British Literary History

British Literary History Medieval Literature • Oral performance • Manuscripts produced much later • 30.000 lines saved • Collections/anthologies with a wide range of topics • Four major manuscripts: o Junius Manuscript o Exeter Book o Vercelli Book o Nowell Codex 1. Old English (5th – 11th century) 1.1 Epic Poetry: Beowulf • Included in the Nowell Codex • Topic: heroes and heroic deeds • Supposed to be recited orally • Origin: 6th century • Setting: Denmark and southern Sweden even prior to the 6th century • Structure: 3182 alliterative lines • Story: o King Hrothgar calls Beowulf for help because his mead hall is under attack by the monster whose name is Grendel. o Beowulf refuses to take any weapon into battle because he considers his power even to the monster’s. But he wears a magical armor. o When the monster enters the hall, Beowulf who pretends to sleep and attacks him. o He tears Grendel’s arm from his body, and the monster dies. o As a revenge, Grendel’s mother attacks as well. o Beowulf, however, slices her head off. o Afterwards he becomes king of his own people and has to fight a dragon. o Unfortunately, he is mortally wounded and dies. 1.2 Christianization • Christian interference because England is a Christian nation by 700 • Large influence on culture and literature • Topics: o Lives of saints o Poetic renderings of parts of the bible • Ælfric (955–1020): English abbot and prolific writer in Old English who represented the highest pinnacle of Benedictine reform and Anglo-Saxon literature • Christian spin in narratives 1.3 Chronicles • The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (late 9th century, updated to the 12th century) • • • • Start under the reign of Ælfred the Great (late 9th century) Foundation of writing history, less narrative History of England Pragmatic 2. Middle English Literature (12th–15th century) • Norman Conquest (1066): linguistic and cultural implications due to French language • Contact to Scandinavia is cut off • For 150 years, people live bilingually • 13th century: ties to France are cut off 2.1 Romances: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight • Narratives (usually in verse) about extraordinary events • Most of them written in the 14th century (at least those we know today) • 3 types/themes o Matter of Britain (before Anglo-Saxons): King Arthur o Roman history (Alexander the Great) o Set in Anglo-Saxon England Idealized fiction: what society should have been like • Story: o The Green Knight comes to King Arthur and asks to be beheaded. Gawain, the king’s nephew, slices his head off. But the knight just picks up his head and announces to come back in a year and to do the same to him. o He goes on a journey and arrives at a castle. The host and Gawain make a deal to trade whatever they get. The host’s wife tries to fuck him, but she is not successful. So she just gives him some kisses and a magical belt that is supposed to prevent him from dying. However, he does not give the belt to his host. o Wearing the belt, Gawain goes to the Green Knight. The first two hits with his axe do not inflict any harm because he kept his promise of trading. But the third does hurt, since he didn’t trade the belt. He tells the knight the entire story. The knight admits that he asks the host’s wife to do so, just to test Gawain’s virtue. And according to the knight, he passes the test and is not killed. 2.2 Middle English Drama • Start in church as a part of services • People try to put some scenes of the bible onto the stage • After being prohibited to do so, they move outside the church • Types of plays o Mystery Plays: dramatization from the bible o Miracle Plays: miraculous events, like the Virgin Mary o Morality Plays: allegorical plays with one person that stands for everyone, confronted with death All of them with religious background and the aim of education 2.3 Contemporary Society Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales • 14th century • Frame: Pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, their host wants them to tell four stories, two on their way there and two on their way back, and he promises a meal for the best story • In between the stories, the reader gets to know something about the circumstances and the society of the time in which The Canterbury Tales were written Early Modern Period: An Overview 1. Cultural Overview 1.1 Renaissance • 14th century • In Italy • Rebirth or rediscovery of the antiquity • Translation of classical texts into English • late 15th century in England 1.2 Humanism • Connected with Renaissance • Contains Renaissance • Humans in the center of attention • Teaching is highly important • Grammar Schools no longer with the church 1.3 World Picture • Order 1 o Also known as Elizabethan picture o The Great Chain of Being with ordered hierarchy o Universe established a meaningful order: minerals, plants, animals, mankind (intelligence and soul that animals don’t have) o Hierarchy within the stage of mankind: being sinful means falling down the ladder o This order is God-given and creates the world • Order 2 o Correspondences o “Mirror of all Nature and Image of the Arts” (Robert Fludd Utriusque Cosmi Historia, 1617–21) o 3 levels of creation: ➢ 1st level: God ➢ 2nd level: personified nature ➢ 3rd level: earth