romanticism
NounWordNet 3.0
Noun (3)
- impractical romantic ideals and attitudes
- a movement in literature and art during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that celebrated nature rather than civilization“Romanticism valued imagination and emotion over rationality”Synonyms: RomanticismRomantic Movement
- an exciting and mysterious quality (as of a heroic time or adventure)Synonyms: romance
Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)
Romanticism \Ro*man"ti*cism\, n. [CF. It. romanticismo, F. romantisme, romanticisme.] A fondness for romantic characteristics or peculiarities; specifically, in modern literature, an aiming at romantic effects; -- applied to the productions of a school of writers who sought to revive certain medi?val forms and methods in opposition to the so-called classical style. [1913 Webster]
He [Lessing] may be said to have begun the revolt from pseudo-classicism in poetry, and to have been thus unconsciously the founder of romanticism. --Lowell. [1913 Webster]