Literature V6

• Engels
• Middelbare school

 English Literature

Romanticism

(1798-1836)

Romanticism

- Quick look back at Restoration Period and Eighteenth Century

- The Nineteenth Century

- The Romantic Period (1798 - 1830)

- Romantic literature: characteristics / poets / authors

- Romantic poetry

Restoration Period (1)

• King Charles I vs. parliament > civil war
• King Charles I captured, imprisoned, beheaded
• Son, Charles II, fled to France
• General Oliver Cromwell, puritan, declared Lord Protector
• Puritans: people had to live a sober life, theatre was forbidden
• Cromwell's death (1658) > a liberation

Restoration Period (2)

• Charles II restored to throne > hence Restoration Period
• theatre was restored
• period of transition and gradual change: from focus on individual to focus on society as a whole
• reason is important instead of emotion
• therefore Age of Reason also called Age of Enlightenment
• scientific development

Changes in poetry and prose

• no more description of emotions in poetry, but down-to-earth style
• satire became popular
• newspapers appeared and diaries were written as a new genre in prose

What do you know about
the 18th century?

The Eighteenth Century 

The Neo-Classical Period / The Age of Reason

• Neo-Classical: classical influence > absolute authority
• Result: "good art" > imitation of the classics

• Reason: rational and balanced judgement, based on     knowledge, no personal emotions
• Result: "good art" > strict rules regarding form and content

The Eighteenth Century 

• Britain: becomes the world's leading economic power

• wealth based on colonies and trade
• tea, silks and spices (India)
• Industrial Revolution (introduction of steam engine)

Changes in society

• move from country to cities
• new social class: middle class (nouveau riche) 
• the family and the home became important > mother had a key role in upbringing of children
• daughters had to marry rich and powerful men to advance family's social status
• new underclass developed: poor people 

The Nineteenth Century

• Late 18th/early 19th century: great changes!

• Society - industrial cities; poverty among workers
• Nature - large-scale environmental pollution
• Great changes outside Britain:

The Nineteenth Century

• Declaration of Independence (1776)
• French Revolution (1789)
• Inspiration for many British intellectuals (liberty, equality, fraternity)
• Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815)
• Gave rise to great patriotism

The Romantic Period

• 1798 - 1830

• Romantic - 
• from 'romance' > story of adventure and imagination
• anti (neo-)classical, anti rationalist!
• six central themes:

The Romantic Period

• the beauty and value of nature
• idealization of the countryside and country people
• the (idealized) past
• distant and exotic cultures
• children (innocent, not yet corrupted by the world)
• the supernatural

Romantic literature

Poetry

• Most of it lyrical (expressing poet's feelings and emotions)
• Some of it narrative (art ballads > imitations of medieval ballads)

Drama

• A re-evaluation of Shakespeare

Prose 

• The historical novel becomes very popular

What are the main topics of
Romantic literature?

Romantic poetry

• What is lyrical poetry?
  

• I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud by William Wordsworth (p. 37-38)
  
• Assignment 16 (p. 38)
  

Agree or disagree? 

1. Human beings are innately good. 

2. Parents are obligated to love their children.

3. Evil in human nature ultimately originates from rejection. 

4. There is a limit to what human beings should try to know or understand about the universe.

5. Exploration and advances in science and technology can only lead to progress for mankind and the environment. 

What is Enlightenment?

Enlightenment, otherwise known as the Age of Reason or the Age of Enlightenment, was a very influential philosophical movement which started in Europe and later spread in North America. This took place from the late 17th to the 18th century (late 1600s to the end of the 1700s) which is dubbed as the “Century of Philosophy” since it was a time of increased interest and the desire to be “enlightened” on various fields specially epistemology, individual perspectives, and natural science. 

What is Romanticism?

Romanticism, also referred to as the Romantic Era, was a movement that focused on subjectivity, inspiration, and human emotions as expressed in arts, literature, and music. This started during the late 18th century (approximately 1770) in Europe in response to the rational views of the age of enlightenment. The romantic thinkers felt that reason was overemphasized and that they should put more focus on the attributes of being human such as aesthetic experience, irrational feelings, and free expression.

Romanticism 

• focus on the writer or narrator’s emotions and inner world 
• celebration of nature, beauty, and imagination
• rejection of industrialization,
• idealization of women, children, and rural life; 
• inclusion of supernatural or mythological elements;
• interest in the past; 
• frequent use of personification; 
• experimental use of language and verse forms
• emphasis on individual experience of the "sublime"
• personal freedom
• attraction to rebellion and revolution, especially concerned with human rights, individualism, freedom from oppression
• personal intuition and reliance on “natural” feelings as a guide to conduct are valued over controlled rationality

Gothic novel

One of the attributes given to Shelley's Frankenstein  is 'Gothic'. 

What are characteristic features of Gothic novels? What is an origin of a Gothic novel? 

Watch the film The Gothic and answer an open question that follows. 

What are characteristic features of Gothic novels?