and mankind o Everything is connected to something else o Macrocosm is mirrored in microcosm (being an image of something better) o Example: Macbeth ➢ Killing the king depicts an outrageous disturbance of the order ➢ This could be viewed as God being killed • Body Politic o King as representative of God o King with 2 bodies: ➢ Physical body ➢ Body politic: abstract idea of kingship (immortality, “Long live the king”) o King guarantees divine orders and represents state and inhabitants 2. Political Overview • 1455 – 1485 War of the Roses o Series of wars for control of the throne of England o Rivalry between the two branches of the House of Plantagenet: Lancaster and York o Reason: social and financial troubles under the weak rule of Henry VI o Successor: Edward IV (Yorkist king) o Successor: Edward’s brother Richard III (because Edward’s sons disappeared) o Henry Tudor (Lancastrian) became Henry VII after he had defeated Richard III o Henry VII married Elizabeth of York (Tudor Myth) • 1509 – 1547 Reign of Henry VIII (Tudor) o His problem: no son, tried to get divorced from his wife o Pope is the only one who could annul this marriage, but he refused o Henry VIII founded his own church • 1534 Act of Supremacy o Henry VIII became head of the Church of England o Break with Rome o Primarily political decision due to denying pope’s supremacy • 1547 – 1553 Reign of Edward VI o Further reformation • 1553 – 1558 Reign of Mary I o 1st daughter of Henry VIII o Mary wants to get back to the Catholic Church with violence o “Bloody Mary” • 1558 – 1603 Reign of Elizabeth I o Return to the Church of England o Stabilization of the system o 1559 Act of Supremacy & Act of Uniformity ➢ Everyone was forced to go to church and has to be a member of the Church of England ➢ Disadvantages for Catholics o 1563 39 Articles: basis of the Anglican Church o 1588 Defeat of Spanish Armada • 1603 – 1625 Reign of James I (Stuart) o King of Scotland o Became also king of England o United crowns • 1625 – 1649 Reign of Charles I o James’s son o Only king who was executed by court because he was charged with treason o Afterwards: England became a republic for 11 years 3. Early Modern Drama 3.1 Development of Drama • Medieval Traditions o Mystery and miracle plays: very religious o Morality plays: vice and virtue • Entertainment at Court o in Greek and Latin (also students involved) • Establishment of Playhouses o before 1570: traveling actors 3.2 Playhouses • The Swan o Initially playhouses in the north o Move to the south later o But in both cases outside the city o purpose-built theaters o The Globe o Round outdoor theaters with stage in the middle; could be seen from three sides • Blackfriars o Theater within the city o Smaller theater and indoor o Artificial light required o Stage still surrounded on three sides to some extent o Different audience 3.3 The Texts • The texts that survived were all printed • Number of texts survived: 30 out of 300 • Folio: parchment folded once (with edges cut off), collection of plays • Quarto: parchment folded twice • Bad Quarto: not authorized; does not reflect what the author wanted • Good Quarto: scholars assume that that’s the version the author appreciated • First Folio 1623: after Shakespeare’s death his friends put together his plays in one folio (maybe some lines or even entire plays were not written by Shakespeare) Early Modern Drama 4. Dramatic Genres 4.1 History Plays • Greek and Roman traditions • Supposed to be about recorded history (couple 100 years back only) and connection to English history (not Roman history or myths) • John Bale Kynge Johan (1538) o First English History Play o About King John (Robin Hood) who had problems with the pope • Thomas Norton, Thomas Sackville Gorboduc (1561) o Blank verse (verse without any rhymes; becomes typical) o About a mythical king though • Christopher Marlowe Edward II (1593) • • • William Shakespeare Richard II to Henry VIII; King John o He wrote at least 10 plays (not clear because he may have had co-writers) John Fletcher Bonduca (1619) Historical overview of the kings of England o Richard II considered a shitty king and therefore he gets imposed This, however, challenges the worldview of the people in the Early Modern Period because they regard the king as God-chosen Rebellion against God? o During the reign of Henry VI the War of the Roses starts This is considered a punishment for pushing Richard II out of office o Richard III is kind of cruel because he kills everyone on his way to the throne o He is defeated by the guy who later becomes Henry VII o Henry (Lancaster) marries Elizabeth of York (Houses fused, Tudor which is a new dynasty that ends with Elizabeth I’s death) o Tudors are very interested in how history is depicted in the plays o Shakespeare not always in favor of Elizabeth (sometimes critical) (He does not simply write to amuse the Queenie) • History Play, in general, caught people’s attention because suddenly history became affordable • That is how Shakespeare’s fame started 4.2 Tragedy • Aristotle Poetics (350) o Tragedy should talk about an event that is closed in itself o Need of a catastrophe o Function: raising pity and fear o Karthasis: cleansing (raising and helping overcome emotions) o Need of a plausible development (believable) and change (good to bad) o