The Taming of Romanticism: European Literature and the Age of Biedermeier (HARVARD STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE)

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. 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. -- Amazon.com The Dynamics of the Romantic Period Support for an English Biedermeier French Romanticism: Two Beginnings? Eastern European Romanticism: Patterns of Substitution Romantic Irony and Biedermeier Tragicomedy The Biedermeier Historical Novel and the Decline of Compromise Afterword