Critical View of Romantic Literature

This literature review will critically analyse a range of arguments and perspectives by literary critics which will be pertinent to the study of Romanticism . Due to the scale of research in Romantic literature as a discipline, the main focus in this paper will concentrate primarily on defining the two aspects of Romantic literature. These two aspects are called Romantic nature and the sublime; the paper will look at the main purpose of these definitions by literary scholars. The review will also compare and contrast different methodologies used by the critics when defining 'Nature' and the 'Sublime'. When, and if appropriate, the review may make brief references to some canonical Romantic texts. In addition, the reason why the paper will look particularly at these two aspects is because it has been generally agreed by literary scholars that nature and sublime are both synonymous. Yet, there are various debates amongst scholars on the definition and therefore illustrates inconsistencies of the two terms. Thus, this essay will make small contributions with regards to the definition of the term.

Nature and the sublime are two prominent characteristics in eighteenth century Romantic literature and it is this relationship that has attracted considerable attention in literary criticism ( Hagman , 124) . Aidan Day (1985) and Nicola Trott (1999) have aptly documented that the serenity of nature and the spiritual awe of the sublime is an aesthetically attractive feature in Romantic literature. In spite of this consensus , their interpretation on what constitutes as the sublime differs but not significantly. While, Day takes on an epistemological approach when defining the sublime 'as an ...

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...me, it is a study of how other literary scholars view the sublime.

Although, Trott and Day's text posits of a coherent definition of the sublime, there are certain limitations in their work for instance their work does not offer how the term might have changed or evolved in the past decade. Velde (2010) found that the correct use of language must be employed in Romantic literature to capture a transcendental experience for the reader. Velde's point is valid because the Romantic poets placed an extreme assertion of It is therefore, necessary to look at the sublime relationship with 'Nature' and how literary scholars have defined this term in recent years.

The emphasis on nature is another significant notion to Romantic literature because literary scholars view nature as an integral concept when researching Romanticism as a discipline.