depiction of extreme cases, always about kings/queens • Titles are often simply the names of the protagonists • Thomas Norton, Thomas Sackville Gorboduc (1561) o Kind of a mixed genre (history and tragedy) • Thomas Kyd Spanish Tragedy (1586–89) o Spain as a popular setting because of dominance of Catholicism o Revenge tragedy (very popular) o Several violent homicides o Smash hit, influence on other writers • Christopher Marlowe Dr Faustus (c. 1588), The Jew of Malta (1592) • William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus (1594), Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595), Hamlet (c. 1603-4), Othello (c. 1604), King Lear (c. 1605-6), Macbeth (c. 1606) • Thomas Heywood, A Woman Killed with Kindness (1603) • Ben Jonson, Sejanus (1603), Catiline (1611) • Cyril Tourneur, The Revenger’s Tragedy (1607) o Too over the top o People didn’t believe it • King Lear o King is tired of being king and wants to give his reign to his 3 daughters, depending on who loves him the most o Since one daughter doesn’t give him the answer he wants to hear, she is ostracized from the heritage o The Kingdom is then divided equally among the other 2 daughters o The king, however, still behaves like a king and is therefore driven away by his to lovely daughters 4.3 Comedy • Aristotle Poetics o Didactic function o Revealing the audience’s vices • Corrective Comedy o Trying to hold up a mirror to contemporary audience o Ben Jonson, Every Man in His Humour (1598), o Volpone (1606), The Alchemist (1610)... o [Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker’s Holiday (1599)] o Philip Massinger, The City Madam (1632) • Romantic Comedy o Sex, procreation, love, marriages o Problem: not being able to be together o Happy Endings o Move away from court o Shakespeare’s not set in England o Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c 1595), Much Ado About Nothing (c 1598), As You Like It (c 1600), Twelfth Night (c 1601), [Measure for Measure (c 1604)] Early Modern Poetry Poetry in terms of cultural prestige as the most important genre Writing poetry normal for elite/educated people (leisure activity) 1. Petrarch and the Sonnet Sequence Craze 1.1 Francesco Petrarca 1304–1374) and the European Sonnet Tradition • Not inventor of sonnets, but he wrote in a particular style that got popular • Humanist, scholar • Rerum vulgaria fragmenta (Canzoniere) o Collection of 366 poems (317 of them sonnets) o Addressed to Laura (but she dies so that the second half of the poems are addressed to her when she is dead) o High style level (praising Laura, but no in love with her) o Popular after published as Rerum vulgaria fragmenta (written in Italian) in 1470 • Spread of the Sonnet through France o Du Bellay: - Olive (1549) - Regrets (1558) o Ronsard: - Amours (1552) - Sonnets pour Hélène (1572) o They (French guys) imitated Petrarch o Also addressed to a lady who does not love back 1.2 Early English Sonneteers • Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542) o Active at the court of Henry VIII o Ambassador for the king (was supposed to persuade the pope to annul Henry’s marriage • Henry Howard, Early of Surrey (1517-1547) o Accompanied Henry VIII to France • They both mainly adopt, translate and review French and Italian sonnets 1.3 Sidney and the Sonnet Sequence Craze • Sir Philip Sidney (1554 – 1586) ‘perfect courtier’ • Problem: he is a protestant; when Elizabeth I thought of marrying a Catholic, he protested and got banned to the Netherlands (dumbfuck!) • Sonnet Sequence: Astrophel and Stella written c. 1580-83; printed 1591 (not an immediate smash hit) • Start of the Sonnet Sequence Craze; everybody started writing then • Plot: Astrophel (star lover) is in love with Stella who seems to be married; so he steals a kiss from her and got punished for it; no happy ending • Astrophel and Stella, Sonnet 1 Loving in truth, and faine in verse my love to show, That she (deare she) might take some pleasure of my paine: Pleasure might cause her reade, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pitie winne, and pitie grace obtaine, I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe, Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertaine: Oft turning others leaves, to see if thence would flow Some fresh and fruitfull showers upon my sunne-burn’d braine. But words came halting forth, wanting Inventions stay; Invention, Natures child, fled step-dame Studies blowes, And others feete still seem’d but strangers in my way. Thus great with childe to speake, and helplesse in my throwes, Biting my trewand pen, beating my selfe for spite, Foole, said my Muse to me, looke in thy heart and write. o Almost every sonnet is written from a male perspective o Often a blur of fiction and autobiography o A guy is in love, but she does not love him back o But if you write, she might fall in love with you o He reads other poets to become inspired and write then, but it does not work o He wants to speak but he can’t o His Muse advises him to look into his heart • Elizabethan Sonnet Sequences (not need to be memorized) o 1591 Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophel and Stella o 1592 Samuel Daniel, Delia o 1593 Thomas Watson, The Tears of Fancy; Barnabe Barnes, Parthenophil and Parthenope; Thomas Lodge, Phyllis; Giles Fletcher, Licia; Henry