Historia Literatury Angielskiej – wykłady – dr Barbara Klonowska

WYKŁAD 1

ROMANTICISM

• an artistic shape of revolution (French, American, industrial, colonial expansion)

1798 - 1832

the date is believed to be 1) the death of Walter Scott (poet &writer)

the beginning of romanticism 2) the 1^st Reform Bill (issued by the British

“Lyrical ballads” Parliament which shows the changing

W. Wordsworth priorities, a different set of interest)

S.T. Coleridge (later -> Victorian Era)

Predecessors of romanticism:

• ‘Elegy written in a country churchyard’ T. Gray (the mood of melancholy; the speaker is lost in his feelings)

• James Macpherson “Poems of Ossion’ ( a Scottish bard; moors, nostalgia, melancholy)

• Sentimental novel

• Gothic fiction

The term ‘romanticism’ (at the end of XIX)

– name didn’t appear while this époque last but when it was just finished

• primacy of emotions, feelings, sentiments

*Reaction to Age of Reason  not violent nor rebellious; gradual revolution; not as in Poland

*A. Pope an idol for many romantic poets

KEY CONCEPTS FOR ROMANTICISM

1. feeling

2. individuality

(a philosophical doctrine promoting rights of a human being)

Romantics had different attitude to art and the form of poems

3. different concept of nature

Pope:

- nature is mechanistic, static

• nature is the perfect organism, a clock, everything fits, a stable system, the role of a human being is to find the right place and stay there

~ people do not interfere into nature; they do not introduce anything new

~ nature is a sufficient organism; people are a part of it

~ the image of nature: it’s not perfect or controlled; it’s the mirror of human soul

* individuality- consciousness of being individual (what differs us from animals)

* letters, autobiographies, confessions, thoughts

* many works that can’t be classified to a special type (sonnet, poem)

* for the romantics rules doesn’t matter

* vision, spontaneity, feeling, emotions

* nature is static, mechanistic, a person has to find a place while a whole nature create one “machine”, sufficient organism

* leave nature to its own devices

SPECIFIC KIND OF A CHARACTER /HERO

 BYRONIC/ROMANTIC HERO

(Giaur) (comes from Germanic literature <Werther> prototype of rom. hero)

*leads life of comfort and ease

intelligent charming lack of motivation, no specific priorities and desires

to be happy but is not

• unhappy love

• intellectual mood

• desperate thinking

• nostalgia

Werther no compromises with facing obstacles; he’ll never adjust; capitulation (often suicide in

the end)

 desperate, incessant and undirected journeying looking for the sense of life

 he cannot live in reality and cannot change

WYKŁAD 2

Most poets- men (women were active rather in poetry)

WILLIAM BLAKE

*individual of individuals

*1757-1827

* pre-romantic or 1^st of the 1^st romantics

* a poet, an engraver (a painter)

* a mystic and visionary

MYSTICISM

*an experience of visions (religious mostly) which connect us with the great world beyond life

(intuition, illuminations)

* the doctrine (divine intuition)

Mystics:

M. Swedenborg

St. John of The Cross (rel)

W. Blake 1^st vision 3 / 4 years old

- prosaic visions

- mystical cognition of the world

- dies unrecognized, Quite unknown as an engraver; not a successful poet, prophet

- a happy man (beautiful visions)

- his visions  written in verse, only 1- in prose

|

more capable, accurate, flexible, language to convey meaning, hide secrets

- blank verse, regular stanzas, symbols, metaphors

- his works are like cosmos- cover everything

- strange names for his characters, e.g. Urizen, Thel, Luvah

1. The Book of Thel

2. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

3. Vision of the Daughters of Albion

4. America: A Prophecy

5. Milton

6. Jerusalem

7. The Four Zoas an aspect of human being

- God is the creator of the world, everything starts with God

- 2 types of God:

* God of Justice & Punishment (Old Testament- Jahwe)

* God (love & forgiveness, compassion)

- different concept of SIN (no sin, no Hell)

^ no sth that cannot be forgiven

^ less important thing, an error, but no permanent state

^ great sin: breaks the unity between man and God

^ Hell- no such a thing no permanent damnation, no permanent separation from

God

• for him a stage, when we can realize we did sth wrong

• sins burn then

Urizen:

- demon of ambition, pride, excessive activity

- good but can be dangerous (if excessive)

- his danger is an ASPECT- can be, but don’t have to, we can control it, overcome it

Luvah:

- goddess of love (passion, desire)

- sth uncontrolled, can be dangerous but can be overcome

~~ OPTIMISTIC VISIONS~~

- for him life is pleasure, living the full life is a joy

- he liked eating, drinking

- body & soul live together

- limiting your life to the body only is a huge imitation, pity

- what is spiritual in a man should be fed, enjoyed

Thel:

- a young princess, deeply bothered by death

- depressed

- moral of the story: a body don’t disappear completely, mortal death is never complete; body can

change into sth else

WYKŁAD 3

THE ISSUE OF IMAGINATION (all romantic poets except Byron)

*some echoes of individualism

*you need imagination to see fully (6^th sense)

~Romantics don’t ask “What is the world?” but “What is the world for me?”

