Art (and literature by extension) is fueled by societal change and the 18th & 19th centuries were times of great change. Rapid urbanization, industrialization, and change in values inspired artists to create works infused with melancholy and yearning for the times gone by.
Dark romanticism began as a counter-movement to romanticism and transcendentalism in the 18th century. Where romanticism focussed on the celebration of nature, individualism, and idealization of women; dark romanticism delved into personal torment, pathetic fallacy, and human fallibility. While transcendentalism viewed nature as nourishing, dark romantics imagined nature as sinister and mysterious. Similarly, romantics advocated human reform while dark romantics viewed reform as futile.
Dark romanticism overlaps with gothic literature on the use of the supernatural and elements of darkness. However, gothic literature aims to inspire terror in the hearts of the readers while dark romanticism seeks to inspire mystery and thought regarding human nature.
Authors
Edgar Allen Poe: He is the paragon of dark romanticism. Poe combined elements of romanticism with darker themes of gothic literature in his writings. Poe strongly disliked transcendentalism and viewed them as pretenders and this reflects in his writings. His works focus on human psychology, mourning, death, and self-destructive human nature.
Herman Melville: He mostly wrote travel books however as his views on the world matured, he began to probe metaphysical and spiritual questions. He could never come to terms with his unbelief of the triumph of good over evil. Thus, his works had themes of misery, pessimism, mystery, and madness.
Nathaniel Hawthorne: Although he had a transcendental upbringing, his works have a subtext of guilt and religious unbelief, probably influenced by his ancestors’ participation in the ‘Salem Witch Trials. In his writings, Hawthorne explores the unreliability of human ideals and the extremes of individualism.
Emily Dickinson: Emily Dickinson questioned definitions of poetry and embodied dark romance. She led a withdrawn life, plagued by major depression, and she never succeeded in her life (she died at the age of 56). Her creative energy, her willingness to fight convention (no titles, short lines), and her productive writing (she wrote nearly 1,800 poems in her lifetime, but published very few) established her literary abilities and paved the way for other poets and writers to follow.
Mary Shelley: Her works were borne out of personal sorrow and suffering. Her life was marred by the deaths of her loved ones and the ostracism she had to face. She channeled her sorrow into her writings and became a trailblazer not only for women but authors everywhere.
Book Recommendations
Moby Dick: Herman Melville explores his inability to come to terms with God in this masterpiece. Its structure and themes made it a classic and to this day the undercurrents of morality and fragility of human beings remain evocative and thought-provoking.
The Raven: The eponymous raven in this masterful poem torments a man mourning his wife. Edgar Allen Poe masterfully puts human instability and death into subtext and makes the poem one of the most celebrated pieces of literature.
Frankenstein: It is said that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein on the insistence of Lord Byron when he proposed that they each write a ghost story. On that fateful summer trip, she not only pushed the envelope for dark romanticism but also wrote the earliest and one of the most prominent science fiction pieces.
(Originally published on ScriveTribe)
Comentários