14.English literature of the Enlightenment. D. Defoe’s novel “Robinson Crusoe” or in j. Swift’s novel “Gulliver’s Travels”, the satirical skill of the author.
The epoch of Enlightenment = the Age of Reason (1648-1789) was a rational age that saw a remarkable rise of literature. The central problem of paramount importance to the writers of the 18th c. was the study of Man and the origin of his good and evil qualities. They started a public movement for enlightening people – to improve the world by teaching. They rejected Church dogmas and cast distinctions and insisted upon a systematic education for all, upon self-government and liberty.This period saw the transition from poetry and the heroic age of Shakespeare to the prosaic age (Kolker: but we shouldn’t underestimate the influence of Shakespeare and his contemporaries upon the novel). The factor that pushed forward the development of prose was the translation of Scripture into national languages that brought about the necessity of a simple but inspired style. The style of prose became clear and polished. Satire became popular. This period also saw the rise of the political pamphlet, but the leading form of lit-re became the novel. The main difference between the writers of the Renaissance period and the novelists of the 18th c. was their attitude to history. For the first history hardly existed, they didn’t treat the past as smth different from the present. Time for them was an element of philosophy, some substance, though which the success of generations moved, but which couldn’t change Man and make one generation unlike the other. For novelists it was very important to locate their characters within a specific place and at a specific time. They tried to show the qualities of time and the difference of some period from others. A novelist is a maker who creates an imitation of life on the earth. He provides for the reader a model of life as he sees and feels it; he expresses his conclusions about life placing his characters in the situations, which show the mechanisms of social life. Every age has its favorite genre: for Renaissance it’s drama & the 18th century was represented by Novel. The novel as a genre belongs to fiction. The novel appeared at the turn of the 18th century it manifested the change in man’s interest. Nothing that preceded it could explain it. There are no classical models of it. The only book that may be considered as a novel is Servantes’s “Don Quixote”, but still there is no evidence that it influenced English authors. The novel is a genre that deals with the past, present & future. The novelist must deal with men in a specific place & time. The novelist is very much conscious of time. A talented novelist can distinguish its difference from other times. Still the Shakespearian drama had a great influence upon the novel, as Shakespeare & his contemporaries were able to create life-like characters.Every novel should be populated with characters, who serve as pivots. The novel & the plot evolve around a character. The novel imitates life & at the same time it may be regarded as a model of life. If in the theatre the public takes part in the performance, in the novel the character is the bridge between the invented episodes & the experience of the reader (We have the author’s ability to sum up the experience & we have reader, who compares his own experience with the experience of the characters).The novelist is able to depict any relationships of life: man-man, man-society, man-nature, man-sign etc. Only novel can afford it, because of its unlimited size. The novel may be regarded as a unity consisting of every word in it (every word on its right place) – this makes fiction credible. The novel imposes its own moral code.Features of novel:The novel is fiction,It evolves around a character,The character is a pivot,The action is presented against a background,The novel presents all sorts of relationships,The novel possesses an aesthetic function: it relates not facts as such, it expresses the attitude of a writer & has some emotional impact on the reader,The plot is a model of life,The character is a bridge between the writer & the reader
Daniel Defoe (1661 – 1731) He was born in a family of a butcher 7 naturally had a surname Foe. At the age of 60 he added De to his name. Born in London he tried his hands on all sorts of things until he became a journalist. He engaged himself in pamphlet writing. He was a man of extraordinary industry 7 wrote a lot of books (≈375). Defoe relies upon facts. It’s not the situation that’s life-like, but the facts that make it so. When Defoe wrote the 1st part of “Robinson Crusoe” – “The life & surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe”, he was 59. There was hardly any device for creating illusion of reality that Defoe did not employ. His characters themselves narrate their story & Defoe gets under the skin of his fictitious narrators. He keeps himself out of sight & this is apparent artlessness which becomes in the long run artfulness. He makes reader