Early romantic writers experienced the sublime as terror, not pleasure
Evidence
Among the best proofs that one had entered a sublime landscape was the emotion it evoked. For the early romantic writers and artists who first began to celebrate it, the sublime was far from being a pleasurable experience. The classic description is that of William Wordsworth as he recounted climbing the Alps and crossing the Simplon Pass in his autobiographical poem “The Prelude.” — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 16
Categorization
- DEFINE: Clarifies that the original sublime meant awe bordering on terror before tourism sentimentalized it.
- XREF: connects to: Modern environmental awe of nature is secularized religious worship. — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 41; The word wilderness once meant desolate wasteland, not sacred refuge — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 8; Tourist spectating converted sublime terror into comfortable sentiment — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 22 (+2 more)
Related
- Tourist spectating converted sublime terror into comfortable sentiment (similarity 0.83)
- By the late nineteenth century the wilderness sublime had been domesticated into sentimentality (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Kant’s sublime frames aesthetic feeling as subjection to commanding violence
#expands(0.88) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 602