ROMANTICISM IN THE ENGLISH LITERATURE 1798-1837
Romanticism (Romantic Age) Romanticism began to take root as a movement following the French Revolution (cca. 1793). The publication of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798 is considered the beginning of Romanticism in English literature.
Age of Reason vs. Romantic Age In the Age of Reason, authors proclaimed: Reason and judgment Concern with the universal experience The value of society as a whole The value of rules In the Romantic Age , authors proclaimed: Imagination and emotion Concern with the particular experience The value of the individual human being The value of freedom
Romantic poets Passive Romanticists (also called Lake Poets): William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey Revolutionary Romanticists: George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats.
William Wordsworth(1770-1850) - announced the literary ideas of the English Romantic Age (Lyrical Ballads co-authored with Samuel Taylor Coleridge) poems: Guilt and Sorrow The Prelude I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) - announced the literary ideas of the English Romantic Age (Lyrical Ballads co-authored with William Wordsworth) poems: Kubla Khan The Nightingale: A Conversation Poem Frost at Midnight (blank verse) literary criticism Biographia Liberaria
Robert Southey ( 1774-1843) epic poems: closet drama: Joan of Arc Madoc Thalaba the Destroyer closet drama: The Fall of Robespierre *closet drama - a play that is designed mainly to be read but not to be performed on the stage
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) “He who loves not his country can love nothing.” poems: Oriental Tales (cycle) Hebrew Melodies (collection of verses) Child Harold’s Pilgrimage (novel in verse) closet drama: Beppo Don Juan
A Byronic Hero: is a rebel (against convention, society, etc.) has a distaste for society and social institutions is isolated from society (a wanderer, an exile) is not impressed by rank and privilege (though he may possess it) is capable and proud has a hidden curse or crime suffers from titanic passions tends to be self-destructive
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) poems: Ode to Liberty Ode to the West Wind To Skylark The Cloud lyrical dramas: Prometheus Unbound Cenci * ode - a lyrical poem of some length, usually of a serious or meditative nature and having elevated style and formal structure
John Keats (1795-1821) On Looking into Chapman’s Homer poems: On Looking into Chapman’s Homer The Eve of St. Agnes La Belle Dame sans Merci
Romantic Essayists: Charles Lamb (1775-1834) William Hazlitt (1778-1830) Thomas de Quincy(1785 -1859)
Romantic Novelists: Sir Walter Scott (1771-1882) Jane Austen (1775-1817) Mary Shelley (1795-1821)
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) Writer and poet, a born storyteller and master of dialogue, one of the greatest historical novelists. 26 novels, e.g.: Ivanhoe Rob Roy The Antiquary Quentin Durward Waterly
Jane Austen (1775-1817) novels: Pride and Prejudice Sense and Sensibility Mansfield Park Emma Persuasion Northanger Abbey
Mary Shelley (1795-1821) Frankenstein Novelist, short story writer, dramatist and biographer. gothic novel: Frankenstein