Ok so I'm not so good on some of these points, but I'll give you a few (but by no means comprehensive) pointers:
Power of the imagination: Imagination as a means of escape, or (sometimes more importantly) as a pathway to 'meaning and truth' that rational thought would not be able to provide. The imagined world was, for the Romantics, just as valid as the rational world, a reaction against the ways of thinking of the enlightenment.
Pursuit of meaning and truth: I took this to mean the idea of there always being something beyond that could only be reached by transcending the real ie. through imagination. There is more to the human mind and the earth than what can be broken down and understood. Another pathway to this truth was through emotional expression. However I was careful to avoid the word 'truth' because my teacher found it too general, and I would often replace it with the ideas that my texts portrayed while lining it up with the question (if that makes sense haha). I would say that they were in pursuit of the truth, but I would never say that they'd arrived at the truth, because then I'd have to say what the 'truth' is, which would suggest that there is an absolute truth (and I didn't want to spend my essay justifying my use of the word 'truth' by discussing the existence of absolute truth haha).
Continuity of the human and natural world: any ideas about eternity come in here (like those in Keats' poetry). I interpret it as the idea that the human and natural worlds can overcome the confines of the present, and will continue despite what obstacles they face, because they are integral parts of the world and can't be removed.
Human mind and human experience: The importance of emotion- as with imagination, emotion is an equally valid guide as rational thought, and the Romantics valued it highly because of this. For example, Turner painted with what came to be the foundations of impressionism. So even if he was inspired by (let's say) a real storm, his painting reflected the impression of awe and savagery he gleaned from it, as opposed to being a detailed and faithful rendition. The importance of the individual also comes in here- the idea that everybody is significant, their thoughts, their emotions, their experiences, regardless of whether they are a king or a pauper (equality!). These individual emotional/imaginative experiences contributed to the pursuit of meaning and truth (consider Coleridge's and Wordsworth's collection Lyrical Ballads, which largely consists of accounts of everyday people that reveal wider-reaching, universal ideas). Everybody is capable of emotion and imagination, therefore everybody matters (an idea that comes to us very naturally now
but it has not always been that way
)
Individuals place in wider social and natural worlds: Leads on from previous point, I find they blend a fair bit. 'Wider social worlds' is an opportunity to bring in ideas about context (so many exciting revolutions! And the not so exciting Reign of terror
And volcanoes errupting, and Napoleon building an empire, and inustrialisation etc. The historical context was my favourite part of Romanticism
) The 'individual's place' follows on largely from the previous dotpoint, with ideas about liberty, equality, individual significance arising as a result of, or reaction against these events. The individuals place in the natural world means the relationship between the individual and nature- nature can be a teacher, or an inspiration, or a liberator, or a soother etc.Having a connection to nature improves a person
Yearning for coherence, unity and meaning in human life: this is the part that I understand the least, but the meaning part comes back to everyone being significant, and I take the coherence and unity to mean the universal lessons that Romantic texts impart, as these lessons are applicable to all human life regardless of differences
The great thing about Romanticism is how broad it is
As I said, I loved the historical side of it and my essays were very context based- I would show how the context shaped the ideas expressed and how changing contexts (especially with the whole French revolution -> reign of terror -> Napoleon thing) meant that some of the ideas expressed altered over time
My point is, you can find what you're interested in and explore Romanticism from that angle, and because the ideas intersect and overlap so fluidly, half of your essay is related material and you have the whole year to explore texts and philosophy, you can cover the whole rubric from the perspective YOU want to
I actually didn't worry a great deal about the rubric, because to have a unique voice you need to flesh out smaller ideas than 'the power of imagination' (for example). You need to link the context, the texts, many smaller ideas and a bunch of the larger rubric concepts together in a big web, which can be daunting but can also mean a lot of freedom to structure your essay how you want. I found the vagueness of the rubric not a challenge but an opportunity (cliche alert
) for freedom because it was so easy to make the smaller ideas I found in my texts relate (even the seemingly unrelated idea of social responsibility in Frankenstein could be strongly linked to the individuals place in the wider social world and can be viewed as a reaction to monarchs not caring for their people). Anyhow I'd better stop now, I'm rambling...my essays always went over their word limit and always needed some solid pruning!
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