Scarica Romantic Age: Literature and Philosophy in the 19th Century e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Romantic Age ➞ Declaration of Indipendence from Great Britain in North American (French Revolution - 1850) colonies; ➞ French Revolution abolished the absolutist monarchy in France; ➞ Industrial Revolution → social tension caused by factory system and the poor conditions of working class; ➞ re-evaluation of feelings and irrationality (≠ enlightenment); ➞ freedom, creativity, nature, individualism became important issues; ➞ nature became a place to find refuge against reality (pantheistic view/exotic places); ➞ imagination could discover and communicate truth and make contact with the spiritual world; ➞ enquiry of the sublime like something that scares and attract at the same time; ➞ the child is closer to God, that’s the reason why he’s not corrupt by the society; ➞ sense of solitude of the poet; ➞ feelings for the poor; William Blake (1757 - 1827) → at 14 started working by an engraver; → he called his works “illuminated printing”, because he was used to engrave his poems on copper; → he had mystical views (visions of angels and demons); → wasn’t indifferent in front of the social issues of his time (slave trade); Songs of Innocence (1789) → figure of the child → power of imagination and spontaneity; → innocence as a state of freedom and happiness→ childhood; → immagination as the highest human’s faculty (sole guide to truth); → flowers, angels, animals (lamb, birds), children; The Lamb → 2 stanzas (1st questions - 2nd answers); → seems a lullaby (ninna nanna); → it’s a poem about hope (when we were children we had hopes for the future) and security; → rhyming couplet (rima baciata); Songs of Experience (1794) → Blake shows that innocence is corrupt/destroyed by experience; → represents the world od adults; → Blake critics the tyranny and social injustice that he saw around him (social inequality); The Tiger → 6 stanzas; → rhythm is beating; → there are many questions but with no answers; London → explain Blake’s idea of urban world in contrast with the rural environment; → 4 stanzas of quartines; → give us the the idea of how sad London is; → symbolism (Infant, Man, Soldier) → represent 1st generation ➞Wordsworth and Coleridge ➞ they see the nature as a source of inspiration (w. provided consolation and C. a moral purpose); ➞ language should be the same spoken by common people; ➞ they are called Lake Poets because both lived in the Lake District; 2nd generation ➞ Shelly and Keats distinguished themselves for their rebellious spirit; ➞ aim to the defense of freedom; ➞ pursuit of beauty; ➞ the language became richer; ➞ aspiration to the infinite and absolute; Ode to the West Wind→ (arte, Turner) → Shelly reveals his spirit of observation and his naturalistic competence; → this ode was written near the River Arno (Florence) during a stormy day; John Keats (1795-1821) - was born in London - he studied in private school --> introduced literature; - at 15 left school and spend the next 4 years following medical studies working with a surgeon; - 1816 chose poetry as a profession; - friendship with Wordsworth and Shelly; - fall in love with Fanny Browne; - he couldn't marry Fanny because of his financial difficulties; - in 1820 had the first symptoms of tuberculosis; - traveled to Italy; died in Rome in 1821; Themes → he wasn’t interested in political and social issues; he was attracted by the eternal that poetry could express; poet’s gift → abandon rationality to create poetry; negative capability→ heist point of the poet’s intensity; the poet become at one with the beauty he wants to express; → interested in classic culture and nature; La Belle Dame sans Merci (1819) → represent the medieval world; → a knight meets a lady who abandons him; → gothic element (lady) with enchanting power; → mystery of the Middle Age; Ode on a Grecian Urn (1819) → relationship between art, life and death; → the figures are eternal because are frozen for immortalizing moments of happiness; those who are represented are happy but have lost their life; → they become pure beauty → “beauty is eternal and truth is eternal, so beauty is truth and truth is beauty” → the pursuit/devotion to beauty give live its deepest meaning; Mary Shelly (1797 - 1851) → was born in London, she’s the daughter of William Godwin; → she grew up in an intellectual setting; → at 16 she fell in love with Percy Shelly but she could marry him when his wife died; → when she was in Switzerland (with Percy and Byron) she wrote Frankenstein; → 1818 traveled to Italy and died her 3 children; → after the Percy’s death she moved to England; → is an important figure as regards the vindication of women’s rights; Frankenstein (1818) → the story is about a young scientist named Victor Frankenstein who becomes obsessed with the idea of creating life; he successfully brings a creature to life using his scientific knowledge, but he is horrified by its appearance and abandons it; the creature, lonely and rejected by society, becomes bitter and seeks revenge against Victor; →the novel explores themes of morality, the consequences of playing god, and the impact of isolation on individuals; it is a classic tale of the dangers of unchecked ambition and the responsibilities that come with creating life; → lays the foundations of all future science-fiction literature; → 3 narrator → the captain (tells the story of a strange man he has rescued during a voyage to the North Pole (Victor Frankenstein)), Victor (tells his story to the captain), the monster (tells Victor his story); Themes pursuit of knowledge→ the risk that it will be taken beyond human limits (criticism of the Industrial Revolution → people sacrifice their spirituality for progress); →dangers that science can create the outcast and society’s rejection of anything which is different → social prejudice and the tendency to judge only by appearances who really turns the creature in to a monster? Victor or society? → the creature wishes to be accepted by society, but his physical appearance makes him different from other people; the theme of the double→ Frankenstein creates a monster who is alone and unhappy like him; Style → symbolic and allusive language → imagenes associated with natural elements (dark atmosphere) → the language follows the feelings of the narrative voices (violence, hatred, rage);
