1. Focus on expressing subjective ideals and expressing strong personal feelings.
Romanticism was extremely dissatisfied with the reality after the French Revolution and often idealized non-capitalist life; Romantic writers deeply felt that the rationality promoted by classicism was a shackles to literary and artistic creation.
So he emphasized the absolute freedom of creation, opposed the strict rules and precepts of classicism, demanded a breakthrough in the scope of literature describing reality, and put emotion and imagination in the first place. They paid special attention to the theme of love, and also described a lot of people's dreams.
2. Describe natural scenery and praise nature.
Due to their disgust with capitalist material civilization and the vulgar and ugly reality, fear and hatred of industrialization have become the unique characteristics of romantic poets. The majestic nature and strange scenes in the distance, It became the place where romantic writers placed their ideals of freedom.
In their works, the beauty and sublimity of nature often form a strong contrast with the ugliness and vulgarity of urban life. Some extraordinary characters often appear in nature or in strange and exotic environments.
They cite Rousseau's idea of ??"returning to nature" and regard nature as a mysterious force or a symbol of a certain spiritual realm. Romantic writers not only sang about the natural beauty of their own countries, but also enjoyed describing exotic scenery, such as the jungles and prairies of the Americas, countries along the Mediterranean Sea, the living customs of ethnic minorities, Gothic architecture, ancient ruins, and so on.
3. Love describing the Middle Ages and past history.
Starting from Scott, to romantic novelists such as Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, many of them used historical themes as the subjects of their descriptions. Their descriptions do not focus on reflecting the historical reality, but on expressing their own imagination. They often just capture a small episode in history. This small episode is not detailed in the history books and can be left to the author's free will.
Some romantics beautified the feudal patriarchal system of the Middle Ages and regarded the Middle Ages as a "golden age" to oppose capitalism.
4. Pay attention to folk literature, especially medieval folk literature.
In both Germany and Britain, Romanticism began with the collection of medieval folk literature, and the slogan "Back to the Middle Ages" was also raised. This is because medieval folk literature is not bound by the strict rules and precepts of classicism. It has rich imagination, sincere emotions, free expression and popular language.
Extended information:
Romanticism is one of the basic creative methods of literature and art, and together with realism are the two main trends of thought in literature and art. As a creative method, Romanticism focuses on reflecting objective reality and starting from the subjective inner world to express the passionate pursuit of the ideal world. It often uses passionate language, magnificent imagination and exaggerated techniques to create images.
The creative tendency of romanticism has a long history. As early as the period of oral creation of human literature and art, some works contained romantic elements and characteristics to varying degrees, but at this time romanticism had not yet formed. Trends of thought are not creative methods consciously mastered by people.
Many intellectuals and historians regard Romanticism as a backlash against the Enlightenment and a reflection on the Enlightenment Era. Thinkers in the Enlightenment era emphasized the absoluteness of deductive reasoning, while romanticism emphasized intuition, imagination, and feeling, even to the extent that some people criticized it as "irrationalism."
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia of Romanticism