believe our imagination is captured by the constant nibbling. In “Robinson Crusoe’ Defoe has an excellent subject, which may have come out as a box of tools. Defoe is curiously multileveled. It may be treated as a historical-philosophical level. Crusoe is naked humanity grappling with its daily needs. All the problems he is confronted by are urgent & at the same time Crusoe is mostly a prototype of Englishman increasingly prominent, during the 18th a man from lower classes whose tunes was connected with strong sense of personal responsibility. Man of this kind made the industrial revolution possible. He’s self-reliant, energetic, a person who is in direct relation with God made ion his own image. A symbol of humanityThis is a type of an Englishman from lower classes who had his own vision of life & sense of responsibility. When Crusoe comes to an inhabited island those things like these would happen to a man like this. Defoe’s little lies has conditioned us to accept his bigger lie. We believe it because it’s a prose. 28 years 2 months & 19 days – Defoe captures time in the net of calendar. The stress is not on the island, but on the man himself. It’s the 1st time we have a fictitious character. It’s Crusoe who fills the picture, he, who’s complete, a man dominating the nature. Crusoe relied upon his own ability to change the circumstances.Crusoe was a very religious man. He can be described as God’s Englishman, as he believes, that God helps those who help themselves. The sense of partnership of God & man never leaves Crusoe. By describing his adventures Defoe did more. Now Crusoe’s island symbolizes the earth & Crusoe symbolizes humanity. Defoe had limitations. Being a stiry of adventures “Crusoe” is utterly automatic. These limitations turn into advantages, because any picturesque situation can make the story incredible. It remains one of the great romantic stories in the world.“Robinson Crusoe” does not possess features of a novel. It’s the first sample of fiction in English literature. Defoe wrote some more books that were more like novels (Moll Flenders).It’s “Robinson Crusoe” that is considered to be the book that influenced the works of many writers not only of the epoch, but of the century to come. It influenced a great deal the works of Jonathan Swift. jONATHAN SWIFTS “ GULLIVERS TRAVELS” AND ITS ALLEGORICAL IMPLICATIONS. THE CREDIBILITY. Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) He wrote a lot of books. The main ones are “Battle of the books”, “Tale of a Tub”, “Gulliver travels”, “Modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden for their parents & country” etc. Swift inherited from Defoe: to make his books credible Swift gives us true-to-life details, but if Defoe uses enumeration, Swift resorts to comparison as the main means for creating his images. Sometimes he compared things & events, belonging to the same class, sometimes he used analogy for comparing things from different classes, and very often he used contrast. He developed Defoe’s devices that were meant to create perfect credibility. At the same time his book “Gulliver’s travels” was as much popular among children as Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe”. This is even more surprising because reading this book one finds out that this is the most savage satire on human race. “Gulliver Travels” “Travels into several remote Nations of the World. By Lemuel Gulliver” appeared when Swift was already middle-aged & then he became famous almost immediately. “Gulliver’s Travels” speaks of 4 journeys made by the main character. It describes Gulliver’s voyages to exotic countries. He made use of the fact that his country-men were very much interested in traveling. His intention was t to pack his ideals & satire into a case made of stories about different countries. That’s why his books are very much popular among children & his country-men swallowed up the most bitter & biting satire on the political, moral & social drawbacks. Swift commented on life & compared these exotic countries to the life that people led in England. The 1st voyage is the voyage to the country of Lilliput. These people are very small & live in the world where practically everything is 12 times smaller than in real life (the exact proposition is observed; comparisons make the book life-like). After a shipwreck Gulliver reached the shore of a strange country & remained senseless. He was captured & spent several months among his captors. This very fact serves Swift to create the satire on his own country. The small size of the lilliputes gives Swift an opportunity to show the pettiness of their desires & by this contrast he manages to criticize all the political sides of life in GB. It’s court of George I, Vigues & Tories & the religious controversy of England. The High-heel are Tories, the Low-heels are Vigues. The Big-Endians & the Little-Endians are Protestants & Baptists. In the 2nd part (The voyage to Brobdingnag) the device that Swift uses is quite opposite in direction but similar in function. This