Documentary - The Romantics

For anyone who is a fan of Romanticism as a literary and philosophical movement, this is a cool little documentary, "Recalling the turbulent lives of pioneers of romantic thought." Here is a brief background from Wikipedia:

Romanticism (or the Romantic era/Period) was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe and strengthened in reaction to the Industrial Revolution.^[1] In part, it was a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature.^[2] It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography,^[3] education^[4] and natural history.^[5]

The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror and terror and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, made spontaneity a desirable characteristic (as in the musical impromptu), and argued for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the form of language and customary usage.

Romanticism reached beyond the rational and Classicist ideal models to elevate a revived medievalism and elements ol, and industrialism, and it also attempted to embrace the exotic, unfamiliar, and distant in modes more authentic than Rococo chinoiserie, harnessing the power of the imagination to envision and to escape.f art and narrative perceived to be authentically medieval, in an attempt to escape the confines of population growth, urban sprawl.

The modern sense of a romantic character may be expressed in Byronic ideals of a gifted, perhaps misunderstood loner, creatively following the dictates of his inspiration rather than the standard ways of contemporary society.

Although the movement was rooted in the German Sturm und Drang movement, which prized intuition and emotion over Enlightenment rationalism, the ideologies and events of the French Revolution laid the background from which both Romanticism and the Counter-Enlightenment emerged. The confines of the Industrial Revolution also had their influence on Romanticism, which was in part an escape from modern realities; indeed, in the second half of the 19th century, "Realism" was offered as a polarized opposite to Romanticism.^[6] Romanticism elevated the achievements of what it perceived as heroic individualists and artists, whose pioneering examples would elevate society. It also legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority, which permitted freedom from classical notions of form in art. There was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a zeitgeist, in the representation of its ideas.

Open University offers some more in-depth background on this series:

Romantics in more depth:

OU on the BBC: Romantics - About the series

Find out more about the BBC/OU's television series looking at the Romantic movement in history, presented by historical writer Peter Ackroyd.  Read more : OU on the BBC: Romantics - About the series

OU on the BBC: Romantics - Programme Summary - Eternity

This programme in the BBC/OU's Romantics series is the story of a search for meaning, in a world without God.   Read more : OU on the BBC: Romantics - Programme Summary - Eternity

OU on the BBC: Romantics - Programme Summary - Liberty

This programme in the BBC/OU's Romantics series explores the birth of the individual in modern society.   Read more : OU on the BBC: Romantics - Programme Summary - Liberty

OU on the BBC: Romantics - Programme Summary - Nature

This programme in the BBC/OU's Romantics series examines the birth of the modern notion of nature.   Read more : OU on the BBC: Romantics - Programme Summary - Nature

OU on the BBC: Romantics - Meet Peter Ackroyd

Get to know your host and guide, an acclaimed writer and expert on the period. Meet Peter Ackroyd.  Read more : OU on the BBC: Romantics - Meet Peter Ackroyd

OU on the BBC: Romantics - The Experts' Views

  Read more

Here is the full 3 hour series.

The Romantics

This documentary looks at a group of visionary writers who changed the way we see the world – the Romantics – and examines stories of bloodshed, political upheaval and poetry.

Liberty. Peter Ackroyd reveals how the radical ideas of liberty that inspired the French Revolution opened up a world of possibility for great British writers such as William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, inspiring some of the greatest works of literature in the English language.

Their ideas are the foundations of our modern notions of freedom and their words are performed by David Tennant, Dudley Sutton and David Threlfall.

Nature. Peter Ackroyd summons the ghosts of the Romantics to tell the story of man’s escape from the shackles of industry and commerce to the freedom of nature.

As the Industrial Revolution took hold of Britain during the late 18th Century, the Romantics embraced nature in search of sublime experience.

But this was much more than just a walk in the country; it was a groundbreaking endeavour to understand what it means to be human. They forged poetry of radical protest against a dark world that was descending upon Britain.

Eternity. Byron, Keats and Shelley lived short lives, but the radical way they lived them would change the world. At 19, Shelley wrote The Necessity of Atheism – it was banned and burned, but it freed the Romantics from religion.

Through their search for meaning in a world without God, they pioneered the notions of free love, celebrity and secular idolatry that are at the centre of modern Western culture.

Watch the full documentary now (playlist – 3 hours)