Page 3 - spring21

TH
STORIES OF HEARTS AND MINDS IN THE 19 CENTURY

INTRODUCTION

th
The 19 century conversation: Enlightenment and Romanticism
Last term we applied the idea of escapism in Victorian culture more widely to explain
the Victorian era as whole. But Victorian escapism was part of a wider European
movement called by cultural historians Romanticism. Could we also apply this more
th
widely to illuminate 19 century European history?

th
The Romantic Movement is often seen as a movement in opposition to the 18
century Enlightenment: emotion as opposed to reason. However, Romanticism has
been more accurately described as “the problem child of the Enlightenment”.
Romanticism arose and grew out of the Enlightenment, albeit as a backlash against
th
some of its thinking. For this reason, it is better to see the 19 century as a
“conversation” between the two, rather than as two distinct and directly opposing

movements.

th
The background to all this is that the 19 century witnessed a pace and scale of
change, social, economic, technological, political and intellectual, that was
unprecedented. This resulted from the seismic waves of change generated by the
scientific, French, American and Industrial Revolutions which preceded it.

th
The speed and scale of 19 century change was unsettling. As we saw in our last
session, it made many Victorians anxious. Some had the feeling that they were living
through an age of transition. John Stuart Mill felt they had “outgrown old institutions
and old doctrines, and not yet acquired new ones”, while poet Matthew Arnold felt
he was “Wandering between two worlds, one dead/The other powerless to be
born/With nowhere yet to rest my head”. Religious faith in particular was retreating.
Arnold compared this to the sound of the shingle drawn by the tide on Dover beach:

the “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” of faith. What would replace it was far
from clear. Everything seemed in a state of flux.

For this reason, the “conversation” between the two movements had a broad
agenda. What was human nature? What sort of society did people need? What made
government legitimate? What was knowledge? What were the purpose of science
th
and technology? In these sessions we will look how a number of diverse 19 century
individuals tried to answer these fundamental questions.