1 / 6

Modernity & Romanticism

Modernity & Romanticism. Introduction to ENGL 2523:Major British Writers II. Modernity (ca. 1700-Present). Condition of Western culture since Empire and Capitalism Industrial Revolution of 19 th Century Mass production of commodified goods  U niformity and loss of uniqueness

salma
Download Presentation

Modernity & Romanticism

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Modernity & Romanticism Introduction to ENGL 2523:Major British Writers II

  2. Modernity (ca. 1700-Present) • Condition of Western culture since Empire and Capitalism • Industrial Revolution of 19th Century • Mass production of commodified goodsUniformity and loss of uniqueness • Rise in prominence of reason and science  Crisis of faith • Rise in literacy & industrialized print technology Larger reading public • Rise in commerce  increased personal wealth Democratization that challenged aristocratic order • WWI a culminating point for all of above

  3. Romantic Period in Context (ca. 1795-1837) • American Revolution – 1775-1783 • French Revolution – 1789-1799 • British Wars w/France – 1793-1815 • Industrial Revolution – 1790 – 1835  National & Urban Populations Double, 1791-1831  Economy & Labor base shifts from Rural/Agricultural to Urban/Industrial

  4. Romantic Responses to the Times • Drastic and Rapid Social Change  Revolutions end monarchy, devalue privilege/ entitlement (7)  Undergirded by sense of “Natural Rights”  Leads also to abolition of slavery • Literature: vivid sense of participating in modern world  But sometimes in a hidden way • Romantic literature defamiliarizesworld; sees with fresh eyes (8) • Inward turn toward Imagination, memory, self (8)  Opp. Enlightenment (C18) – objective truth, concrete/ measured realities (8-9) • Also an escapism / exoticism: imagining better possibilities through fantastic Visions of Otherness that reflect own world (11)

  5. Romantic Imagination Mind is not a passive mirror but an active light, visionary power (9) • Levels of Imagination (9) • Analogous to but lesser than divine creation • Poetry a secondary, synthesizing power from Imagination that resolves and vitalizes opposing forces in Nature • Precedes Reason • A semi-autonomous entity of the mind or soul, like the subconscious (10)

  6. Romantic Poetry • Style changes to more organic, erratic forms (14)  Mirror the eccentricities of Nature and the Self  Think of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 • The “I” becomes a more complex, full being with mysterious inner regions (cf. painting “Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog”)

More Related