Sturm und Drang (conventional translation: storm and stress) is the name of a movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in response to the confines of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment and associated aesthetic movements.

The philosopher Johann Georg Hamann is considered to be the ideologue of Sturm und Drang, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a notable proponent of the movement.

- Wikipedia

It may be worth noting that "extremes of emotion" don't get much respect these days and that a reoccurring element on this site is a certain defensiveness on behalf of various forms of over-the-top.

Not to say everyone should be out there sturming and dranging day in and day out, but we have here a parallel universe that's wide enough to accommodate both Robert Bresson and Robert Aldrich. *

 

RETURN