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English Romanticism

English Romanticism. Age of the Romantic Movement (1798-1832). Romanticism occurred between the publication of Lyrical Ballads and the death of Charles Dickens. The Age of Independence: The aftermath of the Enlightenment. French Revolution.

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English Romanticism

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  1. English Romanticism Age of the Romantic Movement (1798-1832)

  2. Romanticism occurred between the publication of Lyrical Ballads and the death of Charles Dickens.

  3. The Age of Independence:The aftermath of the Enlightenment

  4. French Revolution • The French Revolution was the inaugural European revolution • The French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution together transformed the western world • This “Dual Revolution” changed everything politically, socially and economically • Triumph of European states and economies globally • The Modern Era was inaugurated by the Dual Revolution

  5. Struggles after the immediate Revolution • Reasons: --Snowball Effect --Unsatisfied Expectations --Outbreak of War • Results: --Increasing Violence --Change in Political Leadership

  6. Robespierre’s Reign of Terror • The Committee of Public Safety • The Concept of “Total War” • Maximum price ceilings on certain goods • Nationalization of Small Workshops

  7. Reign of Terror • Execution of 40,000 “Enemies of the Nation” • Stress on radical definition of equality • Wanted a legal maximum on personal wealth • Wanted a regulation of commercial profits • End of Robespierre’s dictatorship on July 28, 1794

  8. Romanticism- Historical Events/Political Influences • Began during Napoleonic Wars • Romanticism flourished during periods of economic trouble and chaos • Union with Ireland • Industrial Revolution • Debates on Reform Bill • Humanitarianism was the result of observing the suffering of masses

  9. Age of Romantic Movement • Characteristics of Age: • Called by Dickens “the best of times and worst of times” because of developing democracy, sudden growth in cities, and prevalence of human pain, profit motive • Philosophical romanticism • Value place on individual, nature, organic art • Some skepticism seen parody and satire • Optimism prevailed • However, most of optimism associated with impulse to revolt and political reform

  10. Major Characteristics of Romanticism: • Abiding trust in nature’s goodness • Emotions and Instincts more important than reason • Glorification of "The Natural Man" – the "noble savage" – the primitive and untutored personality • Equality of people– social and economic classes disparaged • A premium on detail – detail is the pathway to truth • Ultimate truth • Art served an exalted purpose • Subjectivity

  11. EXAMPLES OF ROMANTICISM • Love of Nature • “Are not the mountains, waves, and skies, a part / Of me and my soul, as I of them?” Byron • “[A mountain is] the type of a majestic intellect, . . . There I beheld the emblem of a giant mind that feeds upon infinity.” Wordsworth

  12. Examples of Romanticism • Idealization of rural living “I met a little Cottage Girl: / She was eight years old, she said; / Her hair was thick with many a curl / That clustered round her head. / She had a rustic, woodland air, / An she was wildly clad: / Her eyes were fair, and very fair; / --Her beauty made me glad.” Wordsworth

  13. “The Gleaners” by Millet

  14. Other Qualities of Romanticism • Re-discovery of Folk Culture • Nostalgia for Pre-Industrial Past • Interest in “Exotic” Locales • Escape into Imaginative Worlds • Passionate Belief in Liberty and Equality

  15. “La Belle Dames sans Merci”

  16. Romantic Poetry -Authors: Wordsworth, Coleridge- “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, Shelley, Keats, Byron, Tennyson -Poetry was marked by the social issues -Popular forms: blank verse, the ballad, the short lyric, Rime Royal stanzas, Spenserian stanzas, the sonnet -Meter: lines were often enjambed, loose, with a free use of caesura and other spontaneous breaks in patterns. “. . . spinning still/ The rapid line of motion, then at once/ Have I, reclining back upon my heels,/ Stopped short; yet still the solitary cliffs/ Wheeled by me -- . ..” (Wordsworth-- “The Prelude”)

  17. George Gordon Byron(1788-1824) • His name is given to the term Byronic Hero • His poems include Don Juan (1824) and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1814) Both of which reveal his wanderlust and desire for new experiences

  18. The Byronic Hero • having great talent • exhibiting great passion • having a distaste for society and social institutions • expressing a lack of respect for rank and privilege • thwarted in love by social constraint or death • rebelling • suffering exile • hiding an unsavoury past • ultimately, acting in a self-destructive manner

  19. Major Works • Manfred (1817) • Cain (1821) • Marino Faliero (1821) • Sardanapalus (1821) • The Two Foscari (1821) • Heaven and Earth (1823) • Don Juan (1819–24) Manfred and the Alpine Witch

  20. Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792-1822) • Shelley inspired by nature, which is likened to extremes of human emotion • Unconventional and outspoken • Prometheus Unbound (1820) and Ozymandias

  21. Women Writers -Mary Shelley, is an English novelist who writes Frankenstein (1818) a gothic novel -The Brontë sisters, Charlotte and Emily write Jane Eyre (1847) and Wuthering Heights (1847) respectively -Jane Austen differs in that her novels, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Northanger Abbey, criticize sentimentality and romantic passion

  22. Questions to answer: • Where do you see aspects of Romanticism today? • Would you consider Jane Austen a romantic? Why or why not? • Identify some of the major themes of the Romantic movement. • How did the attitudes of Romanticism differ from those of the Enlightenment?  Why did the romantics reject the rationalism of the Enlightenment?

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