Romance or Romanticism?

        When Taylor Swift sings “New Romantics”, I doubt she is referring to the Romantic literary period. The Romantics of the 18^th and 19^th century set out to inspire some kind of change, but they also seemed to have a “romantic” outlook on life. There were calls for change and an abundance or poems about nature. Basically nature is your best friend, if you're a romantic. Most importantly, though, Romanticism is about individuality.

           The Romantics were all about change, especially the women. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” in 1792. Wollstonecraft fought for the education of women. Sure, it was so they could “become the companion of man” but she also points out that women can only “be expected to co-operate unless she know why she ought to be virtuous”. Women need to be educated, even if it is so they can better serve their husbands. She believed in a cause and wrote about it, which did help to inspire change. She may not have been fighting for full rights of women, but she was fighting for something. That is what women of the time did. Feminists of this time were not what we now think of, but these women began the fight for equality.

            Nature is one of the biggest parts of Romanticism. William Wordsworth is a great example of this. In 1804, he wrote “I wandered lonely as a cloud”. He uses his memory, and Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal, to write about seeing “golden daffodils”. Wordsworth romanticizes nature through his descriptions. He also mentions that he always thinks of the daffodils when in a "pensive mood" and that his hear fills with pleasure and "dances with the daffodils". His individual experience is shown through this poem and that is what makes it worth writing about. 

            Taylor Swift’s song may be called “New Romantics”, and probably not have much to do with Romanticism, but there is one important component; her song is all about individuality. She writes about her own experience and how it has shaped her. Swift writes that she, along with her friends, are “too busy dancing to get knocked off our feet”. This song is full of emotion and how life will not get her down. Unlike the literary Romantics, though, Swift’s song is closer to what we think of as romantic.  

            So, the Romantic period may not have been all about romance, but this is still a time fueled by emotion. They focused on how the individual reacted to certain events and sometimes that fueled a need for change. Sometimes it focused on the memories of the writers and how they reflect on those memories. Although Taylor Swift is more modern romantic than the Romantics, there are probably some ideas they could get behind.