Major Themes in American Literature 1820-1865

Final ReviewWhat you need to know for your Final:

English Literary History from 1785 - nowTerminology used in discussing literature in order to analyze reading passagesThe basic plot and characterization of Pride and PrejudiceSection 1: Major Themes in English Literature from 1785Review your reading and make sure you are comfortable with the major themes in English Literature from 1785.

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This section will be short answer like the midterm (3-5 sentences)The Romantic Period1789 - 1815 Revolutionary and Napoleonic period1807 British Slave Trade outlawed1811 - 20 The Regency: George, Prince of Wales, acts as regent for George III1819 Peterloo Massacre1820 Accession of George IVMajor Authors and DiversityWilliam BlakeWilliam WordsworthSamuel Taylor ColeridgeGeorge Gordon, Lord ByronPercy Bysse ShelleyJohn Keats

Yet several authors, mainly women, were more popular early in the period: Anne Barbauld, Charlotte Smith, Mary Robinson

Older authors: Gray, Collins, Crabbe, and CowperRevolution and reactionAmerican Revolution 1776French Revolution 1789Reign of Terror 1804Napolean 1815Ongoing social pressure

Mary Wollstonecrafts A Vindication of the Rights of ManEdmund Burke Reflections on the Revolution in FranceIndustrial revolution1765 James Watts perfects steam engineRise of mill townsEnclosuresDivisions into capital and laborLaissez-faire economicsChild laborWorking ConditionsFear of RevolutionThe Spirit of the ageGreat spirits now on earth are sojourning KeatsLake Schools Wordsworth, Coleridge, Robert Southey Cockney Schools Leigh Hunt, William Hazlitt, KeatsSatanic School Percy Shelley, ByronRevolution as apocryphalPromise and Regret

Poetic theory and practiceThe spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings WordsworthFirst person lyric poetry and self referenceBardic ideals and innovationRomantic nature poetryPersonification of nature and landscapeOrdinary subjectsThe supernatural, the romance, psychological extremesIndividualism and alienation

Writing in the Marketplace and CourtsBy 1830 about half of Britains population was regularly readingWorking classes and Sunday schoolCirculating LibrariesSteam engine printing pressesBooks as big businessFears of reading and readersPirated novelsProblematic attempts at censorship

Other literary formsAn era of prose?Drama and disorderThe novel gains respectabilityVictorian1832 First reform Bill1837 Victoria becomes Queen1846 Corn Laws Repealed1850 Tennyson replaces Wordsworth as Poet Laureate1851 Great Exhibition in London1859 Charles Darwins Origin of the Species1870-71 Franco-Prussian War1901 Death of VictoriaBritish HistoryBritish history is two thousand years old, and yet in a good many ways the world has moved further ahead since the Queen was born than it moved all the rest of the two thousand years put together (Mark Twain 1897).London becomes the largest European cityEngland first industrializedColonial Power Sun never sets on the British EmpireQueen Victoria and the Victorian TemperVictorian earnestness, moral responsibility, domestic proprietyBy the 1850s and 1860s writers were calling the period VictorianGeorgian reaction against the periodOverwhelming energy and practical outlook

The Early Period 1830-18481830 Liverpool and Manchester railroad1832 Reform bill and breaking up of rotten boroughs1867 Lower class vote1830s and 40s know as Time of troublesWorking conditionsChild laborChartismCorn laws repealed 1846The Mid-Victorian Period 1848-70More prosperous timeQueen Victoria and Prince Albert seen as models of middle class domesticityBenefits of free tradeFactory Acts1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park (Crystal Palace)Exports doubled between 1850 and 1870Emigration and EmpireUtilitarianism and BenthamChallenges to the ChurchAdvancements in ScienceLate Victorian Period 1870-1901Apex of British EmpireLondons greatnessIncreasing cost of EmpireThe Irish QuestionUS competitionEconomic depression and emigration in 1870sSecond reform billReactions against Victorian idealsThe Role of WomenFirst petitions for Womans suffrage in 1840s, yet no vote until 1918Married Womans Property Acts 1870-1908Divorce laws different for men and womenMiddle class debate about middle class womenThe Custody Acts of 1839The Divorce and Matrimonial act of 1857Improving womens educationIncreased employment opportunitiesSingle woman and governesses

Literacy, Publication, and readingBasic literacy nearly universal by 1900Repeal of stamp act and improved printing made periodicals much cheaperPeriodicals would serialize longer works Dickens, Thackeray, Eliot, Trollope, and Gaskell (fiction);Carlyle, Mill, Arnold, Ruskin (essays); Tennyson and the Brownings (poetry)Broad readership and common literary cultureThe Novel and PoetryThe novel was the dominant form of Victorian LiteratureMulti-plot novels; large, loose, baggy, monsters (Henry James)RealismSocial relationships and middle class societyWoman writers Gaskell, Eliot, Austen, the BrontesGenres crime, mystery, horror, science fiction, detective storiesPoetry builds on romantics, but without same creative enthusiasmNarrative poetry and the dramatic monologueTimeLine1914 World War I1922 James Joyces Ulysses; T.S. Elliots The Waste Land1929 Stock Market crash and Great Depression1939 -1945 World War II1947 India and Pakistan become independent1953 Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot1957-62 Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago become independent1991 Collapse of Soviet Union2001 Destruction of World Trade CenterSocial SciencesNew concepts radically changing human identitySigmund Freud Interpretation of Dreams psychology (psychoanalysis)Sir James Frazer Golden Bough anthropology (culture, religion, myth)Friedrich Nietzsche philosophy and challenges to religious doctrineScience and TechnologyMax Plancks quantum theoryAlbert Einsteins theory of relativityWireless communication across Atlantic 1901Wright brothers airplane 1903Henry Ford and the Model T 1913Atomic Energy and Bomb 1945Moon Landing 1969Internet 1969Personal Computers 1974-75