Lok, Sundry Christian Passions; Barnabe Barnes, Divine Century of Spiritual Sonnets o 1594 Henry Constable, Diana; Anon., Zepheria; William Percy, Coelia; Michael Drayton, Idea’s Mirror; Sir John Davies, Gulling Sonnets o 1595 Edmund Spenser, Amoretti (ends happily; READER); Richard Barnfield, Cynthia; E.C., Emaricdulfe o 1596 Bartholomew Griffin, Fidessa; R. Linche, Diella; William Smith, Chloris o 1597 Henry Lok, Sundry Christian Passions (enlarged ed.) Robert Tofte, Laura ➢ Some of them with religious content ➢ Shakespeare’s sonnets published later 1.4 Shakespeare’s Sonnets • Sonnets in Shakespeare’s Plays o The Two Gentlemen of Verona (c. 1594) o Love’s Labours Lost (c. 1595) o Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595) They talk in sonnets when they first meet • Sonnets (1609) o His sonnets put an end to the style that people had been having o Published in a collection ➢ First 26 sonnets addressed to men (not gay stuff but idealized form of friendship) ➢ Last 28 poems are addressed to women (Dark Lady sonnets), explicit • Sonnet form o ‘Italian Sonnet’ o Octave rhyming abba abba o Sestet, introducing three new rhymes (variation) • ‘Shakespeare Sonnet’ (aka ‘English Sonnet,’ he did not invent it!!!) o Three quatrains rhyming abab, cdcd, efef o Concluded by a rhyming couplet (gg) • BUT: Most common sonnet form in English literature: Italian (especially popular during the Romantic & Victorian periods) Shakespeare, Sonnet 130 My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head; I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare. o Usually body parts of a woman compared to sth valuable like diamonds (idealizing women, body parts are itemized) o But here: negative comparison (she’s a real women) o “She’s not perfect, but I love her just the way she is.” o Playing with traditions 2. Metaphysical Poetry • Connection between opposite things like heaven and earth that is not comprehensible on the first glance • Applied to a group of people, rather than describing a genre on its own • 17th century (term coined in 18th century) • Not polite, uneven, rough lines conceits • John Dryden on John Donne: “He affects the Metaphysics, not only in his satyres, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts, and entertain them with the softness of love.” • Some ‘Metaphysical Poets’ o John Donne (1572 – 1631) o George Herbert (1593 – 1633) o Henry Vaughan (1621 – 1695) o Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678) • John Donne, “The Flea” Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is; It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be. Thou know'st that this cannot be said A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead; Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two; And this, alas ! is more than we would do. o Guy tries to make a woman go to bed with him o Comparison to flea, sex within the flea, sex as mingling of blood • Some metaphysical poems are religious 3. Poetics • Thinking about what poetry is, description & defense • Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry (1579/1595) • Stephen Gosson, School of Abuse (1579) • Sidney: why poems are useful; separation of fiction and reality • Gosson (puritan) did not like fiction and therefore attacked fictional writing • Sidney defended himself 4. Narrative Poetry • Telling stories • Often like epic poetry • Desire to write English epics like Spenser • Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1590/96) Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske, As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds, Am now enforst a far unfitter taske, For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds, And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds; Whose prayses hauing slept in silence long, Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds To blazon broad emongst her learned throng: Fierce warres and faithfull loues shall moralize my song. o Praise of Elizabeth o Produtction time: 19 years • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667) o Angels revolt against God o Satan portrayed in an accessible way so that he seems to be more human and the story becomes more fascinating The Long Eighteenth Century Poetry & Drama 1. Some Political and Cultural History 1.1 Civil War – Commonwealth – Restoration • 1642 – 1651 Civil Wars (Royalists – Parliamentarians) o Charles I as an abolitionist king struggles with parliament (representation of the people) o Charles I and the parliament both raise an army (possible reasons: religious debates, money for war) o 1649 Execution of Charles I (only time a king is executed for high treason) o Monarchy comes to an end • 1649 – 1660 ‘Commonwealth’ (Oliver Cromwell) o England becomes a republic for the following 11 years that is run by Oliver Cromwell, a military leader o As he wants his son to take over after his death (which ironically resembles a monarchy), people start an uprising • 29.05.1660 Charles II (son of Charles I) enters London o He is called to the throne since the people understand that a monarchy is better for them o Period of restoration of the monarchy o There is a court again that wishes to be entertained which leads to a literary and cultural upturn and big changes in theater (women are allowed to act on stage; Charles II