Romanticism:

Characteristics
In a basic sense, the term "Romanticism" has been used to refer to certain artists, poets, writers, musicians, as well as political, philosophical and social thinkers of the late 18th and early to mid 19th centuries. It has equally been used to refer to various artistic, intellectual, and social trends of that era. Despite this general usage of the term, a precise characterization and specific definition of Romanticism have been the subject of debate in the fields of intellectual history and literary history throughout the 20th century, without any great measure of consensus emerging. Arthur Lovejoy attempted to demonstrate the difficulty of defining Romanticism in his seminal article "On The Discrimination of Romanticisms" in his Essays in the History of Ideas (1948); some scholars see romanticism as essentially continuous with the present, some like Robert Hughes see in it the inaugural moment of modernity, [7] some like Chateaubriand, 'Novalis' and Samuel Taylor Coleridge see it as the beginning of a tradition of resistance to Enlightenment rationalisma 'Counter-Enlightenment' [8] [9] to be associated most closely with German Romanticism. Still others place it firmly in the direct aftermath of the French Revolution.
[citation needed]

An earlier definition comes from Charles Baudelaire: "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in

choice of subject nor exact truth, but in the way of feeling."[10] [edit]Counter-Enlightenment Many intellectual historians have seen Romanticism as a key movement in the Counter-Enlightenment, a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment. Whereas the thinkers of the Enlightenment emphasized the primacy of reason, Romanticism emphasized intuition, imagination, and feeling, to a point that has led to some Romantic thinkers being accused of irrationalism[citation needed]. Romanticism focuses on Nature: a place free from society's judgement and restrictions. Romanticism blossomed after the age of Rationalism, a time that focused on handwork and scientific reasoning. [edit]Genius,

originality, authorship

The Romantic movement developed the idea of the absolute originality and artistic inspiration by the individual genius, which performs a "creation from nothingness;" this is the so-called Romantic ideology of literary authorship, which created the notion of plagiarism and the guilt of a derivativeness.[11][12][13][14]This idea is often called "romantic originality."[15][16][17] The romantic poets' turned their beliefs on originality into "the institution of originality."[18][19] The English poet John Milton, who lived in the 17 century, was part of the origin of the concept.[20] This idea was in contrast with the preceding artistic tradition, in which copying has been seen a fundamental practice of the creative process; and has been especially challenged since the beginning of the 20th century, with the boom of the modernist and postmodern movements.[14][21][22]

Among the characteristic attitudes of Romanticism were the following: a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature; a general exaltation of emotion over reason and of the senses over intellect; a

turning in upon the self and a heightened examination of human personality and its moods and mental potentialities; a preoccupation with the genius, the hero, and the exceptional figure in general, and a focus on his passions and inner struggles; a new view of the artist as a supremely individual creator, whose creative spirit is more important than strict adherence to formal rules and traditional procedures; an emphasis upon imagination as a gateway to transcendent experience and spiritual truth; an obsessive interest in folk culture, national and ethnic cultural origins, and the medieval era; and a predilection for the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, the weird, the occult, the monstrous, the diseased, and even the satanic. Raymond Carver:
Raymond Carver, 25.5.1938-2.8.1988, amerikansk forfatter. Efter udgivelse af noveller og lyrik i 1960'erne slog han sit navn fast som en af USA's betydelige moderne prosaforfattere med novellesamlingen Will You Please Be Quiet, Please (1976). I en ngtern, minimalistisk form ("dirty realism") skildrer han her og i bl.a. Cathedral (1983) ogElephant (1988, da. Nrhed, 1989) amerikansk middelklasseliv prget af gteskabelige problemer, alkoholisme, arbejdslshed og eksistentiel usikkerhed. P dansk er udkommet flere udvalg af Raymond Carvers fortllinger i Hvad vi taler om, nr vi taler om krlighed (1985), Nrhed og andre historier(1989) og En alvorlig samtale og andre historier (2000). Den amerikanske filminstruktr Robert Altman fik 1993 stor succes med Short Cuts, der byggede p Raymond Carvers forfatterskab.

Raymond Carver was born in Oregon on 25 May 1938. He grew up in Washington State. His father was a sawmill worker and his mother a waitress. Carver worked with his father in a sawmill in California and then as a deliveryman. He married his first wifeMaryannand six months later a daughter was born. A son followed. Carver enrolled at various colleges, where his studies concentrated on creative writing. Aged twenty-two, "The Furious Seasons"his first published storyappeared in college magazine Selection. "The Brass Ring"his first published poemappeared in 1962, in the little magazineTargets. In his late twenties, Carver filed for bankruptcy. His father died. He also got his first white collar job (textbook editor), his story "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?" appeared in The Best American Short Stories 1967, and a college press published the poems Near Klamathhis first book. Carver continued to move around, move jobs, and get stories and poems published. He began to lecture. He went bankrupt again and was hospitalized with acute alcoholism. In his late thirties, the stories Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? appearedhis first major-press book. Carver stopped drinking. He met Tess Gallagher, and he and Maryann separated. The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters awarded him a fellowship to write full-time. At forty-nine, doctors diagnosed cancer. They removed part of his left lung, but the cancer recurred. He had brain radiation treatment, but cancer reappeared. Ray and Tess married in Reno, on Friday 17 June 1988. He died at home, in Washington State, on 2 August.