1784ish-1832ish
Responses to/against 18th c. LitExtension of literacy Literature as a way
of changing the world
Looking to classical literature for models
Continued influence of journalism, reviews, subscription publishing
Reaction against Neoclassical certainty
Questioning authority, rather than claiming to have it
Excess and emotion rather than moderation, reason, restraint (though Romantic poetry is technically very accomplished)
The Age of Revolutions Revolution replaces
complacency The American Revolution:
challenge to British supremacy and colonialism
The French Revolution: overthrow of perceived tyranny
The Industrial Revolution: economic and class-structures shaken up
Political Revolution: Rise of the commons and the Reform Bill of 1832
Religious Revolution: increase in nonconformity and individualism in religious expression
Zeitgeist“The Spirit of the Age” Elevation of Imagination
over Reason, Science, Empiricism, Certainty
Elevation of ‘nature in the raw’ over Nature Methodized
Celebration of sensibilities, of perception through feeling rather than through the intellect
Attitudinal Shifts
Different Viewpoints
Poetic Theory and Practice
• The poet not as moralist but as vates (prophet) • Spontaneity and freedom over rules • Irregularity and impulsive forms (rise of the ode), metrical
experimentation • Glorification of the ordinary, the common, and the outcast rather
than General Principles • Embellishment with the supernatural and the strange (“The Gothic”) •
Major GenresPoetry
The odeThe lyric
Non-fiction proseThe reflective essayThe familiar essayThe letter
Drama (often “closet drama”)The novel
Gothic novel, novel of purpose, novel of manners, the romance
The SublimeLonginus defined the sublime as differing from
beauty and evoking more intense emotions by vastness, a quality that inspires awe and even terror.
Whereas beauty may be found in the small, the smooth, the light and the everyday, the sublime is vast, irregular, obscure and superhuman. Definition from Grove Dictionary of Art
Becomes fashionable to travel to wild and rugged places, such as the Alps, Snowdonia and the Lake District
Sublime/Beautiful/Picturesquehttp://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/engl203/
overviews/sublime.htm
Mary Wollestonecrafthttp://
www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/wollstonecraft_01.shtml
George Gordon, Lord Byronhttp://
faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/engl203/authors&primaryreadings/byron.htm