their reverence for nature, in its awesome majesty, was to prove a lasting legacy. Drawing upon the environment for inspiration, they encouraged people to travel, both literally and metaphorically, into new territories. Their attitudes to life were liberating and made the world seem a place of infinite potential. The ramifications of their approach have continued to have an impact on culture subsequently.
Certain literary character types stem from the Romantic period: for example, the dark, brooding, rebellious Byronic hero and the mysterious femme fatale such as Keats’s ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’. Romantics often embraced the macabre, hence the popularity of Gothic novels. There was also keen interest in scientific discoveries and developments. In particular, Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ has endured and it has been argued that this pioneering text paved the way for science-fiction.
Literature was not the only art form to be affected by Romanticism. Composers also veered away from the formal clarity of classicism to experiment, striving for deeper emotional depth. Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Berlioz and Liszt were early pioneers. They were followed by Verdi, Wagner, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, all of whom produced innovative music, and in the twentieth century Schoenberg, Debussy, Bartok, Mahler, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Puccini and Rachmaninoff continued the Romantic tradition. Virtuoso conductors and performers attracted attention. There are a number of modern composers who are referred to as Neo-Romantics, including George Rochberg and David Del Tredici.
In the 1980s Gothic rock inspired trends in fashion and in music. The early years of the decade also witnessed the rise of New Romanticism. Whereas the eighteenth-century Romantics had rebelled against Enlightenment didacticism, the New Romantics emerged to counteract the anarchic austerity of Punk. Successful bands such as Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, ABC, Japan and Human League relied heavily on the use of synthesizers to produce their slick music, which some detractors felt was narcissistic and indulgent. Glamorous, flamboyant clothes were the order of the day, as the performers strove to achieve a personal look.
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