Unit 6 The Age of Romanticism.docx

1、Unit 6 The Age of Romanticism Unit 6 The Age of Romanticism(17981832) Key Words: Industrial Revolution; French Revolution; Romanticism; William Wordsworth; Lyric Ballad; Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Robert Southey; George Golden Byron; Percy Bysshe Shelley; John Keats; Walter Scott Target: The students

2、are supposed to get the basic literary history of Pre-Romanticism and Romanticism in English literature, the important figures of this period and their works. Study Points: 1.Romanticism; 2.William Wordsworth; 3.Samuel Taylor Coleridge; 4.Robert Southey 5.George Golden Byron; 6.Percy Bysshe Shelley;

3、 7.John Keats Time Span: 3 weeks Part 1 Romanticism 1. Industrial Revolution One of the impetuses that pushed the Romantic Movement forward was the Industrial Revolution, which began in mid-18th century. As a result, the ruling power was shifted from the old aristocracy to the bourgeoisie, who found

4、 themselves facing an immensely enlarging and increasingly restive working class. In rural areas, the peasants now made landless and homeless by the enclosures, had to either pour into the city to earn their livings in factories, or remain as hired worker in the countryside. This process vas lamente

5、d by Goldsmith in his The Deserted Village as early as 1770. Keats Isabella too faithfully describes the hard life of the workers. The movement of the Luddites, or frame breakers, who destroyed their masters machines to show their hatred. For this movement, Byron wrote his “Song for the Leddites.” T

6、he notorious “Peterloo Massacre”, which incited Shelley to write his great poems for the working class: “England in 1819”, “Song to the Mne of England,” and “The Masque of Anarchy.” 2.The French Revolution (July 14, 1789) The most important impetus of the Romantic Movement was the French Revolution.

7、 Although many of the political changes brought about in France by the Revolution had already taken place in the 17th century, it had a most far-reaching effect upon mens thought and was reflected in literature. The French Revolution evoked enthusiastic support from English liberals and intellectual

8、s and stimulated two influential books: one is Thomas Paines Rights of Man (1791-92), which justifies the revolution; the other is William Godwins Inquiry Concerning Political Justice, which was more important for its influence on Wordsworth, Shelley, and other poets. During the Romantic period, alm

9、ost all the leading writers were in sympathy with and were inspired by the French Revolution, though some of them were disappointed by its white terror later. William Hazlitt describe the French Revolution as “the dawn of a new era,” maintaining that the new poetry of the Romantic poets had its orig

10、in in the French Revolution. Its ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity had a very strong influence upon the writers during the period.Note down 3.Romanticism Romanticism is a movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, which marked the reaction in literature, philosophy, art, religion,

11、and politics from the neoclassicism and formal orthodoxy of the preceding period. As a historical period in English literature, the age of Romanticism extends from 1798, when Wordsworth and Coleridge published predominant literary mode of the first third of the 19th century, was expressed almost ent

12、irely in poetry. Victor Hugo calls Romanticism “liberalism in literature.” According to Heine, it is the revival of medievalism in art. The expression of life as seen by the imagination rather than by prosaic “common sense”, which was the central doctrine of English philosophy in the 18th centurythe

13、 predominance of imagination over reason and formal rules of classicism. Therefore, the beauty of a temple lies in its actual form for classicists and in associated ideas conjured up by imagination for Romantics. As a way of thinking and as an approach to literature, Romanticism is associated with v

14、itality powerful emotion limitless and dreamlike ideas; Classicism, by contrast, is associated with order, common sense, and controlled reason. Although it was very difficult to give an adequate definition of Romanticism, many of the major writers did feel that there was something distinctive about

15、their time, which some of called “the spirit of the age.” Shelley explained this literary spirit as the accompaniment of political and social revolution and other writers agreed. Hazlitt also maintained that the new poetry of the school of Wordsworth “had its origin in the French Revolution.” Some c

16、ritics even define Romantic Movement itself was a poetic revolution. For example, in their Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth and Coleridge revolutionized the theory and practice of poetry. The imagination of the Romantic writers was, indeed, preoccupied with the fact and ideals of revolution. As a literary