imports this from France where he fled to after his father’s execution) 1.2 The Glorious Revolution (1688) • Charles II is succeeded by his brother James II • Problem: Charles is a protestant, and James is married to a Catholic woman • The parliament does not approve that so that James’s daughter Mary II and her husband William of Orange are called to the throne • James II runs away which is seen as a sign of abdication (“glorious”) • But: William and Mary are forced to agree to the Bill of Rights (1689) which makes the parliament more powerful and prevents any Catholic from becoming king • They are succeeded by Anne who becomes the Queen of Great Britain due to the unification of the parliaments of England and Scotland 1.3 Science and Technology • Experimental science Royal Society founded 1660 Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) • Political Philosophy Tomas Hobbes (1650s) • Learning (becomes accessible to a larger number of people) 1728 Chambers, Cyclopaedia 1755 Dr Johnson, English Dictionary • Inventions 1712 first steam engine 1775 efficient steam engine (James Watt) 2. The Augustan Age • Period of restoration (of monarchy) • Comparison of Charles II to Augustus • Neoclassical Period: Looking back to antiquity (translation and imitation) • John Dryden, “Astraea Redux” (1660) Now with a general Peace the World was blest, While Ours, a World divided from the rest, A dreadful Quiet felt, and worser farre Then Armes, a sullen Intervall of Warre: [...] And now times whiter Series is begun Which in soft Centuries shall smoothly run; [...] Oh Happy Age! Oh times like those alone By Fate reserv’d for Great Augustus Throne! When the joint growth of Armes and Arts foreshew The World a Monarch, and that Monarch You 3. Poetry 3.1 Translation & Imitation • Huge success, first incidents of crowd funding • ‘Ancients’ vs. ‘Moderns’ clash since the Modernists do not like to look back • John Dryden, The Works of Virgil (1697) • Alexander Pope, Iliad (1715-20) (imitating Virgil) • Pope, Pastorals (1709) First in these fields I try the sylvan strains, Nor blush to sport on Windsor's blissful plains: Fair Thames, flow gently from thy sacred spring, While on thy banks Sicilian Muses sing; Let vernal airs through trembling osiers play, And Albion's cliffs resound the rural lay o Idealized version of a farmer’s life o Simple life vs. corruption in the city or at court o Adaptation to England’s countryside o All 18th century poems: high level style, sounds artificial, strictly following rules o Heroic couplets (rhyming couplets) typical for 18th century poems 3.2 Parody & Satire • Main feature of the 18th century • John Gay, The Shepherd’s Week (1714) (characters more realistic) • Pope, The Rape of the Lock (1712/1714) (comment on stuff that happened) WHAT dire Offence from am'rous Causes springs, What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things, I sing -- This Verse to C---, Muse! is due; This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view: Slight is the Subject, but not so the Praise, If She inspire, and He approve my Lays. o Calling the Muse (cf. ancient poetry) o Mighty contests (allusion to Trojan War) o Trivial things: little things (snipping off hair) o Directed at things that happened in London o Epic poetry actually refers to big events like wars and heroes o Pope uses it to refer to trivial things • Satire used to respond to authors o Jonathan Swift: “The Lady’s Dressing Room” (1732) Now listen while he next produces The various combs for various uses, Filled up with dirt so closely fixed, No brush could force a way betwixt; A paste of composition rare, Sweat, dandruff, powder, lead, and hair; o Lady Mary Wortley Montague: “The Reasons That Induced Dr. Swift to Write a Poem Called the Lady’s Dressing Room” (1734) The reverend lover with surprise Peeps in her bubbies, and her eyes, And kisses both, and tries – and tries. The evening in this hellish play, Beside his guineas thrown away, Provoked the priest to that degree He swore, ‘The fault is not in me.’ o Literary conflicts, mutual mocking o Swift: a man enters a lady’s dressing room and looks through her stuff o Mary: man comes to a prostitute, but the whole affair does not really work out for him (the man apparently is Swift) 4. Drama 4.1 Theaters • Patent Theatre: Thomas Killigrew, William Davenan (Opernhaus Bayreuth 1744–48) Typical stage in the 18th century Women can act on stage Proscenium arch theater (picture frame) Basic design of auditorium (cf. picture), audience in front of the stage New: painted scenery in the background; Schnürboden (place above the stage) Way plays are produced alter • More expensive (cultural prestige changes) • Censorship still valid: plays have to be approved, a permit or license is needed • Three big theater companies (limitations) • Musicals become popular since they are free of censorship and do not need any permit 4.2 Plays • Many of them are dated • Heroic Plays o eg. Davenant, Love and Honour (1649) • ‘Dramatic Opera’ o Unique in England o Actors and singers on stage o eg. Henry Purcell/John Dryden, King Arthur (1691) o [Handel comes to London in 1710 -> Italian Opera, English version ceases] • • • • • • • o [Parody (making fun of the Italian Opera; huge success: John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (1728)] ‘Restoration