CBSE Class 10 Answered

Romanticism was a cultural movement which helped in developing forms of nationalist sentiment. Romantic artists and poets generally criticised the glorification of reason and science and instead focused on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings.

Their effort was to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a common cultural past, as the basis of a nation. Other Romantics such as the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder claimed that true German culture was to be discovered among the common people – das volk. It was through folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances that the true spirit of the nation (volksgeist) was popularised.

The emphasis was laid on vernacular language and the collection of local folklore not to just recover an ancient national spirit, but also to carry the modern nationalist message to people who were mostly illiterate.

Though Poland at this time was not an independent country, national feelings were kept alive through music and language. Karol Kurpinski, for example, celebrated the national struggle through his operas and music, turning folk dances into nationalist symbols.