is his voyage to the country of giants, who are 12 times bigger than a human being. Gulliver is taken to the court as an insect – he learns the language – tells the emperor about his country – the Emperor wonders now such insects can be so blood-thirsty. This proportion enables Swift to show how ferocious human beings are & this gives Swift an opportunity to criticize the wars & the intention of Britain to conquer the world. Swift uses these two books to accumulate necessary details.The 3rd voyage is the voyage to Laputa – a flying island. The inhabitants of the island live on the taxes they impose on the population of towns that are below, because they had managed to install magnets & if people do not pay they can descend & crush the town. The 4th voyage is the voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms. The name of a country was invented to resemble the neigh of a horse, because this is the land of clever horses. Here Swift’s fancy runs ride.Swift wanted to prove that clever horses were wise, honest, truthful, because they did not have pockets. They couldn’t pile up problems. They had no sense of money. They knew nothing about property. It did not guide their lives & they did not depend upon it. But there were the other creatures in the country – Yahoo. They were human beings without reason. All of a sudden Gulliver, a human being, comes to the country. Horses cannot accept Gulliver because he very much reminds them of yahoos, & yahoos cannot accept him because he looks too civilized. Gulliver’s superiority in reason is recognized by the clever horses & all of a sudden it causes much embarrassment. The horses cannot understand how a human being makes use of a reason. Horses did not know anything about cunning & wickedness. This enables Swift to explain everything in the tale. The device of presenting the human as they would have been presented to a naïve & ignorant listener must be regarded as one of the most effective stylistic descriptions. This is the way Swift wants to emphasize what he wants to bring to the reader. This brings a pre-planned result. We’re obliged to consider yahoos in a new light. They are more primitive, dirty, & filthy, but they are not human beings with their complex diseases, moral as well as physical. 15.English literature of the Enlightenment. S. Richardson and the peculiarities of the epistolary genre in the novel “Clarissa”./ H. Fielding “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling” and the comic representation of human nature.The second stage of enlightenment — from 1740 till 50th 18 century — was marked by development of a genre of the novel which has found the classical form for bourgeois lit-ry. The creator of the family-home and psychological novel was S.Richardson (1689—1761) who has given it the epistolary form. Richardson has entered into lit-ru of the description of small pleasures and tragedies of common life ("Pamela", 1741, "Klarissa Garlo", 1747—48) and has filled these descriptions морализаторством. In the same years Filding has deepened democratic tendencies in the educational novel, expressing a national-humanistic ideal of life («History of adventures of Joseph Endrusa and its friend Abraama Adams»,. the peculiarities of the epistolary genre in the novel “Clarissa”: Richardson uses here all possibilities concluded in the epistolary form of the novel. She allows it, - as he writes in an epilogue to "Klarisse", - to embody the most immediate experiences of the heroes, leaving, at the same time, wide лростор for the image of the further reflection and internal struggle. The genre of the epistolary novel finds out an extraordinary versatility in "Klarisse": it includes both the letter-description, and the letter-dialogue, and the letter polemic, and, first of all, the lyrical letter-confession. HENRY FIELDING. “TOM JONES, THE FOUNDLING” – THE FIRST PANORAMA OF ENGLISH LIFE. Henry Fielding (1707-1754) was the 1st (after Chaucer) to introduce a panorama of contemporary English life of different layers of society. Tom Jones is a novel which differs from almost all other novels both in the range and the precision of its scale and scheme. Its scenes are extremely varied, and each has its local colour adjusted with perfect propriety (уместность). Its personages are extremely numerous - a marvelous gallery of characters, aiming at investigation of human nature. Pictures of life are true. The action takes place in the country and in town (London). The novel consists of 18 books, each beginning with an introductory chapter where the author discourses with the reader, in a free and easy manner, on certain moral and psychological themes. The plot of the story is very complicated; its construction is carefully worked out, every detail being significant. Depicting England of the 18th century, Fielding touches upon all spheres of life. We are shown the courts of law, the prison, the church, the homes of people of all classes, inns and highways, even theatre. Fielding's novel attempts to break down numerous boundaries. In terms of genre, Fielding cannot decide whether his novel is a "philosophical History," a "Romance," or an "epi-comic prosaic poem." Fielding questions the very definition of “novel” (a blend of various styles). Fielding subtly suggests that cataloguing fiction is silly, and that he would rather think of himself as "the founder of a new Province of Writing." Still he defines his work as “prosai-comi-epic writing” and explains the purpose of introductory chapters (to provide contrast with comic parts).The novel comprises several genres: - a realistic novel – a picture of the 18-th century is presented (though a selective one). - a picaresque (плутовской) novel – to describe journeys, without a particular aim or destination;- historical novel – episodes of Jacobite Rebellion;- epic – Tom’s and other character’s adventures; - situation comedy; - the comedy of mutual misunderstanding – unexpected discoveries; - epistolary genre – narration is filled with letters (Tom’s, Sophia’s). This multitude of styles form F’s own style. It’s possible to speak about F’s eclectic style, which is composed of a mosaic of genres and modes of narration. The narrator flits between essays, dramatic dialogues, and letters. The presence of the author is felt through out the novel. He is a moralist, pure and simple. Predominantly – 1st person singular narration, sometimes a Victorian 1st person plural "we." The tone is constantly ironic. The narrator penetrates into the construction of his novel. Ex. he often closes chapters by hinting to the reader what is to follow in the next chapter, or he warns that he is going to omit a scene. F constantly reviews the process of construction. F. didn’t believe in the ability of the reader to read between the lines, so he gave a detailed description of characters and provided his own commentaries. His descriptions aren’t dull because he gives us his own understanding of life, his experience which is considerable and his attitude which is that of a clever man, who knows the ins and outs of society. F worked out “philosophy of coincidence”= the plot depends much on “the working of chance”. In another example of broken stereotypes, F's char-s cannot be distinguished by "masculine" or "feminine" traits: in this novel both men and women fight and cryF did not aim at writing a novel of social protest. We are made aware of the class system, shown in the novel. The system itself is accepted by F, he protests against snobbery, lack of responsibility among the leaders of society (Allworthies are rare). The condemnation of the upper class is chiefly comic in terms of telling names: Allworthy (associated with dignity and might) lives in Paradise Hall (lost and regained by Tom); Blifil (we never know his Christian name) reminds of “ill fib (fiction)”;
16.The peculiarities of English drama of the 18th century. R. Sheridan “School for Scandal”.
2nd half XVIII century it is rich with various talents, from the different sides illuminating psychological shifts by which growth of the bourgeoisie gradually occupying dominant positions was accompanied. Origin of a bourgeois drama concerns the same period. J. Лилло (1693—1739) the first has made a tragedy subject a daily bourgeois life («the London merchant», 1731) and though this innovation has found support from Fildinga, the general moralising spirit of its dramatic art is closer to Richardson's novels. In the England Lillo almost had no successors, short of E.Moore (1712—57), the author of a drama "Player" (1753). But on continent of Europe of a drama of Lillo have met hot approval at Diderot, at Lessing and have served as stimulus to development of a bourgeois drama. In England there has come heyday of the satirical comedy of humours R.B.Sheridan (1751—1816) who have sharply opened defects bourgeois –noble society was which principal representative. - a society of time of noble family («malignant gossip School», 1777, изд. 1780, etc.). the school of scandal is sheridan's masterpiece. It mainly tells about two brothers, the hypocritical Joseph Surface and good-natured,rash Charles Surface. It bitterly satires the moral recession,vanity,greed of the upper-class society in the 18th-century England.Sheridan’s most famous play, The School for Scandal, has been called ‘the best existing English comedy of intrigue’. A favourite with audiences and critics alike since its première in 1777, this play is a classic English comedy of manners. Full of satirical wit, it subverts social mores of its day with subtlety and charm
