English Romanticism and William Wordsworth, Dispense di Inglese

Scarica English Romanticism and William Wordsworth e più Dispense in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! ROMANTICISM —> was an artistic, literary and intellectual movemen originated in Europe towards the end on the 18th century. This movement may be seen, in part, as a reaction from the industrial revolution, thought it was also a revolt against the norms of the Age of Enlightenment. Also, the French Revolution had an important influence on the political thinking of the time. The event that officially marked the birth of English Romanticism was the publication of the “Preface to the Lyrical ballads” (1801), by William Wordsworth. This preface contains the definition of the main traits of Romanticism: • The predominant role played by Nature. • The distrust in progress and factories. • The use of imagination. • A new interest in the self. • A more spontaneous form of poetry. English Romantic poets can be divided in 2 main groups: the first generation of romantics was characterised by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. They were united by the publication of the “Lyrical Ballads”, in 1798, when they both lived in the Lake District. Wordsworth and Coleridge represent the two opposite and complementary sides of Romanticism —> the first one was the poet of nature, while the second was the poet of supernatural. The second generation of romantics is very different form the first one. The poets belonging to this period are Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and John Keats. These poets were unconventional and rebel (bohemian), and they all died at a very young age. To fully understand the Romantic movement, we must compare it with the features of Neoclassicism. The most significant differences, between these movement, are: 1. The themes. Classicist focused on universal themes, while Romantics tackle a variety of themes, such as the individual, childhood and nature. 2. Language. Romantics use mainly everyday language. 3. Poetic forms. Classicists tend to use heroic couplet, while Romantics preferred the blank verse. 4. The concept of beauty. For Classicists beauty is harmony, for Romantics beauty is sublime. At the beginning of the 19th century, the novel was a solid and stable literary genre founded in respectable tradition. It is not surprising then, there also in this epoch many English authors wrote novels and contributed to the evolution of this genre. The main trends of romantic novel where: 1. the Gothic novel. The term “gothic” refers to the architectural style of the Middle Age, which was greatly admired in the 18th century. Artists tried to give importance to the irrational part of the human mind and used supernatural and fantastic elements. The first novel to be classified as gothic was “The castle of Otranto”, by Horace Walpole. 2. the novel of manners. Represented by Jane Austen’s works. Her stories focused on a limited set of characters who interacted with one another in provincial England. 3. the novel of purpose, developed mainly by Mary Shelley, was used to support the spread of certain philosophical or political ideas. 4. the historical novel, whose main writer was sir. Walter Scott. Despite the variety of themes and issues they tackled, the novels of the Romantic age had some common traits, which differentiated them from the novels of the past. In particular they showed deeper psychological analysis of the characters, used dialogue as the main instruments to express the personality of the characters and used prose to tackle import social issues and to explore the relationship between social classes. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH—> one of the most important poets of the first generation of English romanticism. He was born on the 7th of April in 1770 in Cumbria, an area which contains the Lake District National Park. He didn’t have an happy childhood, his mother died when he was 7 and at the age of 13 he lost his father too. Wordsworth studied at Cambridge University, where he graduated in 1791. At the age o f 20 (1790) he travelled to France where he supported the ideals of the French Revolution. In 1795, he received an inheritance which enabled him to live with his young sister and also best firned: Dorothy. That same year, Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the two became friends and they published together the “Lyrical Ballads” in 1798 → a collection of poems mostly by Wordsworth, with just 4 by Coleridge. A second edition followed in 1800, including a Preface by Wordsworth, considered the Manifesto of English Romantic Poetry. In 1843, William Wordsworth became England’s poet Laureate, just like John Milton before him. He died, at the age of 80, in 1850. Wordsworth is considered one of the first English Romantics, as he emphasises the importance of feelings rather than the formality of Neoclassicism. In his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads he summerises the traits of English Romanticism and he focuses on some main ideas. First of all, Wordsworth states that poetry shoulld be written in the natural language of common speech and the poet should describe scenes of everyday life. For this reason the poet is seen as a man speaking to men, because he is a figure with a great knowledge of human nature, that can truly understand people’s feelings. The poet is also seen as a “prophet” —> A mediator between common people and higher truths. Also, William Wordswprth presents a new view of the poetic process of creation; he believes that “poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” and “it takes its origin form emotions recollected in tranquillity”. This means that the poet firstly needs tp feel the emotion, inspired by Nature, then, when he is alone (in tranquillity), he creates poetry through memory and imagination, and he manages to re-creates a purified version of the feeling he had originally felt. At this point it’s easy to understand the importance of imagination in Wordsworth’s poetic, he states that “the child is the father of men”, because during childhood people are more connected with nature and it’s easier for them to use their imagination. (In this aspect, Wordsworth has the same belief of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.