7. English Realism of the 2nd half of the 19th c. Gaskell, Eliot, Hardy

Reign of the Queen Victoria. The 1830s which followed the industrial revolution saw the sharpening of сlass contradictions. The new class of bourgeoisie was divided into 3 categories: upper, middle and lower. One of its signs was the Chartist movement which followed the Parliamentary reform of 1832(slavery). An age of progress and an age of doubt. There was too much poverty, too much injustice and too little certainty about faith and morals. A new approach to literature was needed which would reflect the problems of that time. Thus a new trend was born in English as well as in the Continental literature - Critical or Social realism, dealing with the needs of society. Realists stressed the link between man and the social environment in which the personage grew and functioned. So from the materialistic point of view man is predetermined by the conditions of his life. Portrayed day-today realities and personages of the realistic works were social types, not psychological as in the Romantic Lit.

Naturalism (is close to realism but it is less given to generalizations; it is more concentrated on details of private life and is more pessimistic by its tone)

George Eliot(= Mary Ann Evans) (1819-1880) born in Yorkshire in a family of a farmer. Is considered to be one of the most well-educated women of England, she knew many languages, was interested in science, well-educated in the spheres of philosophy, religion, literature and history. Literature: early stood up against orthodox religiosity; was a social novelist , her main characters represent various layers of British society, but most of all the author sympathized with common people; the ideas of positivism; criticized exaggeration and idealization; opposed good qualities of the poor to immorality of the reach. Best known novel is The Mill on the Floss. (largely autobiographical)

Thomas Hardy (1840- 1928) In all his works there is a theme of fate; he came into defense of rural England and folk culture and traditions which were under the threat of extinction because of the development of capitalism. He divided his works into: novels of character and environment, romances and fantasies, novels of ingenuity. The most important works are “Tess of the D’ Urbervilles”, “Jude the Obscure”-“The Return of the Native” 1878, “Under the Greenwood Tree”1872.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor. Mrs Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton, was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her ghost stories are in the "Gothic" vein, making them quite distinct from her "industrial" fiction.

Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions, she usually framed her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes. Her early works focused on factory work in the Midlands. She usually emphasised the role of women, with complex narratives and dynamic female characters.