Comedy’ o In the restoration period o Very typical for 18th century o Topic: 18th century society o Characters come up again and again o Complicated plots o Driving forces: power and sex o eg. William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700) ‘Sentimental Comedy’ (or ‘drama of sensibility’) o Feelings and emotion in the foreground o Middle class characters try to overcome all kinds of problems and master them o Melodrama o Empathetic reaction of audience o eg. Richard Steele, The Conscious Lovers (1722) The Long Eighteenth Century: Prose 1. Popular Culture: Narrating Sex & Crime • Sex and Crime as the favorite topics • Broadsheet: it seems to be a normal page where the entire text seems to find its space • Chapbook: little booklet, abbreviated versions of larger tales 1.1 Ballads • Narrative poems • Can be traced back to medieval times • 4 verses, iambic lines with 4/3 stresses to line (every second line rhymes) • The person who sells the ballads performs them and not the author • The Scolding Wives Vindication • I have been abus’d of late by some of the Poets Crew Who says, I broke my Husbands Pate, but this I did never do. ‘Tis true I his Ears did cuff, and gave him a kick or two; For this I had just Cause enough, because he would nothing do. A Ballad – To the Tune of Bateman You Gallants all, that love good Wine For shame your Lives amend; With Strangers go to Church, or Dine, But drink with an old Friend. For with him tipling all the Night, You kiss, hugg, and embrace; Whereas a Stranger, at first sight, May kill you on the Place. 1.2 Prose Accounts • The Newgate Calendar: (magazine that focuses on crimes) • The Malefactor’s Bloody Register • Printing of confessions of convicts that are sold at public executions • Mostly invented 2. Learning • ‘Importance’ of Fiction (written for entertainment) Around 1700: c. 7 % of lit. prod. Around 1740: c. 20 % of lit. prod. Around 1770: c. 30 % of lit. prod. • 1695 Repeal of Licensing Act Pamphlets and books have to be licensed Has been repealed in the late 18th century • 1702 The Daily Courant First daily newspaper in England (one sheet) • Sermons & Religious Tracts (published the most) • Conduct books, self-education • Encyclopedias • Dictionaries (Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary) 3. Prose Satire • Criticizing politicians • Jonathan Swift o From Ireland (land belongs to colonies) o “The Battle of the Books” (1697/1704) o “A Modest Proposal” (1729) I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout. I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, [...]. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; [...] ✓ Looking at difficult circumstances in Ireland ✓ Calculating how many children are born ✓ Children cost a lot and selling them will give you a lot of money ✓ But eating children is not okay 4. Narrative Prose: The Rise of the Novel • Romance vs. Novel o Romance: exotic, no real places; people are ideals and stereotypes rather than real people o Novel: more ordinary; normal people having normal lives Hardly any books published ESTC: English Short Title Catalogue • Novels become more popular, especially in the 18th century • Decline of Romances (except: gothic fiction in 18th century) • Medieval tradition still there, but realistic stories start to come up as well 4.1 Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (1688) • She is an important figure, but we do not know much about her • Story: set in Surinam • Oroonoko is a royal slave; he got tricked into slavery because he was attracted to a woman • I do not pretend, in giving you the History of this ROYAL SLAVE, to entertain my Reader with the Adventures of a feign’d Hero, whose Life and Fortunes Fancy may manage at the Poet’s Pleasure; nor in relating the Truth, design to adorn it with any Accidents, but such as arrived in earnest to him: [...] I was myself an Eye-witness to a great Part of what you will find here set down; and what I could not be Witness of, I receiv’d from the Mouth of the chief Actor in this History, the Hero himself; [...]. o Slave revolt started off by him o He persuades his pregnant wife to run away because he does not want his son to be a slave o Both agree on him killing her o He gets captured and tortured to death 4.2 Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719) • Considered the first English Novel • He got very old • All adventurous texts with exotic settings • I WAS born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. [...] [My father told me] that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world [...] • Captain Singleton (1720) • Moll Flanders (1722) • Journal of the Plague Year (1722) • Roxana (1724) 4.3 Samuel Richardson, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740-41) • ‘epistolary novel’ (written in the form of letters) • Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady (1747-48) • Responses to Pamela: o Fielding, Shamela (1741); Joseph Andrews (1742) o Clealand, Fanny Hill (1748) (pornographic novel) 4.4 Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling (1749) • ‘comic epic poem in prose’ picaresque panoramic picture of society 4.5 Laurence Stern, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767) • Told by Tristram Shandy himself • Trying out things • Would be seen