The Romantic movement in art and literature (late 18th-mid 19th century) emphasized:

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Emotion, individualism, nature, and the sublime. The Romantic movement emphasized emotion, individualism, nature, and the sublime. Reacting against the Enlightenment's emphasis on reason and the Industrial Revolution's mechanization of life, Romanticism celebrated intense personal feeling, the beauty and power of nature, the creative genius of the individual, and experiences of awe and terror (the sublime).

Strict adherence to classical rules and rationalism defines Neoclassicism, the movement Romanticism consciously rejected. Mass production and industrial efficiency represent the Industrial Revolution, which Romantics like William Blake and William Wordsworth explicitly criticized for dehumanizing workers and destroying the natural landscape. Minimalism and rejection of ornamentation describe 20th-century art and design movements, not the emotionally rich and often elaborate expression of Romanticism.

Romanticism is a major movement on the CLEP Humanities exam. Key figures include poets William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats; painters Caspar David Friedrich and J.M.W. Turner; and composers Beethoven, Chopin, and Liszt. Test-takers should understand how Romanticism differs from Neoclassicism and how it influenced later movements like Symbolism and Expressionism.

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