The Taming of Romanticism : : European Literature and the Age of Biedermeier / / Virgil Nemoianu.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP e-dition: Complete eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Nemoianu, Virgil,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2013]; ©1984
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Edition: Reprint 2014
• Language: English
• Series: Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature ; 37
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (302 p.)

Looking at a broad spectrum of writers--English, French, German, Italian, Russian and other East Europeans--Virgil Nemoianu offers here a coherent characterization of the period 1815-1848. This he calls the era of the domestication of romanticism. The explosive, visionary core of romanticism is seen to give way--after the defeat of Napoleon--to an expanded and softer version reflecting middle-class values. This later form of romanticism is characterized by moralizing efforts to reform society, a sentimental yearning for the tranquility of home and hearth, and persistent faith in the individual, alongside a new skepticism, shattered ideals, and consequent irony. Expanding the application of the term Biedermeier, which has been useful in describing this period in German literature, Nemoianu provides a new framework for understanding these years in a wider European context.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- PREFACE -- CONTENTS -- 1. THE DYNAMICS OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD -- 2. SUPPORT FOR AN ENGLISH BIEDERMEIER -- 3. FRENCH ROMANTICISM: TWO BEGINNINGS? -- 4. EASTERN EUROPEAN ROMANTICISM: PATTERNS OF SUBSTITUTION -- 5. ROMANTIC IRONY AND BIEDERMEIER TRAGICOMEDY -- 6. THE BIEDERMEIER HISTORICAL NOVEL AND THE DECLINE OF COMPROMISE -- AFTERWORD -- NOTES -- INDEX -- Backmatter