17. Pre-romanticism and its main features. The Gothic novel. W. Godwin. The depiction of gentry in the novels of J. Austen. The poetry of R. Burns. (“Highland Mary”, “Mary Morrison”, “Tom O’Shanter”) History One can trace elements of the Gothic novel in earlier novels such as Ferdinand Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett, published in 1753; but the first full-fledged Gothic novel was The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, which appeared in 1764. Set in the thirteenth century, this tale involves princes, a castle, murder and a ghost, and purported - a common Gothic convention - to be a translation from an Italian original. The novel quickly created a new fashion in novel-writing, in which a large element consisted on playing on the emotions of the reader. Gothic fiction is thus a part of the wider movement of romanticism in literature and the arts, and of the reaction of the more measured "classical" style which had dominated literature in the first half of the eighteenth century.Other writers jumped on the Gothic bandwagon, and Gothic novels stayed very popular well into the nineteenth century. Jane Austen made affectionate fun of them inNorthanger Abbey, as did Thomas Love Peacock in Nightmare Abbey. Among the key writers in the genre was Ann Radcliffe. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the tales of Edgar Allan Poe incorporate many Gothic elements, as does much of the popular fiction - including many of the so-called "penny dreadfuls" - of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century the Titus Trilogy of Mervyn Peake is a major example of Gothic fiction.Gothic literature influenced more mainstream writers, including Lord Byron and John Keats (especially in Isabella). The ghost story and the horror novel are direct descendants of the genre.Characteristics of the Gothic novel All Gothic novels introduce an element of terror, suspense and mystery. They generally incorporate many of the following:,cliff-hanger chapter endings,supernatural elements such as ghosts, magicians, werewolves, monsters and devils,a medieval setting, often with a castle, dungeons, ruins, or a monastery,mad characters,merciless, flamboyant villains,persecuted damsels,curses which pass down the generations,dark secrets,the Inquisition.
William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism, and the first modern proponent of anarchism.[1] Godwin is most famous for two books that he published within the space of a year: An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, an attack on political institutions, and Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams, which attacks aristocratic privilege, but also is the first mystery novel. His first published work was an anonymous Life of Lord Chatham (1783). He published under his own name Sketches of History (1784), consisting of six sermons on the characters ofAaron, Hazael and Jesus, in which, though writing in the character of an orthodox Calvinist, he enunciates the proposition "God Himself has no right to be a tyrant." Introduced by Andrew Kippis, he began to write in 1785 for the New Annual Register and other periodicals, producing also three novels now forgotten. His main contributions for the "Annual Register" were theSketches of English History he wrote annually, which were yearly summaries of domestic and foreign political affairs. He joined a club called the "Revolutionists," and associated much with Lord Stanhope, Horne Tooke and Holcroft. In 1793, while the French Revolution was in full swing, Godwin published his great work on political science, Enquiry concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness.
Georgian society in Jane Austen's novels is the ever-present background of her work, the world in which all her characters are set. Entirely situated during the reign of George III, the novels of Jane Austen describe their everyday lives, their joys and sorrows, as well as their loves, and provide in the process an irreplaceable insight into the period.Jane Austen's novels deal with such varied subjects as the historical context, the social hierarchies of the time, the role and status of the clergy, gender roles, marriage, or the pastimes of well-off families. Without even the reader noticing, many details are broached, whether of daily life, of forgotten legal aspects, or of surprising customs, thus bringing life and authenticity to the English society of this period.Nevertheless, the point of view from which Jane Austen describes England is that of a woman of the English gentry (albeit from its lower fringes), belonging to a reasonably well-off family, well connected and remarkably well educated for the time, and living in a very small village of rural England around the late 1790s or early 19th century. Thus, some essential aspects of the Georgian era are virtually absent from her novelvons, such as the American Revolutionary War and the loss of the Thirteen Colonies, the French Revolution, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the birth of the British Empire. Indeed, rather than a depiction of the history of English society at large, Jane Austen's novels provide an understanding of everyday life in rural England at the turn of the 19th century. Jane Austen’s novels are set in the social context of the gentry, to which Jane Austen herself belonged. Some of her heroines have no fortune (Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park), others on the other hand are very well off (Emma), but the social class remains the same.
Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796) was a poet and songwriter. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and in a "light" Scots dialect which would have been accessible to a wider audience than simply Scottish people. At various times in his career, he wrote in English, and in these pieces, his political or civil commentary is often at its most blunt.He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic Movement and after his death became an important source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism. A cultural icon in Scotland and among Scots who have relocated to other parts of the world (the Scottish diaspora), his celebration became almost a national cult during periods of the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature.Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, sometimes revising, expanding, and adapting them. One of the better known of these collections is The Merry Muses of Caledonia (the title is not Burns'), a collection of bawdy (indecent) lyrics that were popular in the music halls of Scotland as late as the 20th century. Many of Burns' most famous poems are songs with the music based upon older traditional songs. His poem (and song) Auld Lang Syne is often sung at Hogmanay (New Year)and it is set to the traditional tune Can Ye Labour Lea, while A Red, Red Rose is set to the tune of Major Graham, and Scots Wha Hae served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Burns' direct influences in the use of Scots in poetry were Allan Ramsay (1686-1758) and Robert Fergusson. Burns' poetry also drew upon a substantial familiarity and knowledge of Classical, Biblical, and English literature, as well as the Scottish Makar tradition. Burns was skilled in writing not only in the Scots language but also in the Scottish English dialect of the English language. Some of his works, such as Love and Liberty (also known as The Jolly Beggars), are written in both Scots and English for various effects.Burns' themes included republicanism (he lived during the French Revolutionary period) and Radicalism which he expressed covertly in Scots Wha Hae, Scottish patriotism, anticlericalism, class inequalities, gender roles, commentary on the Scottish Kirk of his time, Scottish cultural identity, poverty, sexuality, and the beneficial aspects of popular socialising (carousing, Scotch whisky, folk songs, and so forth). Burns and his works were a source of inspiration to the pioneers of liberalism, socialism and the campaign for Scottish self-government, and he is still widely respected by political activists today, ironically even by conservatives and establishment figures because after his death Burns became drawn into the very fabric of Scotland's national identity. It is this, perhaps unique, ability to appeal to all strands of political opinion in the country that have led him to be widely acclaimed as the national poet. Burns' views on these themes in many ways parallel those of William Blake, but it is believed that, although contemporaries, they were unaware of each other. Burns' works are less overtly mystical.The genius of Burns is marked by spontaneity, directness, and sincerity, and his variety is marvellous, ranging from the tender intensity of some of his lyrics through the rollicking humour and blazing wit of Tam o' Shanter to the blistering satire of Holy Willie's Prayer and The Holy Fair.
Tam O’Shanter” Tam O’Shanter was written in 1790. It is told using a mixture of Scots and English. It is a narrative poem. It tells the story about a man, Tam, who stays too long at the pub. Hi sits and drinks with his friends. Earlier his wife warned him that he may be killed or hung. His wife seems to be a kind of authority. But Tam continues drinking and even flirts with one lady at the pub. But he has to go and rides off on his horse Meg. On his way he sees witches and devils dancing, opening coffins. Some withes take off their clothes. Tam pays attention to one witch whose name is Nanny, she dances in a short dress. He is so temptated that they notice him and rush after him. So his wife won’t see him anymore. Analysis. By the use of Scots alongside English, and by the sheer power of his expression in both, Burns at the same time tells a good story, and makes points aboutalcohol, good and evil, marriage, sexual attraction, and relations between women and men in general, and indeed between a man and his horse. There are many dramatic tensions and ironies in the poem. The tensions between the fairly twee, ostensibly moralistic frame of the poem, and the relish with which Burns describes Tam’s disreputable tale, are obvious and lend the poem a lot of its power. Less obvious perhaps is the way Burns alternates Scots and English for effect. In this way, he seems to signal the irony of his own intention in writing the poem. To what extent Burns ‘believed’ in beings like devils, witches and warlocks is another question. He makes it clear in his quote from Gawin Douglas at the start: "Of Brownyis and of Bogillis full is this Buke." that he is invoking the Scottish tradition of magic, and there is another irony there as to how much he believed in the Church of the time (not at all?), how much in the older traditions (he is supposed to have been aMason, after all), and how much in the new spirit of science and rationalism that was sweeping the country at the time of the Scottish Enlightenment