~ imagination- necessary for the proper perception of the world

~ reason is the shadow, instrument but imagination is the most important

~ neo-classics also appreciate imagination but they understand it in other way

M.H. ABRAMS:

- human mind is perceived as a mirror, mirror of the world, the chief purpose of it is to reflect the

world (mimetic art)

mimetic mimesis= imitation of reality

Romanticism: human mind is a mirror or a lamp (that projects to the outside by the internal part of

the mind)

repetition of the act of God- the creation of the world)

creativity-> is possible due to imagination (reflection is not enough)

Theory of Samuel T. COLERIDGE

~ a man of letters

~ studied philosophy (German)

~ Opus Magnum (biography)

~ discussions about imagination (in one chapter)

1. primary imagination (fancy)

• sth every human being has(e.g .combining elements to sth new, but not entirely

2. secondary imagination (imagination)

• given to artists only, scientists, academic

• the creativity: transforming, creating something completely virtually new

• a rare, precious thing

• thought + feeling that can transform elements

Powers attributed to imagination:

1. unifying (function) Romantics

• different branches of science appeared; specializations

• the world is not the whole, we can’t have a global, general picture

• religion no longer provides overreaching picture of the world

• the task of creative people is to give unity (to see the secret web of connections)

2. mediating power (as a link between this world and the world beyond)

in religious, priests are believed to be such a link

romantic poet- the reputation of the act of God

a romantic poet-> such a priest

3. modifying power

• transforming things together (new value, new quality)

transfiguration

~ imagination its root is IMAGE

~ without images we would not have poetry at all

~ in neo-classic function of images was clear- purely decorative, ornaments, etc

~everybody is different, has different tastes- so judging literary work can be different for everybody

~ Romanticism- the image is the essence of the work, foundation ( no decorative role!- it’s the core of the work)

~ symbol- wonderful type of an image

~ neo-classic- precision, clear (that’s why using symbol for them could be suicidal- symbol is never clear)

Symbols:

* a lot of meanings

* not precise, vague Romanticism

* capacity

* possibility of different interpretations

WYKŁAD 4

ROMANTIC FICTION/ PROSE

Romantic poetry

• Robert Southey “Lake Poets”(because of biography, not because of classification)

“LAKE POETS”:

- Wordsworth (realism, nature), Coleridge, Blake

- revolutionary, inventive

- a certain period of rebellion, private, disobedient

- introduce innovations (different from neo- classics)

- individual

It’s difficult to compare them.

Blake

Coleridge 1^st generation of romantic poets

Wordsworth

J. Keats

P. B. Shelley 2^nd young romantics

G.G.Byron

Wordsworth

- ‘pastoral poetry’, everything is filtered by the mind of the speaker

- “Preface..” – poetry- simple language about simple life

Coleridge

- supernatural elements, e.g. ghosts

- strange exotic phenomena

R. Southey

- gothic/ Christian/ welsh folklore

- a minor representative

Young poets: 2^nd generation

• lived fast and die young

• rebel, but not poetically

• they don’t need to invent sth new, but to improve the old poets

• talented (rhymes); different forms of writing, not afraid of adaptations; e.g. ode they transform it

• rebel rather in their personal life, exile

• poetry not limited by form & technique

• interested in medieval times

• home’s epic

W illiam Godwin philosophers; treating seriously slogans of The French revolution

Mary Wodstonecraft

- we shouldn’t be in state because state enslaves.

- Shelly is influenced by them; he marries their daughter- Mary Shelly

- Greek culture, mythology

BYRON:

- number of scandals & sexual affairs in his life

- life of romantic but when it comes to his poetry he is not a good example of romantic poetry

- “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”

- A. Pope, John Dryden- his idols, points of reference

- most of his poems abandon romantic convention

- he doesn’t speak in 1^st person, he hides himself

- Byron’s plays; not staged: “Beppo”, “Manfred”, “Cain”

CLOSET DRAMA

(impossible to be staged because of their form or it wouldn’t be interesting; long monologues meant to be read rather than staged, not a lot of action, meant to read privately)

Scottish poetry/ fascination with Scotland:

• James MacPherson “Oisin”  oisin- legendary Scottish bard (successful forgery)

• Walter Scott

- nowadays one of better known novelists, but he started as a poet

• Robert Burns

- true Scot

- different kinds of archaisms

- unhappy poet

• John Clare

- peasant (romantic wrote about village but were from aristocracy)

- his poems were more realistic because of his village background

- schizophrenic

• Thomas Chatterton

- young poet

- wrote poems & told he found them in monastery (from 15^th century) & he only prepared them for print; forgery was discovered; he committed a suicide

~ romantic poets wrote also about poetry

“Preface to Lyrical Ballads”

J. Keats

- we have his letters, a lot of them, regular discussions on what he has read, criticism of his poetry or someone’s else

Coleridge

- “Biographia Literaria”- a theoretical work

- interested in Shakespeare (skillful playwright).

