Romanticism Against the Tide of Modernity

Michael LÖwy is Research Director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Lecturer at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.Robert Sayre is Professor of Anglophone Literatures at the University of Marne-la-VallÉe.

• 1. Redefining Romanticism The Romantic Enigma, or “Tumultuous Colors” The Concept of Romanticism The Romantic Critique of Modernity The Genesis of the Phenomenon 2. Romanticism: Political and Social Diversity Outline of a Typology Hypotheses for a Sociology of Romanticism 3. Excursus: Marxism and Romanticism Rosa Luxemburg Gyorgy Lukacs 4. Visages of Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century Romanticism and the French Revolution: The Young Coleridge Romanticism and the Industrial Revolution: The Social Critique of John Ruskin 5. Visages of Romanticism in the Twentieth Century Romanticism and Religion: The Mystical Socialism of Charles Peguy Romanticism and Utopia: Ernst Bloch’s Daydream Romanticism as a Feminist Vision: The Quest of Christa Wolf 6. The Fire Is Still Burning: From Surrealism to the Present Day and Beyond Surrealism May 1968 Contemporary Mass Culture The New Social Movements The New Religious Movements The Contemporary Romantic Critique of Civilization What Future for Romanticism? Notes Works Cited Index

From reviews of the French edition: "Instead of exploiting the cliches of melancholy, of exhibitionism, and of the langorous ego, Robert Sayre and Michael Lowy follow the path of rebellion."--Roland Jaccard, Le Monde "This beautiful and generous book ... is a marvelous utopian oasis shining on the horizon of the desert of banality and perplexity where we have been lost."--Isabel Maria Loureiro, Em Tempo (Brazil)