as postmodern today (e.g. empty page to draw character) 4.6 Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1765) • Set in medieval times • Big helmet falls down and kills villain • ‘Gothic story’ Goes back to Romance Often set in castles About fear Against mainstream of 18th century thought • Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) The Castle of Athlin and Dunbayne (1789) A Sicilian Romance (1790) The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) • Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (1798-99/1803/1817) o Parody of gothic novel o Protagonist thinks to be in a gothic novel and considers them to be real o Criticism of naïve people who read this crap Romanticism 1. Towards Romanticism • Term first used from 1812 onwards so that is was not used by its first practitioners • 1798: Start of Romanticism with the poetry collection “Lyrical Ballads” by William Wordsworth • End in 1832 • However: Boundaries are blurry 1.1 Fascination with death, decay and graveyards • Age of Reason: rebellion against rationality which was usual for the 18th century • Gothic Literature became very famous Graveyard School of Poetry Thomas Parnell, “Night-Piece on Death” (1721) Edward Young, “Night Thoughts” (1742) Robert Blair, “The Grave” (1743) Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1750) His is the most popular poem 1.2 Nature and Scenery • Picture of the castle in Versailles o Nature organized by humans and put in shape o Symmetry • Stourhead (Wiltshire) o Looks just like nature o New movement in garden architecture o Interest in raw nature o Fascination with ruins 1.3 Nature and the Sublime • Raw nature • Seen as sublime but not beautiful • Sublime: rough scenery that’s maybe even threatening, nature could kill you • Also: inspiring factor o o o o • Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757) • James Macpherson, ‘Ossian Poems’ (1761) o Sublime nature descriptions o He pretended to have found old texts that he translated into English. In fact, he just came up with some stupid shit, and to promote his crap of writing, he lied about its origin. 1.4 Individualism • Individual pouring out his or her heart • Do not confuse the speaker with the author!!! • Jean Jacques Rousseau, Confessions (1765-70/1782-89) • “I have entered upon a performance which is without example, whose accomplishment will have no imitator. I mean to present my fellow-mortals with a man in all the integrity of nature; and this man shall be myself. I know my heart, and have studied mankind; I am not made like any one I have been acquainted with, perhaps like no one in existence; if not better, I at least claim originality, [...]” o Autobiography (he thinks it’s special) o Sense of genius becomes very important 1.5 Charlotte Smith, Elegiac Sonnets (1784) • Mournful sonnets • She writes against traditions by publishing sonnets which are not popular anymore in the 18th century • Very introspective • Many other author pick that up 2. First Generation Romantics 2.1 William Blake (1770-1850) • Songs of Innocence (1789) • Songs of Innocence and Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (1794) • Actually written before the Romantic period, but published again • He learned something different than writing poetry (he did all illustrations of his own books) • Most poems are accompanied by an image that goes with the text • He examines the nature of human beings, how they react to the world around them • Being open vs. being closed • Two poems with similar content, but looking at it from different points of view 2.2 William Wordsworth • He grows very old • He grew up in semi natural surroundings • He writes about the corruption in cities and praises rural areas • He added a preface to the second edition of his “Lyrical Ballads” which gives an insight of how and why romantics reacted to what was there before the Romantic period • “The principal object, then, which I proposed to myself in these poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible, in a selection of language really spoken by men; and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way [...]. Low and rustic life was generally chosen [...]. What is a poet? [...] He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endued with more lively sensibility [...]” o When publishing a book, an author makes a contract with the reader o Expectation of the reader, he gives a reason of the poetry he writes o He claims that 18th century poetry is old-fashioned so that he can sell his stuff o There is certain genre his poetry fits in (reader always has some expectation when starting to read a book, but not with one of his) o Set against elevated language level that precedes Romanticism o He aims for normal/real-life language o Not high-class poetry anymore, rustic people and simple stories o Not everybody can be a poet, what you need is talent (idea of the poet as a natural genius) • “I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity: the emotion is contemplated till by a species of reaction the tranquillity gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind.” o Way of creating poetry o Feelings outburst? NO! o You need to think about your emotions before you write them down, you get in a state of tranquility o After tranquility disappears, your emotions come