- he reads S. as it his plays care a good piece of poetry

- his plays have artistic qualities

Shelley

- pamphlets

- polemics with another pamphlet(time of science and reason)

- “Defence of poetry” stylized as allusion to renaissance classic

poetry-link with the world of perfect ideas

science is not everything, we need art & poetry

WYKŁAD 5

ROMANTIC PROSE

 non- fictional prose

 fiction

Non-fictional prose

- based on life; biographies, letters, diaries, personal notes; written and published

• human personal life

• idea of looking into sb’s soul

• interest in exploration of personality and individuality

e.g. J. Keats (letters sent to friends etc)

Coleridge

- “ Biographia Literaria”

Dorothy Wordsworth

- sister of William Wordsworth; a journal “The Grasmere Journals” 1800-1803

• full of details from Wordsworth or Coleridge’s the name of the village they lived in

• we can notice the degree of transformation- how sth was described in a poem, e.g. a daffodil

• full of life

• she writes rather simply- as we should write

• she’s perceived as a woman who has talent as an observer and writer- she never wrote poetry

• document of the era, the situation of the ladies

F AMILIAR ESSAY

gives informality, changes essay rules, conventions, thesis which must be proven

into personal piece of writing

*idea of informality

* meant to prove sth, thesis + arguments, conclusion

* no convention, no rules

* free in the expression of the writer’s personality

* subjective

* a kind of today “felieton” or column, similar to blog

B lackwood

The London Magazine papers which were based on literature;

The Quaterly Review familiar essays were published there

3 Founding fathers of familiar essays:

1. Charles Lamb

• lived in London

• the friend of W. Wordsworth, classmate of Coleridge

• he didn’t like the 2^nd generation poetry

• a stormy life- sister Mary emotionally unstable

• he never had a family

• good sense of humour- enthusiastic about romantic literature

• interested in Shakespeare- he read his works in a number of ways; he is not interested in his plays themselves but more concerned on acting, staging, etc

• Shakespeare- a very good story-teller; not naturally talented

• he wrote a book (with his sister) “Tales from Shakespeare”

• mythology different episodes from e.g. “Odysey”

• he rediscovered other playwrights, e.g. Ch. Marlowe

• 1^st critic professionally dealing with drama

• a column ‘the essays of Elia’ (looks at the world and discuss different aspects, stupid but profound questions); personal, non-academic essays; published every month, very popular

2. William Hazlitt

• critic, writer at the age of nearly 40

• not restricted to literature; painting

• he read Shakespeare taking care of the characters; he treated him as a great psychologist

• he didn’t like reading

• he wrote about giving bibliography but giving quotations without references- sth now unacceptable

• he didn’t care about details, he had some visions to present

3. Thomas de Quincey

• Genius, talented child (Greek, Latin, philosophy)

• he studied Hebrew, literature

• married a farmer girl, had a family, not an aristocrat

• wrote essays

• the most prolific + because of his talent, education, economy, shoes- he could write

about practically everything

- he wrote for money

• essays on Shakespeare

• he took 1^st scene and shoved how it was important for the whole drama (its interpretation, construction & meaning), ‘a mature psychologist’

• analyses his personality or personality of characters, dramas

• subconscious

• drug addict

• one of his works was concentrated on that “The confessions of an English Opium- Eater” (it becomes very popular, published in a book form)

1part- autobiographical part about his childhood

2p. - about opium (as a initially painkiller), pleasures of opium, changes in mind

3p.- pains of opium

“Sunday journalism” to educate literary public, to reflect upon reading, popularizing literature; nowadays criticism is formal, serious.

WYKŁAD 6

ROMANTIC FICTION/NOVEL

* rather practiced by women

* new conventions appear at that time

~ epistolary novel (18^th century)

19^th century:

1. Gothic novel

- appears in 18^th century but its climax is in 19^th

• style connected with Middle Ages, interest in Middle Ages, medieval settings

• not faithful in recreation of details

• atmosphere of Medieval Ages

• sense of horror, crime, very exciting things

• formula fiction (it’s schematic)

• setting: monastery, church, county mansion); secret passages, chambers, place covered in semi-darkness, potential mystery

• letter/documents/secrets discovered

• some harm is done (seduction, rape, murder); revenge

• stock characters

• often: supernatural elements (e.g. devil in the shape of a monk)

~ Ann Radcliffe “The Mysteries of Udolfo” (no supernatural elements)

~ Horace Walpole “Castle of Oranto”

~ Mathew Lewis “The Monk”