ROMANTIC PERIOD IN ENGLISH LITERATURE: 1798-1832 A BRIEF OVERVIEW

SOCIAL & POLITICAL CONTEXT PERIOD OF GREAT CHANGE IN ENGLAND: AGRICULTURAL - POWERFUL LANDHOLDING ARISTOCRACY GIVING WAY TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL NATION OF LARGE-SCALE EMPLOYERS & A GROWING, RESTLESS MIDDLE CLASS.

PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.) AMERICAN & FRENCH REVOLUTIONS - IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE. REVOLUTIONS - THREATS TO EXISTING SOCIAL STRUCTURE

PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.) POLITICAL REPRESSION IN ENGLAND NEEDED CHANGES – DUE TO INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.

PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.) MILL TOWNS GREW THE LANDSCAPE - SUBDIVIDED FACTORIES SPEWED POLLUTION OVER SLUMS THE POPULATION - DIVIDED INTO RICH & POOR.

LACK OF REFORM NO REFORMS – philosophy of LAISSEZ-FAIRE (“LET ALONE”) prevailed. Lack of reforms caused the Romantic poets to turn to a more private, spontaneous, lyric poetry that championed the cause of the “common man”

LACK OF REFORM (cont.) CONSEQUENCES LOW WAGES HORRIBLE WORKING CONDITIONS LARGE-SCALE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN & CHILDREN IN BRUTALLY HARD OCCUPATIONS (SUCH AS COAL MINING).

LACK OF REFORM (cont.) IN THE FACE OF TECHNOLOGICAL UN-EMPLOYMENT & POVERTY, WORKERS COULD NOT VOTE RESORT TO PROTESTS & RIOTS INCUR FURTHER REPRESSION THE POOR SUFFERED THE LEISURE CLASS PROSPERED.

PLIGHT OF WOMEN WOMEN OF ALL CLASSES REGARDED AS INFERIOR TO MEN UNDEREDUCATED LIMITED VOCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES STRICT CODE OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR ALMOST NO LEGAL RIGHTS.

PLIGHT OF WOMEN (cont.) THE CAUSE OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS WAS LARGELY IGNORED.

ROMANTICISM Embraced imagination and naturalness Turned away from 18th century emphasis on reason and artifice Fascination with youth and innocence Question tradition and authority

ROMANTICISM (cont.) ROMANTIC POETS – REJECTED PUBLIC, FORMAL, AND WITTY WORKS OF THE PREVIOUS CENTURY EMBRACED PERSONAL EXPERIENCES EMOTIONS SIMPLE ,UNADORNED LANGUAGE

ROMANTIC POETS (cont.) LYRIC FORM TO EXPRESS, FEELINGS, SELF-REVOLATION, & IMAGINATION DEMOCRATIC ATTITUDE TOWARD AUDIENCE, “ A MAN SPEAKING TO MEN.” TURNED TO AN INNER DREAM WORLD TO BLOCK OUT THE UGLY INDUSTRIAL AGE THEY LIVED IN INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY SYMPATHIZED WITH REBELS

ROMANTIC POETS (cont.) NATURE – TRANSFORMATIVE NATURE – HUMAN MIND “MIRRORED” THE OTHER’S CREATIVE PROPERTIES

POETIC THEORY & PRACTICE WORDSWORTH TRIED TO ARTICULATE THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW POETRY IN THE PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS (1800, 1802).

CONCEPT OF POETRY POETRY WAS SEEN AS THE “SPONTA-NEOUS OVERFLOW OF POWERFUL FEELINGS” THE ESSENCE OF POETRY WAS THE MIND, EMOTIONS, & IMAGINATION OF THE POET (NOT THE OUTER WORLD).

POETRY & THE POET FIRST-PERSON LYRIC POEM BECAME THE MAJOR ROMANTIC LITERARY FORM, WITH “I” OFTEN REFERRING DIRECTLY TO THE POET. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF BE-CAME A MAJOR TOPIC OF ROMANTIC POETRY.

