The emergence of pleasure.

The emphasis on pleasure is what struck me most from these readings. Last semester I took a course on Art history in Europe, and studied the Romantic era and the art associated with it. In that class I learned that the Romantic Era is characterized by experimentation, artistic freedom, creativity, emancipation and change. I would like to focus on the advertisement section of the reading, as the author expresses his desire to entice "poetic pleasure" among the lower and middle class. He wanted to divert from the "gaudiness and inane phraseology" which are characteristic of the Classical era. The authors wanted to appeal to the average person, and write about the passions and situations they experience. The aim wasn't to use lofty language, but language that could appeal to the average person. The authors wanted to experiment, to discover if such poetic endeavours could be found relative by its readers, and if in fact it could perpetuate pleasure. This is the experimentation that is characteristic of the Romantic period. I chose to blog about this because i think it is important to lay a foundation which places the text and the authors thoughts in context to the time period