Ayn Rand resuscitates dying Romanticism

Ayn Rand’s most original achievement was her resuscitation of a Romantic movement that had died of its philosophical contradictions. Without this achievement, as she implies in discussing the role of art in projecting a moral ideal (in "The Romantic Manifesto"), her philosophy could not have prevailed against the almost total embargo by the academic world. Her particular achievement was to reconnect Romanticism with its roots in the Enlightenment to create what she called “Romantic Realism.” What themes does her magnum opus, "Atlas Shrugged", share with traditional Romanticism? How does her work differ from—and defy—Romanticism? How is her projection of the moral ideal traditional and how is it part of “realism”? Are there signs that she resuscitated Romanticism beyond her own novels and given rise to a new generation of Romantic Realists—a goal she stated in The Romantic Manifesto? Novelist, commentator, and poet Walter Donway discusses these issues.

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Interesting talk
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