POETRY & THE POET (cont.) POETS OFTEN SAW THEMSELVES AS PROPHETS IN A TIME OF CRISIS, REVISING THE PROMISE OF DIVINE REDEMPTION IN TERMS OF A “HEAVEN” ON EARTH.

POETIC SPONTANEITY, FREEDOM Initial act of poetic composition must: Arise from impulse; Be free from the rules inherited from the past Rely on instinct, intuition, and feeling

NATURE Accurate observation & description of wild nature important because, Serves as a stimulus to thinking Contributes to the resolution of personal problems Resolution of crises

NATURE (cont.) LANDSCAPE GIVEN HUMAN QUALITIES OR SEEN AS A SYSTEM OF SYMBOLS REVEALING THE NATURE OF GOD. CLOSENESS TO NATURE WAS SEEN AS BRINGING OUT HUMANITY’S INNATE GOODNESS.

GLORIFICATION OF THE COMMONPLACE HUMBLE, RUSTIC SUBJECT MATTER & PLAIN STYLE BECAME THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECT & MEDIUM OF POETRY.

THE COMMONPLACE (cont.) POETS SOUGHT TO REFRESH READERS’ SENSE OF WONDER ABOUT THE ORDINARY THINGS OF EXISTENCE, TO MAKE THE “OLD” WORLD SEEM NEW.

THE SUPERNATURAL & STRANGE MANY ROMANTIC POEMS: EXPLORE THE REALM OF MYSTERY & MAGIC INCORPORATE MATERIALS FROM FOLKLORE & SUPERSTITION OFTEN SET IN DISTANT OR FARAWAY PLACES

THE STRANGE (cont.) RENEWED INTEREST IN THE MIDDLE AGES (AND THE BALLAD FORM) AS A BEAUTIFUL, EXOTIC, MYSTERIOUS BYGONE ERA.

THE STRANGE (cont.) THERE WAS ALSO GREAT INTEREST IN UNUSUAL MODES OF EXPERIENCE, VISIONARY STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS HYPNOTISM DREAMS DRUG-INDUCED STATES, AND SO FORTH.

THE STRANGE (cont.) GOTHIC Eerie and supernatural elements Stories set in gloomy, medieval castles Intention – make readers, blood run cold Expressed a sense of helplessness about: Things beyond control Revolutions in Europe Industrialization’s economic changes

INDIVIDUALISM & STRIVING HUMAN BEINGS WERE SEEN AS ESSEN-TIALLY NOBLE & GOOD (THOUGH COR-RUPTED BY SOCIETY) POSSESSING GREAT POWER & POTENTIAL THAT HAD FORMERLY BEEN ASCRIBED ONLY TO GOD.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.) THERE WAS EMPHASIS ON BELIEF IN DEMOCRATIC IDEALS CONCERN FOR HUMAN LIBERTY A GREAT OUTCRY AGAINST VARIOUS FORMS OF TYRANNY.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.) THE HUMAN MIND WAS SEEN AS CREATING (AT LEAST IN PART) THE WORLD AROUND IT HAVING ACCESS TO THE INFINITE VIA THE FACULTY OF IMAGINATION.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.) REFUSING TO ACCEPT LIMITATIONS, HUMAN BEINGS SET INFINITE, INACCESSIBLE GOALS, THUS MAKING FAILURE & IMPERFECTION GLORIOUS ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.) REFUSAL TO ACCEPT LIMITATIONS FOUND EXPRESSION IN BOLD POETIC EXPERIMENTATION.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.) MANY WRITERS ISOLATED THEMSELVES FROM SOCIETY TO FOCUS ON THEIR INDIVIDUAL VISION. THEME OF EXILE WAS COMMON - THE ROMANTIC NON-CONFORMIST OFTEN SEEN AS A GREAT SINNER OR OUTLAW.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont) BYRONIC HERO “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” – Lady Caroline Lamb, speaking of George Gordon, Lord Byron “A man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection.” Reckless, wounded manhood

ROMANTIC POETS Dominated by six poets: William Blake Samuel Taylor Coleridge William Wordsworth Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats George Gordon, Lord Byron

William Blake

William Wordsworth

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Percy Bysshe Shelley

John Keats

George Gordon, Lord Byron