Romanticism

'Born from the oxymoron of agreeable horror, Romanticism was nursed on calamity' [Simon Schama]. This is on the right lines; although it would be closer to the truth to say that 'agreeable horror' (which is a very ancient human idiom) unveiled for the Romantics a new perspective on subjectivity. To put it another way: Romanticism asks what part of us finds horror so agreeable?