Womens Rights1882 Womans Property ActLate 1800s Women allowed in various universitiesSuffragettes late 1800s early 1900s1918 Women 30 and over could vote1928 Women 21 and over could voteProblems of Empire1899 -1902 Anglo-Boer war and protests1907 Canada, Australia, and New Zealand given dominion status1914 -1918 World War I: at the start of the war about 25% of the earth under British control1921-1922 Irish free stateIncreasing calls for self rule in Indian and Africa swaraj1939 -1945 World War II and loss of empire1947 India and Pakistan win independence1957-62 Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago become independent1950s and beyond - reverse colonization and shifting identityContinuing issues with IRA and Northern Ireland

Modernism 1901-1945Radical individualismFocus on being newMinimal Narrators and SubjectivityLess Authoritative Character VoicesBoth highly elitist and connections to Popular LiteratureExpatriates writers

Modernism ContTransformation and breaking down of traditional formsOrder, sequence, and unity were seen as no longer reflective of realityOmits explanations, interpretations, connections, summary, continuity, and perspective fragmentedQuestions of meaning and truthVery Self Reflexive and Striving to be New

Formal and Stylistic CharacteristicsJuxtaposition, irony, comparisons, and satire are elements found in modernist writing. The most obvious stylistic tool of the modernist writer is that it is often written in first person or with an extremely unobtrusive narratorRather than a traditional story having a beginning, middle and end, modernist writing typically reads as a long stream of consciousness similar to a rant. Juxtaposition could be used for example in a way to represent something that would be oftentimes unseen, for example, a cat and a mouse as best friends. Irony and satire are important tools for the modernist writer in aiding them to make fun of and point out faults, often in society

Thematic characteristics and difficulties

For the first-time reader, modernist writing can seem frustrating to understand because of the fragmentation and lack of conciseness of the writing. The plot, characters and themes of the text are not always linear. The goal of modernist literature is not heavily focused on catering to one particular audience in a formal way. Modernist writing is more interested in getting the writer's ideas, opinions, and thoughts out into the public at as high a volume as possible. Modernist literature often forcefully opposes or gives an opinion on a social concept. The breaking down of social norms, rejection of standard social ideas and traditional thoughts and expectations, objection to religion and anger towards the effects of the world wars, and the rejection of the truth are topics widely seen in this literary era. Post-Modernism 1945 -CurrentPostmodernism follows most of the conventions of modern art. Postmodern art (and thought) favors reflexivity and self-consciousness, fragmentation and discontinuity (especially in narrative structures), ambiguity, simultaneity, and an emphasis on the destructured, decentered, dehumanized subject.

But--while postmodernism seems very much like modernism in these ways, it differs from modernism in its attitude toward a lot of these trends. Modernism see fragmentation, ambiguity, and a destructured, dehumanized subject as tragic.

Many modernist works try to uphold the idea that works of art can provide the unity, coherence, and meaning which has been lost in most of modern life.

Postmodernism, in contrast, doesn't lament the idea of fragmentation, provisionality, or incoherence, but rather celebrates that. The world is meaningless? Let's not pretend that art can make meaning then, let's just play with nonsense.

Section 2: Reading PassagesYou will be given one short story and one poem to analyze similar to the sample yesterday.

The questions will use our literary terminology.

Make sure to use the passages to back up your claims.

You can review a writing about literature guide on the course website.

Tips for Reading PassagesRead the questions first; then read the passageRead with a pencil in hand mark up the textPlan on reading the text more than onceLook for quotes that back up the claims you plan to make in your responseMake sure you understand the basics of the text before you respond: plot, setting, characters, narrator, style, and themes for fiction and speaker, situation, style, and theme for poetryTips for Writing ResponsesMake sure you fully address all parts of the questionThe questions are asking you to make claims; these are opinions that use the text for supportMake sure your claims both answer the question fully and are well supported from the textSection 3: Pride and Prejudice Extra CreditThis section will be extra credit.

You will be asked about the plot and characterization of Pride and Prejudice.

You will need to know plot and character terminology as well as the plot and characters of the novel.Odds and EndsDiction means the authors choice of wordsLyric poems are often short and are song like poems expressing feelings, thoughts, and moods

Good LuckPlease let me know if you have any questions.Be ready to present your novel review on Thursday there can be no late presentationsYour 500 word novel review is also due by the end of classAny standing assignments can be turned in late with a 25% penalty through the end of Thursdays class