Historical Tripos, Part I Paper 17 European History 1715-1890

20 Romanticism
There are endless possibilities to explore the topic of Romanticism, focusing on the
theoretical surveys about the movement, its manifestations in literature, politics, social and
economic thought, art and music, to name a few. The readings suggested here offer a broad
spectrum of texts on various aspects of Romanticism in different European nation-states. The
German and French cases are better known in the Anglophone world, but cases such as the
Spanish, Italian, Greek and Russian should also be approached by students endeavouring to
expand their knowledge of the topic. It is also essential to understand Romanticism that the
student browses through the readings for the topics of the Congress of Vienna and
Restoration and 1848 Revolutions.
Theoretical Approaches
T.C.W. Blanning, ‘The commercialisation and sacralisation of culture’, in T.C.W. Blanning
(ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe
D.G. Charlton (ed.), The French romantics (1984). 2 volumes. Vol 1 (especially both articles
by Charlton); Vol 2 (especially articles by Johnson, Vaughan and MacDonald).
H. Honour, Romanticism (1981), especially Introduction and chapters 1, 2, 5 and 6.
D. A. Keiser, Romanticism, aesthetics and nationalism (CUP, 1999), Introduction, Chapter 1.
A. Lovejoy, “The meaning of romanticism for the historian of ideas,” Journal of the History
of Ideas 2, no. 3 (June 1941), 257-78. JSTOR
A. Menhennet, The Romantic Movement (1981).
T. Nipperdey, ‘In search of identity: romantic nationalism’, in J.C. Eade (ed.), Romantic
nationalism in Europe (1983), pp. 1-15.
On Literature, Art and Music
G. Abraham (ed), Romanticism (1830-1890) (OUP, 1990) [on music], especially chapters 1
(by Abraham) and 3 (by Charlton).
N. Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, “Romanticism: Breaking the Canon”, Art Journal, Vol. 52, No.
2, Romanticism (Summer, 1993), pp. 18-21. JSTOR.
F. Barricelli, ‘Il Concicliatore and Music: a Case of Romantic Oversight’, in L. Peer (ed),
Romanticism across the disciplines (OUP, 1998), pp. 41-53.
A. Ringer (ed.), The early romantic era. Between revolutions: 1789 and 1848 (London,
1990) [on music].
G. Tomlinson, “Italian Romanticism and Italian Opera: An Essay in Their Affinities”, 19th-
Century Music, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Summer, 1986), pp. 43-60. JSTOR.
On Social and Political Romanticisms
F. C. Beiser (ed.), The Early Political Writings of the German Romantics, (Cambridge, 1996),
especially Novalis’s Pollen and Christianity or Europe, and Schlegel’s Athenaeum
Fragments.
I. Gross, The Scar of Revolution. Custine, Tocqueville, and the Romantic Imagination
(Berkeley, 1991).
D. O. Evans, Social Romanticism in France, 1830-1848 (Oxford, 1951).
J. C. Isbell, Birth of European romanticism : truth and propaganda in Staël's 'De
l'Allemagne', 1810-1813 (1995).
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E. N. Schamber, Artist as politician: the relationship between the art and the politics of the
French romantics (1984).
W. Veit, ‘Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Romantic Nationalism’, in J. C. Eade (ed), Romantic
nationalism in Europe (1983), pp. 151-64.
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