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Romanticism
The origins and nature of the movement known as romanticism have been much discussed, although with little fundamental consensus as to how they should be defined. The chief difficulty here is the great diversity of the movement, whose principal centers at the peak of its influence, c. 1800–50, were Germany and Britain, with notable developments elsewhere in later periods. Reacting to scientism, rationalism, the commercial and Industrial revolutions, and then also in part the French Revolution, the romantics were active in literature, poetry, painting, and music. Some of their concerns, such as a fascination with horror, awe, and the sublime; the gothic and macabre; and the peculiarity and intensity of feeling that accompanied these perceptions, had relatively little political purchase. In other areas, notably ...
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