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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dark Romanticism | 1/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Romanticism | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:35:17.269786+00:00 | kb-cron |
Dark Romanticism is a literary sub-genre of Romanticism, reflecting popular fascination with the irrational, the demonic and the grotesque. Often conflated with Gothic fiction, it has shadowed the euphoric Romantic movement ever since its 18th-century beginnings. Edgar Allan Poe is often celebrated as one of the supreme exponents of the tradition. Dark Romanticism focuses on human fallibility, self-destruction, judgement, punishment, as well as the psychological effects of guilt and sin.
== Historical context == The term "Romanticism" comes from Old French "romanz," meaning stories written in the vernacular (local) "Roman" tongue (not Latin), which evolved from Latin "romanice" ("in the Roman manner"). Not only has it become an iconic style of art, but also had an effect on literature and music. It was driven by emotions and imagination rather than science and rationality. The Romantic Movement began in Europe at the end of the 18th century and migrated to America in the early 19th century. American Romanticism authors were most productive between 1830 and 1865. Within Romanticism, two conflicting sub-genres arose: optimists who believed in human virtue and spirituality formed the Transcendentalism Movement, while pessimists who accepted human fallibility and our proclivity for sin formed the Dark Romantic Movement.
== Definitions == Romanticism's celebration of euphoria and sublimity has always been dogged by an equally intense fascination with melancholia, insanity, crime and shady atmosphere; with the options of ghosts and ghouls, the grotesque, and the irrational. The name "Dark Romanticism" was given to this form by the literary theorist Mario Praz in his lengthy study of the genre published in 1930, The Romantic Agony. According to the critic G. R. Thompson, "the Dark Romantics adapted images of anthropomorphized evil in the form of Satan, devils, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and ghouls" as emblematic of human nature. Thompson sums up the characteristics of the sub-genre, 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.
=== Example quote === "Cannibals? Who is not a cannibal? I tell you it will be more tolerable for the Fejee that salted down a lean missionary in his cellar against a coming famine; it will be more tolerable for that provident Fejee, I say, in the day of judgement, than for thee, civilized and enlightened gourmand, who nailest geese to the ground and feastest on their bloated livers in thy pate de fois gras.” – Herman Melville's Moby Dick: or The Whale
== Characteristics == To fully grasp the idea of dark romanticism, we must recognize the attributes that come with the artwork so we can identify them. The characteristics that define dark romanticism are questioning the natural perfection of man, believing that man cannot ever be perfect, that man will never have perfection. People began to have a less conventional perspective of religion, to pay greater attention to catastrophes, and to let the investigation into terrible realities into their daily life. Furthermore, the most popular notions are that humans are naturally subject to sin and destruction, that people cannot ever escape sin or be rescued from it, and that people may destroy society, religions, and themselves.
== Artists' impact == Loneliness and sadness, desire and death, the obsession with horror, and the absurdity of dreams are all themes explored in the artwork. Artists like Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Paul Klee, and Max Ernst continued to think in this spirit throughout the twentieth century. Dark Romanticism arose as a reaction to the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and widespread rationalization, emphasizing raw emotion, pure aesthetic experiences, and other types of extreme emotion.
=== Artists ===
==== Johann Heinrich Fuseli ====
In Switzerland, Johann Heinrich Fuseli had studied to be an evangelical preacher. He produced an emblem of Dark Romanticism with his artwork. This piece leads off the exhibit, which spans two levels of the temporary exhibition space. The appearance of the incubus and the lecherous horse in a scenario situated in the present, shocked Fuseli's contemporaries greatly. Furthermore, the voyeur's requirements were met by the erotic-compulsive and daemonic material, as well as the sad environment.
==== William Blake ====
This painting reflects the conflict between good and evil, misery and lust, light and darkness, and other aspects of his work. Fuseli's unique pictorial language impacted a number of painters, including William Blake, whose famous watercolor The Great Red Dragon is on display at the Brooklyn Museum.
==== Francisco Goya ====
One of the most significant individuals in Spanish painting was Francisco Goya. He was also a precursor of Romanticism in the creation of contemporary artistic appreciation, both in terms of the substance of his paintings, with their in-depth examination of reality and references to the dream realm, and in terms of his innovative technique. His art expresses his own innovative views, opposing academicism and established topics. Goya characterized himself as a student of Velazquez, Rembrandt, and nature, gaining a taste for delicately shaded color applied in layers from Velazquez, a preference for dark and enigmatic backdrop settings from Rembrandt, and an unending diversity of shapes from nature; some beautiful, others ugly.
==== John Constable ====
The goal of John Constable's landscape paintings was to represent nature with honesty, to convey its beauty and simplicity without becoming pretentious. He is not the personification of nature's passion, poetry, or sorrow. He thought his life and art were in ruins, so he looked for a glimpse of his own spirit in nature, which he discovered in a bleak landscape of Hadleigh Castle in Essex.
==== Eugène Delacroix ====