French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Vaillant, What is Romanticism?
History, Politics and Society
Alain Vaillant, What is Romanticism?
CNRS Éditions, Paris, 2016
No. of pages: 242
ISBN: 9782271093479
Price: €10
At the dawn of our modernity, Romanticism transformed literature, music, and the fine arts. More generally, however, it revolutionized our way of thinking, loving, and perceiving nature or society—in a word, of living. Born in Germanic lands, it shone with tremendous brilliance in post-revolutionary France before spreading throughout Europe and beyond.
The concept is so vast that it is often claimed to be undefinable. This is a mistake. But if it has a meaning, it must be sought in History. Emerging at the heart of the modern West, Romanticism, regardless of its national variations, culturally prepared and accompanied the rise of our parliamentary democracies and liberal societies. From this historical definition, we must then draw all the artistic and intellectual consequences.
Table of Contents
Prologue – Does Romanticism Exist?
Romanticism and its lexicon - Romanticism before Romanticism - Romanticism after Romanticism - The geography of Romanticism - Romantic globalization
Romanticism, Nation, and Democracy
The awakening of nations - Romanticism and nationalism: the French exception - The coronation of the bourgeoisie - Romanticism, or learning democracy - Romanticism and the French Revolution - The end of political Romanticism
The Religion of the Absolute
The Romantic God - French Romanticism, between religion and Revolution - Homo duplex - Romantic science - The real and the ideal - History - Reactionary Romanticism and revolutionary Romanticism - Love - Art - Grandeur and servitude of the Romantic genius
The Consecration of the Subject
The dogma of originality - The passion for beauty and freedom - Romantic scenographies - Between introspection and engagement - The realist mask of Romanticism - Modern lyricism, from Romanticism to Surrealism
Romantic Laughter
To laugh or not to laugh? - The intelligence of laughter - Laughter set free - The art of mystification - Laughter and imagination - The lyricism of laughter
From Romanticism to Modernity
Modernity according to Baudelaire - The true invention of modernity - The leisure society
Festive Romanticism
Romantic civilization and media culture - The triumph of image and fiction - The conquest of space - The love of walking - The Romanticism of the intimate
Romanticism and Globalization
Intermediaries and media transfers - Literature, between globalization and national stereotypes - Artistic internationalization - Global Romanticism, between politics and culture - Italy, Poland, Latin America: at the heart of the Romantic constellation
The Trial of Romanticism
The revenge of the classicists - From the anti-Romanticism of nationalists to the anti-Romanticism of the Cold War - The indictment of the anti-Romantics - The Romantics: new merchants in the temple? - The indictment of the anti-moderns
Alain Vaillant is a professor of French literature at Paris-Ouest University. A specialist in Romanticism and literary history, he has written or edited numerous works on the culture of laughter and literary comedy.
The study of Romanticism frequently engages scholars of literary history and cultural studies who examine how artistic movements intersect with political transformation. As a major paradigm in Western cultural history, the movement developed across various national contexts following the revolutionary upheavals in Europe. Alain Vaillant examines this vast cultural shift by situating the phenomenon within its broader historical framework, tracing its development from Germanic origins through its prominent manifestation in post-revolutionary France and its subsequent international spread across global networks.
Readers interested in the history of ideas and nineteenth-century European literature may find this historical overview relevant to understanding the foundations of modern culture. CNRS Éditions publishes this exploration of how Romanticism transformed literature, music, and the fine arts while culturally accompanying the emergence of liberal societies.