Deep In Thought Over "The Construction..."

"The Construction of 'The Romantic Movement' as a Literary Classification" to me was a very interesting article. Before having read this article and before our class on Tuesday, I had no real knowledge about what the "Romantic Movement" was or even what Romanticism was, who it involved, and how it affected me and my life today in present times.

This article was filled with a ton of different material, a lot if being factual; dates, names, work titles, while other parts of it were filled with ideas from the author and others about the basis of "The Romantic Movement." I couldn't help but turn my focus from the factual information to the bigger ideas of the movement itself.

What I took away from this article, what I thought of to be the main idea of Romanticism during this time was that all of these authors were affected by a common influence, during a common time, and they all had common feelings. David Perkins states that the authors are "citing the manners, institutions, beliefs and historical experiences of the society that produced it" (133). This statement among others spurred my thinking about the present time and how people my age are affected by things going on around us, the new "green" movement, if you will, the election of America's first black president, the role technology plays in our lives and the way that we all communicate with each other.

True there may not be a political revolution happening, but there is change all around us. Could there be a Facebook Movement happening? There is contradiction between the environment that we need between it's resources that we want and destroy for our industries. Are these things happening now affecting the future writers, poets, artists and how will they later affect us just like the artists of the "Romantic Movement?" What will our movement be called? Perkins states himself that, "periodization is currently under searching question." So does this mean that since the times of before, our times now, our generation's times are not making statements? What about slam-poetry, could that be an example of the way that our generation is moving in its art and literature? Although I cannot think of any Authors right now that are really making a difference or a statement, I can think of musicians and photographers that have made art that is helping define our times and inspiring the people around them.

I may be completely off on this idea, but I couldn't help but thinking it while reading this article and thinking about how still hundreds of years later we are sitting and studying the literature of that time period, hoping only that someday, someone will be studying the literature and the art of our time reflecting upon the changes and movements of our time.