18.Sentimentalism. T. Gray, O. Goldsmith, L. Stern. The ideas of sentimentalism in their works (“An Elegy Written in the Country Church Yard”, “The Vicar of Wakefield”, “A Sentimental Journey Through France to Italy”. According to the sentimentalists, the dominant chord of human nature is feeling, and not reason, which is compromised by bourgeois practices. Sentimentalism did not break completely with the Enlightment. In sentimental literature of the Enlightenment the hero is more individualized, and his inner world is enriched by his ability to empathize and to respond sensitively to what is going on around him. The rich inner world of the common man was one of the chief discoveries and triumphs of sentimentalism. S Sentimental motifs (the natural idyll and melancholy contemplation, for example) first appeared in the poetry of J. Thomson ( The Seasons , 1730), E. Young ( Night Thoughts , 1742–45), and T. Gray ( Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard , 1751). A concrete social reflection of the village theme is found only in the poetry of the late sentimentalists of the 1770's and 1780's, such as O. Goldsmith, W. Cowper, and G. Crabbe, who allude to the impoverishment of the peasant masses and to deserted villages. Sentimental motifs are found in the psychological novels of S. Richardson and the later works of H. Fielding ( Amelia , 1752). However, sentimentalism attained its ultimate form in the works of L. Sterne, whose unfinished Sentimental Journey (1768) gave the sentimentalist movement its name. A “An Elegy Written in the Country Church Yard”, The poem is not a conventional part of Theocritus 's elegiac tradition, because it does not mourn an individual. The poem lacks many standard features of the elegy: an invocation, mourners, flowers, and shepherds. The theme does not emphasise loss as do other elegies, and its natural setting is not a primary component of its theme.the
The Vicar of Wakefield is a novel by Irish author Oliver Goldsmith. It was written in 1761 and 1762, and published in 1766, and was one of the most popular and widely read 18th-century novels among Victorians. The novel is mentioned in George Eliot's Middlemarch, Jane Austen's Emma, Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Sarah Grand's The Heavenly Twins, Charlotte Brontë's The Professor and Villette, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, as well as hisDichtung und Wahrheit. L A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy is a novel by the Irish-born English author Laurence Sterne, written and firstpublished in 1768, as Sterne was facing death. In 1765, Sterne travelled through France and Italy as far south as Naples, and after returning determined to describe his travels from a sentimental point of view. The novel can be seen as an epilogue to the possiblyunfinished work The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and also as an answer to Tobias Smollett's decidedly unsentimental Travels through France and Italy. (Sterne met Smollett during his travels in Europe, and strongly objected to his spleen, acerbity and quarrelsomeness. He modeled the character of Smelfungus on him.) The novel was extremely popular and influential and helped establish travel writing as the dominant genre of the second half of the 18th century. Unlike prior travel accounts which stressed classical learning and objective non-personal points of view, A Sentimental Journeyemphasized the subjective discussions of personal taste and sentiments, of manners and morals over classical learning. Throughout the 1770s female travel writers began publishing significant numbers of sentimental travel accounts. Sentiment also became a favorite style among those expressing non-mainstream views including political radicalism.The narrator is the Reverend Mr. Yorick, who is slyly represented to guileless readers as Sterne's barely disguised alter ego. The book recounts his various adventures, usually of the amorous type, in a series of self-contained episodes. The book is less eccentric and more elegant in style than Tristram Shandy and was better received by contemporary critics. It was published on February 27, and on March 18 Sterne died. the late 18th century
