The sublime in Romantic literature captivated readers with awe-inspiring beauty and terror. From classical roots to Burke and Kant's theories, it evolved to emphasize individual experience and nature's power, influencing poetry across cultures.

Eastern and Western interpretations of the sublime differed in focus. While Western Romantics highlighted individual encounters with wild nature, Eastern traditions emphasized harmony and unity, shaping artistic techniques and philosophical thought for generations.

The Sublime in Romantic Literature

Concept of the sublime

• Core elements overwhelm emotionally, inspire awe, and blend terror with beauty
• Classical rhetoric roots trace back to Longinus' "On the Sublime" treatise
• Romantic literature shifted focus from classical beauty to emotional intensity emphasizing individual experience and imagination
• Edmund Burke's "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful" and Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Judgment" theorized key concepts
• Aesthetic categories encompass vastness, infinity, power, and obscurity (Grand Canyon, starry night sky)

Sublime in cultural contexts

• German Romantic literature explored transcendence in Novalis' "Hymns to the Night" and Friedrich Hölderlin's "Hyperion"
• English Romantic poetry delved into nature's sublimity through Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey," Coleridge's "Kubla Khan," and Shelley's "Mont Blanc"
• Russian Romantic literature examined human limitations in Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman" and Lermontov's "Demon"
• Common themes across cultures portrayed nature as sublime source, spiritual awakening, and mortality confrontation

Eastern and Western Interpretations of the Sublime

Eastern vs Western sublime

• Western Romantic sublime emphasized individual experience, wild nature, and fear-attraction tension (Niagara Falls, Mount Everest)
• Eastern Romantic sublime focused on nature harmony, influenced by Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism philosophies
• Japanese aesthetics incorporated yūgen (subtle profundity) and mono no aware (pathos of things)
• Indian Romantic tradition utilized rasa theory in Sanskrit poetics, exploring bhava (emotion) and rasa (aesthetic flavor)
• Both traditions appreciated nature's grandeur and explored human emotions, but differed in individual vs unity focus

Impact of sublime aesthetics

• Aesthetic values transformed from classical harmony to emotional intensity and imagination
• Romantic artistic techniques developed vivid imagery, dream exploration, and experimental forms
• Post-Romantic movements like Symbolism, Surrealism, and Expressionism drew inspiration from sublime concepts
• Philosophical thought influenced Existentialism and Phenomenology
• Environmental literature and ecocriticism emerged (Deep ecology movement, nature writing)
• Contemporary interpretations expanded to technological, urban, and postmodern sublime (skyscrapers, virtual reality)