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British Literature and Culture I - Coggle Diagram
British Literature and Culture I
Session I
Session 2: The 16th century
Session 3: The 16th century II
Session 4: The 17th century
Session 5: The 17th century and the restoration period
Session 6: The 18th century
Session 7: The Romantic Period
House of Hannover
: George I-IV from 1714-1830
Session 8: The Victorian Age I (1837-1901)
Session 9: The Victorian Age II (1837-1901)
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The Victorian Age:
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The Victorian Novel
:
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Victorian Poetry
:
Melodrama
: popular form of drama in the victorian age, dominant form of entertainment, good vs bad, includes music and visual forms, characteristic feature is the tableus, established dramatic form in victorian age
Dramatic Monologue, Tennyson Browning
speaker is not author, individualized charakter as speaker, specific situation, monologue as speech in a dialogue, process of consciousness, point of view
Gender Roles, "The Angel in the House (1854), from Coventry Patmore (1823-96):
gentle, passive, self sacrificing, devoted, dutiful, wifes role as support of husband, victorian femininity, idealized woman -->paints ideology of culture
The Romantic Period (1785-1832)
Cultural Context:
Phase of modernisation, through industrialisation--> urbanisation, mass production, capitalism and commercialisation, change of social structurem French revolution, britain as workshop of the world, nostalgia and political representation
Literary Development
: Turn away from rationalism of Enlightenment and the classical literature of the 18th century, individual as only meaningful entity
Beginning:
French revolution as starting point, Publication date of the lyrical ballads as starting point, Death of Samuel Johnson 1785
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End
: Death of Arthur Scott and Goethe
Romantic Poets: The Big Six:
William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, Lord Byron
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
: born in lake district, studied in cambridge university, travelled to france, supporter of french rev., lifed most of his life in lake district, poet laureate of GB (1843)
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge
: (1772-1850): Receives and transmitts german idealism (Kant), Ideal of the organic work of art, Biographia Literaria, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan
Neo-Classicism vs. Romanticism:
Neo-Classicism:
Nautre shows regularity, Author follows rule of ancients, Language is a poetic diction, Themes are exemplary universal truths
Romanticism:
Nature is organic and gives means of meditation, Author expresses subjective visions and follows imagination, Language common, natural and not regulated, Themes are ordinary human mind, perception, sociall criticism
18th Cenutry
Keywords
: Enlightenment, Neo-Classicism, Sensibility
Context:
Urbanization and Industrialization, England as Impertial power, rise of middle class, new copyright legislation and sphere
Genres:
Satire and Novel
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
: Representative of Neo-Claissicism, literary criticism, what writing should be
An Essay on Criticism (1711):
Function of antiquity for current criticism and writing, the ancient provide the rule but there are some places where the individual has to extend the rule -->Much worse to be a bad criticiser than a bad writer
Key Words of Criticism:
wit, nature, ancient, rules, genius
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731):
Defoe as a wit politician, worked as journalist, writer of pamphlets, satire and novels
Robinson Crusoe (1719):
Formal realism, Emporocosm, progressive ideology
Story:
About one individual of German descent, Anglo-Saxon heritage of Britain, to be free from fathers advice, he wants to see the sea, he keeps a journal, writes down what happens to him and keeps tracking the time
General:
Fictional Editor gives information on what one should read, part of middle class, individual histories, novel with title of characters, a lot of circumstancial detail, between experiencing and narrating character
Rise of the Novel
: Growing middle class readership, they want to read stories about themselves, more middle class protagonists, concerned with middle class values, realist depiction of reality and by a lot of circumstancial detail, Robinson Crusoe is stated for rise of novel
Subgenres:
fictional autobiography, triggered genre of robinsonade = desert island story -->influenced by: travel writing, eye witness accounts, spiritual autobiography
Historical Context:
1642 Outbreak of civil war and theatres cloesd. 1649Execution of Charles I; 1649-1660 Interregnum, 1660 Restoration of Charles II
English Tradition vs. Stuart Kings:
English Tradition: Parliament Monarchy, Parliamentarism (traditional)
Stuart Kings: Absolute Monarchy, Royalists, Charles I didnt want Parliament
Political Parties
Whigs:
constitutional monarchism, against absolute rule, for Exclusion Bill
Torries
: strong monarchism, loyal to king, against exclusion bill
Political Writing;
Before 1642 was a stricht censorship on political writing, censorship collapsed, increase of pamphlets, With Charles II in 1660 censorship returned but political writing established itself
John Milton (1608-1674)
: Paricipates on the perception we have on writers today (Shakespeare), focus in style and simplicity
Paradise Lost 1667
:Tell national history and origin of nation, fight btwn God and Satan, Prehistory of Angels revolt and creation of mankind, great battles and speeches, symmetrical structure
Book 1
: About Holy Spirit, Humankind and Inspiration for Religion, Structure and Meter: Feminin census, men are going to restore us, reflects in the metrical structure, refers to fallen state of human being,
Satans Speech in Book 1&4:
Satans sins are pride and welcoming of fallen ones, celestial beings turn hell in heaven and vice versa, he would be his own god, mind cants change anything even not himself, prid wpuld return, reference to fall of human being
William Wycherley(1640-1716):
Restoration Commedy: Commedy of manners, expose behaviour of upper class, witty characters and dialogue, bawdy & immoral, no poetic justice
Aphra Behn (1640-1689):
royalist, first woman who earned a living from writing
Oronoko: or, the royal slave (1688):
Mix of different kinds: Memoir, Biography, Novel, Oriental romance, Heroic tragedy, New world travle story
Story: Was a royal slave similar to european royals, renamed to ceasar, starts a revolution, is horibly punished, loses wive and children,
Characterisation: Lives up to european stanards and not to african stereotypes, idealized and exotizised he is thought by french tutor, christian, morally high standing, royal character with gory end -->like charles I.