19.Romanticism. The founder of English Romanticism – W. Blake. (“London”/“Saw a Chapel”/ “The Garden of Love”) The term "Romanticism" did not come into use in England until the mid 19th Century. At about this time readers began to see six English poets as forming a single movement: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and John Keats. The Romantic Movement spans roughly 1789 to 1824.Fundamental to romanticism is a new atitude towards the role of man in nature. Nature ceases to be an objective intellectual concept for the Romantics, as it was for the writers of the Enlightment period, and rejection of the ideals and rules of classicism and neoclassicism and by an affirmation of the need for a freer, more subjective expression of passion, pathos and personal feelings.Some aspects of romanticism in the 18th c. are: (a) an increasing interest in Nature, and in the natural, primitive and uncivilized way of life; (b) a growing interest in scenery, especially its more untamed and disorderly manifestations; (c) an association of human moods with the 'moods' of Nature - and thus a subjective feeling for it and interpretation of it; (d) a considerable emphasis on natural religion; (e) emphasis on the need for spontaneity in thought and action and in the expression of thought; (f) increasing importance attached to natural genius and the power of the imagination; (g) a tendency to exalt the individual and his needs and emphasis on the need for a freer and more personal expression; (h) the cult of the Noble Savage.becomes instead an elusive metaphor. This period was marked by a Blake, William (b. Nov. 28, 1757, London--d. Aug. 12, 1827, London) English poet, painter, engraver; one of the earliest and greatest figures of Romanticism. Many of Blake's best poems are found in two collections: Songs of Innocence (1789) to which was added, in 1794, the Songs of Experience (unlike the earlier work, never published on its own). The complete 1794 collection was called Songs of Innocence and Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. Broadly speaking the collections look at human nature and society in optimistic and pessimistic terms, respectively - and Blake thinks that you need both sides to see the whole truth.
20.Romanticism.
“The Lake poets”. W. Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge.
The Lake
Poets are
a group of English poets who
all lived in the Lake
District of England at
the turn of the nineteenth century. the Lake
Poets,
a small group of friends including William
Wordsworth and Samuel
Taylor Coleridge.
These early Romantic
Poets brought
a new emotionalism and introspection,
William Wordsworth (7
April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was a major English Romantic poet
who, with Samuel
Taylor Coleridge,
helped to launch the Romantic
Age in English
literature with
the 1798 joint publication Lyrical
Ballads.
In 1807, his Poems in Two Volumes were published, including "
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
". Up to this point Wordsworth was known publicly only for
Lyrical Ballads , and he hoped this collection would cement his
reputation.Samuel
Taylor Coleridge (
/ˈkoʊlrɪdʒ/;
21 October 1772 – 25 July 1834) was an English poet, Romantic,
literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William
Wordsworth,
was a founder of the Romantic
Movement in
England and a member of the Lake
Poets.
He is probably best known for his poems The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla
Khan,
as well as for his major prose work Biographia
Literaria.
His critical work, especially on Shakespeare,
was highly influential, and he helped introduce German
idealist philosophy
to English-speaking culture. He coined many familiar words and
phrases, including the celebrated suspension
of disbelief.
He was a major influence, via Emerson,
on American transcendentalism.
21.Romanticism. G. G. Byron “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is a lengthy narrative poem in four parts written by Lord Byron. It was published between 1812 and 1818 and is dedicated to "Ianthe". The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands. In a wider sense, it is an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. The title comes from the term childe, a medieval title for a young man who was a candidate for knighthood. The work provided the first example of the Byronic hero.[5] The idea of the Byronic hero is one that consists of many different characteristics. The hero must have a rather high level of intelligence and perception as well as be able to easily adapt to new situations and use cunning to his own gain. It is clear from this description that this hero is well-educated and by extension is rather sophisticated in his style. Aside from the obvious charm and attractiveness that this automatically creates, he struggles with his integrity, being prone to mood swings or bipolar tendencies. Generally, the hero has a disrespect for any figure of authority, thus creating the image of the Byronic hero as an exile or an outcast. The hero also has a tendency to be arrogant and cynical, indulging in self-destructive behaviour which leads to the need to seduce women. Although his sexual attraction through being mysterious is rather helpful, this sexual attraction often gets the hero into trouble. The character of the Byronic hero has appeared in novels, films and plays ever since.