Dark romanticism

For the album by Primordial, see Dark Romanticism (album).

Edgar Allan Poe is among the more important authors of Dark Romanticism

Dark Romanticism (often conflated with Gothicism or called American Romanticism) is a literary subgenre.^[1] It has been suggested that Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom. G. R. Thompson describes this disagreement, stating "the Dark Romantics adapted images of anthropomorphized evil in the form of Satan, devils, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and ghouls."^[2] For these Dark Romantics, the natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious; when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil and hellish. Finally, whereas Transcendentalists advocate social reform when appropriate, works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better. Thompson sums up the characteristics of the subgenre, writing:

Fallen man's inability fully to comprehend haunting reminders of another, supernatural realm that yet seemed not to exist, the constant perplexity of inexplicable and vastly metaphysical phenomena, a propensity for seemingly perverse or evil moral choices that had no firm or fixed measure or rule, and a sense of nameless guilt combined with a suspicion the external world was a delusive projection of the mind--these were major elements in the vision of man the Dark Romantics opposed to the mainstream of Romantic thought.^[3]

Relation to Gothic fiction

British authors writing within the movement of Romanticism such as Lord Byron, Samuel Coleridge, Mary Shelley, John Shek, and John Polidori who are frequently linked to gothic fiction are also sometimes referred to as Dark Romantics.^[4] Their tales and poems commonly feature outcasts from society, personal torment, and uncertainty as to whether the nature of man will bring him salvation or destruction.^{[citation needed]}

Remarkable authors

Dark romanticism was particularly important in Germany, with writers such as Friedrich von Schiller, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Christian Heinrich Spiess, Ludwig Tieck and, possibly the most famous writer of the romantic movement, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Many consider American writers Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville to be among the most important Dark Romantic authors.^{[citation needed]}

See also

Novels portal

• Ultra-Romanticism
• Noite na Taverna
• Álvares de Azevedo

References

1. ^ Dark Romanticism: The Ultimate Contradiction
2. ^ Thompson, G. R., ed. "Introduction: Romanticism and the Gothic Tradition." Gothic Imagination: Essays in Dark Romanticism. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 1974: p. 6.
3. ^ Thompson, G.R., ed. 1974: p. 5.
4. ^ University of Delaware: Dark Romanticism

General references

• Galens, David, ed. (2002) Literary Movements for Students Vol. 1.
• Mullane, Janet and Robert T. Wilson, eds. (1989) Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism Vols. 1, 16, 24.

External links

• Poe Studies/Dark Romanticism Journal