John Donne:
Metaphysical Poetry:
Characteristics and Style: conceits, metaphors, comraisions, unusual imagery, wit, colloquial expressions, Petrarchism still background
Conceit:
: ital. concetto-->concept-->Form of metaphor or comparison: Petrarchan Conceit <->metaphysical conceit
John Donne General Information
: 1572-1631, first wordly poems, later relgious poems
Holy Sonnet 14:
Alternation of the Adressee, direct adress, imperative used for god
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning:
The Flea
William Shakespeare
General Information
: 1564-1616, good education (grammar school and latin), earned title of gentleman due to his play
Shakespeares Sonnets:
Shakespeares sonnets were written in 1590 (elizabethian times) but were published in 1609 (jakobean times). He wrote 154 Sonnet, the first 127 adressed a young man. Sonnet 128-152 Adressed a dark lady and the last two Sonnet were mythological. -->originally the poems were written for a white shining woman, SP writes them for a young man or a black woman, he writes a parody
Sonnet 18
: male is adressed, new way of lasting not by procreating
Sonnet 130
: S takes established depictions and turns them around, instead of golden hair he writes about black wires. He also writes that the lady does not live up to the beauty cataloge -->no woman lives up to the petrarchan balzon, also some hint to metapoetic
Autorship and ownership: The Stationer`s Register
General Infromation
: First folio by Shakes published in 1623. The writing process contains a working draft (the foul papers)-->another working draft (fair copy) -->dramatic playbook (prompt book)
Folio Editions
:
Quarto
: cheaper, used fo poems and plays, 20 plays of shakespeare were published between 1594 and 1609
Folio:
more expensive, used for histiographic & other texts considered to be particularly important
The early 17th century:
General Information
: 1603 death of Elizabeth I.; James I (1603-1625). He saw himself as peacemaker, patriachan view( he is the husband and the isle is his lawfull wife), Ends war with Spanish until 1618, Religion: Calvinism
Tragedy:
Was invitably political, representation of the actions of monarchs, study of the problems of good government. Subgernres: de casibus tragedy, revenge tragedy, domestic tragedy
King Lear: King Lear has 3 daughter, first two daughters tell him they love him --> they get land, last daughter Cordellia confronts him and tells him the truth. A conflict breaks out. He is bannished and Cordellia is desinherrited. Also depicts the clash between freudal and absolutist (lear), Lear ends up alone. The Land is depicted as some kind of possession, Lear wants to retire and starts a love contest. The Hirarchy ends in an tragic faith, Lear falls from his hirarchy. He and cordellia die and the other also die.
Sonnet
Overwiev of Development:
Beginnings: In sicilly 13th century
Petrarch and Dankte (1304-47): Petrarchan Blazon, Petrarch adresses his love, an idealised woman who is unattainable
Chaucer (1330-1400): translated it into english culture
Wyatt and Surrey: Introduced the english sonnet
Sydney and Spenser: Heyday of the Sonnet in 1590s
Shakespeare: parodises it
Sonnet Forms
Italian Sonnet: Octave (one thought), Volta (turning point), sestet (different aspect), 4 or 5 rhymes
Wyatts Sonnet: Octave, Volta, Quatrain + copulet, 5 rhymes
Shakespearan sonnet: Three Quatrains, volta, closing couplet
Sir Thomas Wyatt
(1503-1542): idealisation of unatainable woman -->Queen Elisabeth, introduces sonnet to britain, uses an natural language
Whoso List to Hunt: imitation of petrarchs rime 190, free translation, The Sonnet is about an lyrical I telling an adressee, maybe another hunter, about hunting. The "hind" is in this case a woman who is unattainable because she belongs to Ceasar
Further: 5 rhymes, hind as woman, hunting as metaphor, woman compared to deer, antithesis: wild & tame, net & wind
hunt as pursuit of love, hunter as lyrical I, hind as object of desire, wild/tame as unattainable and attainable, owner (ceasar) as husband
Henry Howard
, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547): Inventor of english sonnet, raised together with an illegitimate son of Henry VIII
Petrarchan vs. English Sonnet:
Petrarchan: Antithetical, definition of argument in one stanza, solution on other stanza, volta as turning point, Iambic pentameter -->xX xX xX/ abba/abba/cde/cde
Englisch Sonnet: climatic structure, each quatrain as new idea, culmination of couplet, Iambic pentrameter: xX xX xX/ abab/cdcd/efef/gg
Edmund Spencer (1552-1599)
: highly ambitious, innovative, The Fairie Queen (1596): Strong idealisation of Queen Elisabeth I.
Rhyme Royal: 7 lines, imabic pentameter, rhyme sceme ababbcc
Like as a Huntsman
Historical Context
Tudor Dynasty: Court gibes central order, stability and is a centre of culture
Religious Development: Reformation, Catholic church as corrupt, direct access to words of god
Interllecutal Development: Rennaissance, european intellecutal movement, man as measure of things
Literature: Becomes cheaper and more through introduction of printing Press by William Caxton, no copyright laws
Thomas Moore, Utopia 1516
Thomas Moore: Englands most famous humanist, 1477-1535
Utopia as Genre: as initiator of new genre, describes an ideal of humankind, statecraft and society