The term neo-romanticism refers to different movements in philosophy, literature, music, painting, and architecture, as well as social groups, that began after the Romanticism era and include parts of it. It has been used to describe late 1800s composers like Richard Wagner, especially by Carl Dahlhaus, who called Wagner’s music "a final example of Romanticism in an age focused on science and reason." Dahlhaus connects neo-romanticism with the time period from about 1850 to 1890, which he calls "the age of Wagner." This era ended with the start of modernism, led early on by composers Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler (Dahlhaus 1979, 98–99, 102, 105). The term has also been used for writers, painters, and composers who rejected or opposed realism, naturalism, or modernist movements that were new and different, from around 1840 until today.
Late 19th century and early 20th century
Neo-romanticism and Romanticism are seen as opposites to naturalism. In music, naturalism is viewed as unrelated or even harmful (Dahlhaus 1979, 100). After Germany became a unified country in 1871, naturalism criticized Romantic literature for distorting reality with unrealistic ideas. Later, naturalism was seen as unable to address the emptiness of modern life. Critics like Hermann Bahr, Heinrich Mann, and Eugen Diederichs opposed naturalism and materialism, supporting "neo-romanticism." They called for a cultural change to meet "the soul's longing for meaning and purpose in life," aiming to replace scattered ideas about the world with a complete and unified perspective (Kohlenbach 2009, 261).
Late 20th century
"Neo-romanticism" was suggested as another name for a group of German composers connected to the Neue Einfachheit movement, which did not last long in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Terms like "new tonality" have been criticized for being unclear because the composers in this group are very different from each other. Wolfgang Rihm is the main member of this group (Hentschel 2006, 111).
Britain
In British art history, the term "neo-romanticism" describes a group of artists who painted landscapes. This group began around 1930 and lasted until the early 1950s. The term was first used in March 1942 by critic Raymond Mortimer in the New Statesman. These artists were inspired by 19th-century painters like William Blake and Samuel Palmer. They were also influenced by French artists who painted in a style called cubism and post-cubism, such as Pablo Picasso, André Masson, and Pavel Tchelitchew. This movement was partly a reaction to the danger of invasion during World War II. Key artists who started this movement included Paul Nash, John Piper, Henry Moore, Ivon Hitchens, and Graham Sutherland. A younger group of artists included John Minton, Michael Ayrton, John Craxton, Keith Vaughan, Robert Colquhoun, and Robert MacBryde.
Western Europe
The ideas about beauty and art from Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche have had a big influence on modern romantic thinking.
Arab world
In the early 1900s, a new romantic style called neo-romanticism began in Modern Arabic literature. It became popular between the 1930s and 1940s and was inspired by French and English romantic poetry. The most famous group of this movement was the Mahjar school, which included Arabic poets living in the Americas. These poets were Ameen Rihani, Kahlil Gibran, Nasib Arida, Mikhail Naimy, Elia Abu Madi, Fawsi Maluf, Farhat, and al-Qarawi. The neo-romantic movement also included poets from various Arabian countries. In Egypt, there were Abdel Rahman Shokry, Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad, and Ibrahim al-Mazini. In Syria, Omar Abu Risha was a poet. In Lebanon, Elias Abu Shabaki and Salah Labaki were part of the movement. In Tunisia, Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi was a poet, and in Sudan, Al-Tijani Yusuf Bashir was involved. (Jayyusi 1977, 361–474)
Japan
Starting in the mid-1930s and lasting until World War II ended, a Japanese neo-romantic literary movement was led by the writer Yasuda Yojūrō (Torrance 2010 , 66).