Seventeenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

This paper looks at philosophy, politics and the history of different art forms arguing that Romanticism is dominating modern culture to the detriment of Enlightenment ideals. Romanticist emotions lead to self-absorption, escapism and diversion, while Enlightenment emotion was not only a very important part of Enlightenment philosophy but was the basis of the philosophes’ ideas for combating injustice in society. I believe that emotion is a very important part of the struggle against injustice and that there has been an intellectual movement to portray Enlightenment ideas as cold, hard science and Romanticism as the ‘caring’ philosophy. Throughout the last two centuries any Enlightenment movements that tried to highlight the plight of the poor or unite the working class [Sentimentalism, Realism, Social Realism, Socialism] have been excluded, swamped or submerged by Romanticist movements that ultimately pose no threat to the status quo. In other words, just as the Right tries to remake the Left in its own image [to disarm it], the Romanticists try to remake the Enlightenment in theirs [catharsis without progressive social change], thus, maintaining a ‘culture of slavery’.