The Taming of Romanticism - European Literature and the Age of Biedermeier

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.

Product details

• Authors: Virgil Nemoianu
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2014
• EAN: 9780674418264
• ISBN: 978-0-674-41826-4
• No. of pages: 302
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 25 mm x 230 mm
• Weight: 629 g
• Series: Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature; Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature, 37
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies