This study examines Romanticism as a coherent yet internally differentiated cultural formation that reshaped literature, painting, and music between the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. The article is based on a qualitative comparative analysis of representative literary, visual, and musical works from German, English, French, and Slavic traditions, interpreted in dialogue with major contributions in Romanticism scholarship. Particular attention is given to the concepts of “dual-worlds” and “cordocentrism,” the revaluation of imagination and inwardness, and the transformation of genre, symbolism, and historical consciousness. The analysis shows that Romanticism should not be reduced either to a simple rejection of Enlightenment rationality or to a loose collection of national styles. Rather, it functioned as a transnational aesthetic paradigm unified by its emphasis on subjectivity, freedom, spiritual tension, nature, and the search for the absolute, while remaining historically diverse in form and ideological orientation. The study also demonstrates how Romantic poetics migrated across artistic media and helped prepare later developments such as symbolism and modern conceptions of artistic individuality. The article clarifies the conceptual vocabulary of Romanticism, refines its internal periodization, and highlights its continuing relevance for literary and cultural interpretation.
This study examines Romanticism as a coherent yet internally differentiated cultural formation that reshaped literature, painting, and music between the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. The article is based on a qualitative comparative analysis of representative literary, visual, and musical works from German, English, French, and Slavic traditions, interpreted in dialogue with major contributions in Romanticism scholarship. Particular attention is given to the concepts of “dual-worlds” and “cordocentrism,” the revaluation of imagination and inwardness, and the transformation of genre, symbolism, and historical consciousness. The analysis shows that Romanticism should not be reduced either to a simple rejection of Enlightenment rationality or to a loose collection of national styles. Rather, it functioned as a transnational aesthetic paradigm unified by its emphasis on subjectivity, freedom, spiritual tension, nature, and the search for the absolute, while remaining historically diverse in form and ideological orientation. The study also demonstrates how Romantic poetics migrated across artistic media and helped prepare later developments such as symbolism and modern conceptions of artistic individuality. The article clarifies the conceptual vocabulary of Romanticism, refines its internal periodization, and highlights its continuing relevance for literary and cultural interpretation.