17、 renaissance, the Romantic period exceeds all ages of English literature in the range and diversity of its achievements. In fact, Romanticism was an international movement, which had great representatives all over Europe, such as Goethe (1749-1832) in Germany, Victory Hugo (1802-1885) in France, Pus

18、hkin (1799-1837) in Russia, and Longfellow (1807-1882), Lowell (1819-1891), and Whittier (1807-1892) in America. Three schools of romantics: 1.“the Lake School” of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey; 2.“the Cockney（伦敦老） School” of Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt, and associated writers, including Keats; 3.“the S

19、atanic School” of Byron, Shelley and their followers Others group them differently: “the passive Romantic School” of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey;(1790s-1810s) “the Active Romantic School” of Byron, Shelley and Keats. (1810s-1830s:) However, most critics preferred to call them “the First Gener

20、ation” “the Second (or Younger) Generation” of Romantic poets 4. The Special Qualities of Romanticism Romanticism favored innovation over traditionalism in the materials, forms, and style of literature. It has the following prominent characteristics which distinguish it from the neoclassical literat

21、ure introduced in the previous section. 1) The Spontaneous Overflow of Powerful Feelings In his preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth described good poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” Romantic poems take as their subject matter the experience, thoughts and feelings of the ind

22、ividual writer, or natural and human objects as they modified by the writers feelings. While Wordsworth and his followers laid emphasis on the emotion and untrammelled (自由自在的，无阻碍的) imagination. According to Wordsworth, although the writing of a poem may be preceded by reflection and followed by seco

23、nd thoughts and revisions, the immediate act of composition, if a poem is to be genuine, must be spontaneous that is, arising from impulse. Keats wrote, “If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all.” Blake insisted that he wrote from “Inspiration and Visio

24、n”. Shelley also maintained it is “an error to assert that the finest passages of poetry are produced by labour and study,” an suggested that they are the products of an unconscious creativity. 2). The Creation of a world of Imagination The Romantic poets found undiscovered countries in their own im

25、aginations. Shelley and Blake described a poem as the poets imaginative vision. Coleridge also introduced into English criticism an organic theory of the imaginative process, describing a great work of literature as a self-originating and self-organizing process which begins with seed like idea in t

26、he poets imagination. By vivid imagination, the Romantic writers were capable of fantastic dream worlds, thus much of romantic literature has magical or miraculous effects. 3) The Return to Nature for Material Romantic writers took the world of nature as a persistent subject of their poetry, and des

27、cribed it with an accuracy of observation unprecedented in earlier writers. To the popular mind, Romantic poetry has become almost synonymous with “nature poetry” The nature scene in Romantic poetry is not presented for its own sake, but serves as a stimulus to thought, therefore Romantic nature poe

28、ms are, in fact, meditative poems. The following lines are written by William Blake: To see a World in a Grain of Sand And Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in a hour. 4) Sympathy with the Humble and Glorification of the Commonplace Romanticism was marked by

29、 intense human sympathy, and by a consequent understanding of the human heart. The Romantic writers sympathized with the poor and cried against oppression. This grew stronger in the works of the Romantics of the younger generation. Romanticism also glorified the commonplace. the aim of Lyrical Balla

30、ds was “to choose incidents and situations from common life”, and to use “a selection of language really spoken by men.” This serious treatment of lovely subjects in common language violated basic neoclassical rule Romantic writers turned to describe humble people, everyday life, trivial things, and

31、 familiar matters. Sometimes, not only the humble but also the ignominious could be found in Romantic poetry. - Wordsworths poems were crowded with convicts, female vagrants, gypsies, idiot boys and mad mothers, as well as peasants, peddlers, and village barbers. 5) Emphasis Upon the Expression of I

32、ndividual Genius - The Romantic period is also an age of radical individualism. Emphasis was on the individual. Man was no regarded as having infinite potentialities and creative power. - The Romantic Movement was the expression of individual genius, which was marked by strong reaction and protest against the bondage of rules. - In consequence, the literature of Roma