Riassunto "The Romantic period" (volume 2, "The Norton Anthology of English Literature"), Sintesi del corso di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Riassunto "The Romantic period" (volume 2, "The Norton Anthology of English Literature") e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! THE ROMANTIC PERIOD (1798-1832) THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND: the Romantic period is a revolutionary moment which implies changes in society and, as a consequence, in literature. It begins in 1798 when Wordsworth and Coleridge publish ANONYMOUSLY the “Lyrical Ballads”. Its preface, in fact, reflects a new kind of literature which is against the neoclassical one (see above). As to its end, the Romantic period finishes in 1832, when major writers of the earlier century are no longer productive. However, these dates are conventional: Romanticism starts with the birth of the middle class (new audience) and continues after 1832. The years between 1798 and 1832 are particularly turbulent for England. In fact, the country is experiencing 1. the rise of industrialism: it determines the passage from an agricultural society to a MODERN INDUSTRIAL NATION, in which the balance of economic power is shifted from the landholding aristocracy to large-scale employers. Industrialism is possible thanks to England’s scientific discoveries in the production of goods. Industries don’t belong to the aristocrats who, of course, don’t work. They are instead in the hands of the middle class that is made up of capitalists. Industries mainly transform raw materials (tobacco, vegetables, cotton...) coming from the colonies. All these goods have to find new markets so trade has to become free. This idea is at the heart of liberalism whose theorist is Adam Smith (“The Wealth of Nations”). Liberalism is a philosophy connected to the rights of the middle class. According to it, monopolies should be abolished in order to guarantee freedom in import and export; 2. the American Revolution/United States War of Independence (1765-1783): it is a colonial revolt by which 13 of Great Britain’s North American colonies win political independence and go on to form the United States of America. The following domestic instability prompts a new government which is clearly democratic. In fact, it is not ruled by the king, but by the people. The ideas of the American Revolution will arrive in Europe and will affect its ideas; 3. the French Revolution (1789-1799): its most significant event is the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen” (August 1789). It is a charter of human liberties, consisting of 17 articles, which serves as the preamble to the Constitution of 1791. The basic principle of the Declaration was that all “men are born and remain free and equal in rights” (Article 1). So, the individual becomes the centre of Western society. The early period of the French Revolution evokes enthusiastic support from English liberals and radicals who ask for a democratic republic to be achieved by popular revolution. Moreover, they create the basis for abolitionism, the movement to end slavery. In fact, with the “Slave Trade Act 1807”, slave trade in the British Empire is abolished. Slavery itself, instead, will be abandoned with the “Slavery Abolition Act 1833”. Thanks to it, more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa as well as a small number in Canada are freed. Later, however, the number of English sympathizers drops off. This is due to − the guillotining of thousands in the Reign of Terror under Robespierre; − the emergence of Napoleon, first as a dictator and then as the founder of a new dynasty. During the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), he adopts the “Continental System”. This foreign policy is an attempt to cripple Britain by destroying its trade, its economy and then its democracy, through a blockade. In fact, in 1797, Napoleon had tried to invade Britain, but without being successful. The end of the Napoleonic Wars brings on the first modern INDUSTRIAL DEPRESSION. Workers are prevented from unionizing by law (divieto di associazionismo) so their sole recourse is to petitions, protest meetings and riots, which lead the ruling class to more repressive measures. One of these is represented by the “Corn Laws” (1815-1846). They establish high tariffs on imported grains in order to protect English farm products to COMPETE with low-priced products arriving from abroad. For example, the wool (lana) is produced in Scotland, but it also arrives from New Zealand where it costs less. Farmers fight to keep these tariffs so that high prices for their wheat is ensured. The rest of the population, instead, suffers from the exorbitant price of bread. This situation leads most people to emigrate in places where English is spoken (America, Australia, Africa, India, New Zealand...). Only thirty years after the Napoleonic wars, there are important reforms for England such as  the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 (1829): it is the culmination of the process of Catholic Emancipation (process in the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century that involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws) throughout the UK. In Ireland, it repeals the Test Act 1672 whose principle is that that none but people taking communion in the Church of England are eligible for public employment.  