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LITERATURE: 1785-1830
A BRIEF OVERVIEW
SOCIAL & POLITICAL CONTEXT
PERIOD OF GREAT CHANGE IN
ENGLAND:
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY W/ POWERFUL
LANDHOLDING ARISTOCRACY WAS GIV-
ING WAY TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL NA-
TION OF LARGE-SCALE EMPLOYERS & A
GROWING, RESTLESS MIDDLE CLASS.
PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.)
AMERICAN & FRENCH REVOLUTIONS
WERE HUGELY IMPORTANT ELEMENTS
OF THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE.
THREATS TO EXISTING SOCIAL STRUC-
TURE WERE BEING POSED BY NEW,
REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS.
PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.)
IGNORED.
ROMANTICISM
(1800, 1802).
CONCEPT OF POETRY, THE POET
EARTH.
POETIC SPONTANEITY, FREEDOM
IMAGINATION.
INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)
COMPLISHMENTS.
INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)
POETIC EXPERIMENTATION.
INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)
MANY WRITERS DELIBERATELY ISO-
LATED THEMSELVES FROM SOCIETY
TO FOCUS ON THEIR INDIVIDUAL
VISION.
THEME OF EXILE WAS COMMON, W/ THE
ROMANTIC NON-CONFORMIST OFTEN
SEEN AS A GREAT SINNER OR OUTLAW.
A Definition of “Romanticism”
“A literary movement, and profound shift in sensibility,
which took place in Britain and throughout Europe roughly
between 1770 and 1848. Intellectually it marked a violent
reaction to the Enlightenment. Politically it was inspired by
the revolutions in America and France…Emotionally it
expressed an extreme assertion of the self and the value of
individual experience…together with the sense of the infinite
and the transcendental. Socially it championed progressive
causes…The stylistic keynote of Romanticism is intensity,
and its watchword is ‘Imagination’” (Drabble 842-843 [The
Oxford Companion to English Literature])
Put It In Context
Before After
Restoration (or The Victorian Age
Neoclassicism) 1833 – 1901
1660-1798 Depicting realism and
Order, reason, clarity, naturalism (detail-
logic, scientific, loaded), optimism
universal experiences education, morality
Gulliver’s Travels A Tale of Two Cities
Restoration versus Romanticism
Scientific observation of Examine inner feelings,
outer world; logic emotions, imagination
Pragmatic (practical) Idealistic (optimistic)
Science, technology Mysterious, supernatural
General, universal Concerned with the
experiences particular (very specific)
Optimistic about present Romanticizing the past
Moderation, self-restraint Excess, spontaneity
Aristocratic; society as Concerned with common
whole people and individuals
Nature controlled by Felt nature should be
humans untamed
Important Dates
1775-1783: American
Revolution (fighting
ended in 1781)
1789-1815: French
Revolution
1798: Publication of
Lyrical Ballads
1798-1832: Romantic
Period
“The Big Six” Romantic Poets
William Blake
William Wordsworth
Samuel Taylor
Coleridge
Percy Bysshe Shelley
John Keats