Ultra-Romanticism (in Portuguese, Ultrarromantismo) was a Portuguese literary movement that took place during the second half of the 19th century and later arrived in Brazil. Aesthetically similar to (but not exactly the same as) the German- and British-originated Dark Romanticism, it was typified by a tendency to exaggerate, at times to a ridiculous degree, the norms and ideals of Romanticism, namely the value of subjectivity, individualism, amorous idealism, nature and the medieval world. The Ultra-Romantics generated literary works of highly contendable quality, some of them being considered as “romance of knife and earthenware bowl”, given the succession of bloody crimes that they invariably described, which realists fiercely denounced.
In Portugal, the first Ultra-Romantic piece ever written was the poem “O noivado do sepulcro” (“The tombstone engagement”) by António Augusto Soares de Passos, while in Brazil the first major Ultra-Romantic works were the books Lira dos Vinte Anos (Twenty-year-old Lyre) and Noite na Taverna (A Night at the Tavern) by Álvares de Azevedo.
In Brazil, it is called “the second phase of the Brazilian Romanticism”, being preceded by the “Indianism” and succeeded by the “Condorism”.
General characteristics
Creative liberty (the content is more important than the form; grammatical rules often ignored)
Free versification
Doubt, dualism
Constant repugnance, morbidness, suffering, pessimism, Satanism, masochism, cynicism, self-destruction
Denial of reality in favour of the world of dreams, fancy and imagination (escapism, evasion)
Adolescent disillusion
Idealization of love and women
Subjectivity, egocentricity
Saudosismo (an untranslatable word meaning homesickness or longing) for childhood and the past
A preference for the nocturnal
Conscience of solitude
Death: total and definitive escape from life, an end to suffering; sarcasm, irony
Main adepts
In Portugal
The ultra-Romanticism developed mainly around the city of Porto and Coimbra by young writers who lived in a “lost generation” that had led to the exaggeration of norms and ideals advocated by romanticism, namely the exaltation of subjectivity, individualism, nature and the medieval world.
Ultrarromanticos generate literary chains of very debatable quality, some of them considered as “novel of knife and alguidar”, given the succession of bloody crimes that invariably described and that the realists will caricature of ferocious form.
However, there is an ultra-romantic literature of unquestionable quality. In addition to João de Deus by Nogueira Ramos, are also ultra-romantic authors Camilo Castelo Branco, Soares de Passos and Castilho. In some works by Almeida Garrett and Alexandre Herculano it is already possible to detect some traces of ultra-romanticism, despite being two of the introducers of Romanticism in Portugal.
On the other hand, Soares de Passos, a figure quite caricatured by the realist writers, considered “a representative of the ultra – romantic piegas “, was author of “Engagement of the Sepulcher” (Poesias, 1855).
António Augusto Soares de Passos (1826–1860; considered to be the major Ultra-Romantic poet)
António Feliciano de Castilho (1800–1875)
Camilo Castelo Branco (1825–1890)
João de Lemos (1819–1890)
João de Deus (1830–1896)
Luís Augusto Palmeirim (1821–1893)
Alexandre Braga, father (1829–1895)
Tomás Ribeiro (1831–1901)
In Brazil
The “Ultra-Romanticism” changed the ways of the Romanticism in Brazil. Values such as nationalism and valorization of the Indian as the Brazilian national hero, a constant theme of the previous Brazilian Romantic generation, are now almost, if not completely, absent. This new generation, heavily influenced by German Romanticism and works by Lord Byron and Alfred de Musset, among others, now focalizes in obscure and macabre themes, such as pessimism, the supernatural, Satanism, longing for death, past and childhood, and the mal du siècle. Love is heavily idealized, platonic and almost always unrequited, and the presence of a strong egocentrism and exacerbated sentimentalism in the poetry is clearly noticed.
Álvares de Azevedo (1831–1852)
Junqueira Freire (1832–1855)
Fagundes Varela (1841–1875)
Casimiro de Abreu (1839–1860)
Aureliano Lessa (1828–1861)
José Bonifácio the Younger (1827–1886; in only a few poems, however)
Pedro de Calasans (1837–1874)
Laurindo Rabelo (1826–1864)
João Cardoso de Meneses e Sousa (1827–1915)
Source from Wikipedia