ROMANTICISM, UTOPIA AND REVOLUTION:

a theoretical analysis of the utopia concept in pandemic times

Abstract

The focus of this research is based on the reflection around the concept of utopia, understanding the use of the term, how it is conceived over the centuries and applied until now. There will be a return to theoretical formulations and questioning their applications and failures to date. The idea and concept of Romanticism as a cultural movement will be analyzed, going beyond the idea of ​​a literary school with delimited start and end dates, based on several researchers and making use of a Marxist apparatus, that is, they will be understood through forces cultural and political-social as a kind of promoters of society and relating it to utopia. That is, utopia understood as a moment of a dialectical process of social transformation, in which Romanticism has specific libertarian and revolutionary elements generated by historical determinations that corroborate such dialectic. The methodology used was bibliographical, seeking in articles and books relevant to the theme the necessary framework to structure the debate and the formulation of the theory defended here. The French student movement of May 1968 will be studied and how it shelters and incorporates Romantic and utopian elements in its struggles and demands. As one of the central elements of the dialectical process, the cathartic concept of art is employed in the utopian and revolutionary development. After understanding and relating the central themes of the discussion, these themes will be applied to the dialectical and historical movement to enable the next stage of the process, the revolution as action, breaking with the modus operandi of the current social system, whether in its production or its reproduction. Finally, the break with the dominant ideas about utopia so far is explicit, it is a new theoretical vision for practice, utopia does not materialize in immediate reality, but is part of a revolutionary process.