the first Reform Bill (1832): in the 1830s, England is still governed by an archaic system whereby (per cui) industrial cities are unrepresented in Parliament while “rotten boroughs” (communities which had become depopulated) elect the nominees (candidati) of the local squire (proprietario terriero) to Parliament. The situation changes with the first Reform bill which is inspired by equality. In fact, it eliminates the rotten boroughs, redistributes parliamentary representation to include industrial cities, and extends the vote to the middle class; These three events lead to important changes which foster the new sensibility of Romanticism. In this context, women acquired a strong champion. Mary Wollstonecraft, who in 1870 wrote “A Vindication of the Rights of Men” (defense of the French Revolution), followed this two years later with “A Vindication of the Rights of Women”, a founding classic of the feminist movement. The cause of women’s rights, however, became prominent only in the Victorian age. “THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE”: no writer in Wordsworth’s lifetime thought of himself as a “Romantic”: the word was applied half a century later by English historians. Apart from Wordsworth, Romantic writers died very young (Shelley drowned in a sudden storm on the Gulf of Spezia while returning from Leghorn to Lerici in his sailing boat). They felt that there was something distinctive about their time and they called it “the spirit of the age”. They are usually grouped into the following schools: ✓ the Lake School: it includes William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey and it is named after the Lake District (in the north-west of England). There, they lived and cultivated landscape nature; INDIVIDUALISM AND NONCONFORMITY: the Romantic writers, unlike the Neoclassical ones, didn’t think that human experience is limited and appreciated men’s potentialities. So, they started thinking that the mind created the universe and had access to the infinitive thorough an irrational faculty called IMAGINATION. This process was not related to the mind, but to the feelings. The former defeat the reason and are uncontrollable. For this reason, they can result in (sfociare in) madness. Feelings represent a new value as opposed to reason which, in the neoclassical theory, stood for “golden middle way” (desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency). The nature of emotions is discussed by many writers such as Jane Austen (“Sense and sensibility”), Coleridge, Byron and Shelley. Moreover, in opposition to Neoclassicism, Romanticism stressed the “glory of the impertect”. This explains why literary works were “open” (infinite, incomplete) and not necessarily perfect. For Romantic writers, it was important to EXPERIMENT in poetic language, versification (--> musicality) and design. They were transgressive and against any barrier. Their attitude towards society was also different from the Neoclassical one. In fact, they isolated themselves from society in order to give scope to their individual vision. This explains why their works focus on a solitary hero who chooses the exile (foreign cities) instead of living in a MATERIALIST, INDUSTRIALIZED and INDIVIDUALIST society. This character was sometimes a great SINNER. Hence, his nonconformity. THE FAMILIAR ESSAY: in the Romantic period, there was an enlarged public that included the middle classes. They mainly read 1. reviews: they discussed contemporary POLITICAL, ECONOMICAL and SOCIAL issues; 2. magazines: they printed more miscellaneous materials, including poems and stories; 3. papers: they were devoted to literary criticism; 4. essays: the most popular kind was the familiar one. This essay was a commentary on a non- technical subject written in a relaxed and intimate manner. It was personal and subjective, often autobiographical and self-analytic. DRAMA: by a licensing act which was repealed in 1843, only the Drury Lane and Coven Garden theatres could produce “legitimate” drama. The other theatres, instead, were restricted by law to entertainments in which there could be only music. So, they put on mainly musical plays. Romantic poets tried their hands at plays, but they were ill adapted to the theater, which represents a variety of men other than the author himself. Surprisingly, the most successful dramatist was Shelley. THE NOVEL: this genre focuses on a hero who acts in a context which is more important than mythology (Neoclassicism). In this context, the readers should recognize the society of the time and its problems are discussed by the narrator. In the late XVIII century, the prominent types of fiction are 1. the “Gothic novel”: it prepares Romanticism and it is inaugurated by Horace Walpole’s “Castle of Otranto”(1764). The term “gothic” refers to a group of novels, set somewhere in the PAST, which exploits the possibility of mystery and terror (kind of feeling); 2. the scientific fiction: it deals with imaginative concepts such as advanced science and technology, spaceflight, time travel, and extraterrestrial life. For example, Frankenstein is a monster fabricated by a chemist; 3. the novel of purpose (scopo): it combines didactic intention (defend or attack some doctrine, custom...) with elements of Gothic terror. For example, Mary Shelley uses the story of Frankenstein to represent the moral distortion imposed on a person who is rejected by society because of his diversity. Instead, the major novelists are 1. Walter Scott: he is the founder of the historical novel, later imitated by Manzoni. Scott’s characters are individuals rooted in the present time and in the NATIONAL context. 2. Jane Austen: with her works (published anonymously), she opened the path to the definition of the role of women. This matter was faced later by the liberalism and the Victorian age. According to Jane Austen, women can choose between getting married or becoming writers (entering the cultural industry). Instead, for Defoe, women have to work. This idea is at the heart of the bildungsroman “Moll Flanders” which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood. Moll Flanders is the daughter of a prisoner who abandons her. Left alone, Moll becomes a prostitute and goes to prison like her mother. Only then she becomes a manager and earns lots of money. Moll, in fact, is a middle class woman who wants to be rich. This materialism is criticized by Defoe with bitter irony.