back to the surface and then you write them down o What you have then is kind of a different feeling from the one you had when experiencing it o He sets himself off by doing something new o Impression that Wordsworth is speaking (but it’s not him) o Locations and setting in the title may be deceiving • Wordsworth, “The Daffodils” (1804/1807) o I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. [...] A poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company: I gazed - and gazed - but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. o Personification: host of daffodils o Speaker all alone in nature, in company of flowers o He introduces himself as a poet o But he does not know yet how awesome this experience is gonna be o Tense shift (simple present; frequently happens to him), he thinks about his feelings (as described in his preface) o Poetological poem, metapoetic (poem about writing a poem) • Wordsworth’s fascination with childhood o Chils and its natural surroundings, it does not think, it just feels, he envies them • Wordsworth fascination with pastoral/rural settings and simple people 2.3 Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) • He grew very old • Less successful than Wordsworth • They used to be friends at a certain point of time • Supernatural occurrences as theme of his poetry • Erotic theme • Fascinated with dreams, subconscious, you have a natural connection in dreams • He works with fragments (what you can remember from your dream) • Nature controls his poetry • “Kubla Kahn: or, A Vision in a Dream” (1815) In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree : Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. [...] But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover! 3. Second Generation Romantics 3.1 John Keats (1795-1821) • He did not live very long • Criticized 1st generation • Not so popular in the beginning • Famous for odes (human being is addressed and praised) • Fascination with medieval things and gothic settings • Ballads (telling stories) • “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” 'O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge is wither'd from the lake, And no birds sing. [...] 'I met a lady in the meads, Full beautiful—a faery's child, Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild. [...] 'She took me to her elfin grot, And there she wept and sigh'd fill sore; And there I shut her wild, wild eyes With kisses four. 'And there she lullèd me asleep, And there I dream'd—Ah! woe betide! The latest dream I ever dream'd On the cold hill's side. [...] 'I saw their starved lips in the gloam With horrid warning gapèd wide, And I awoke and found me here, On the cold hill's side. 3.2 Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) • Unusual because from aristocratic background • Also not that successful • He drowned • “Ode to the West Wind” Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: What if my leaves are falling like its own! The tumult of thy mighty harmonies Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one! Drive my dead thoughts over the universe Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth! And, by the incantation of this verse, Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! Be through my lips to unawakened Earth The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? o Poem addressed to west wind (personified) o Towards the end the west wind is positive as it brings something new o He is played by nature o Sparks blown by the wind, igniting a new fire (that’s how his poetry should be) 3.3 Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788-1824) • Long narrative poems • ‘Byronic Hero’ as mad, bad and dangerous to know, but fascinating • He did not like English society • He leaves England due to rumors (he might have had a sexy time with his sister) • He wants to join the Greek Revolution, but dies before he gets there The Victorians: An Overview 1. The Victorian Period • 1837 Victoria ascends throne She reigns for 64 years which is quite a long time She had a strict moral code She made a strong distinction between the social classes (in the working class, women had to work; in higher classes they are part of the domestic sphere) • 1840 Victoria marries Albert (Prince Consort) • 1842 Chartist riots [1848 Revolutions on the continent] • 1851 Great Exhibition (‘Crystal Palace’) • 1853-6 Crimean War • 1861 Albert dies [1861-5 American Civil War] • 1870 Elementary Education Act • 1876 Victoria named Empress of India • 1899-1902 (2nd) Boer War • 1901 Victoria dies 2. Social & Political Change 2.1 Britain: 1700 c. 5 million 1801 c. 10 million 1851 c. 20 million 1901 c. 40 million 2.2 London: 1700 c. 600.000 1801 c. 1,1 million 1851 c. 2,6 million 1901 c. 6,5 million • Enormous population growth • Mostly in cities due to industry • Lead to horrible housing conditions • Happens with many cities (not only London) 3. Technological Advances & Self-Esteem 3.1 The Crystal Palace • Constructed for the Great Exhibition of 1851 • Prove that England is one of the leading nations in Europe in terms of advance (other countries soon catch up!) • International industry exhibition 3.2 Construction of London Underground Railway • 1860 • Still in use today 4. Travel & Communication • September 1830: first passenger railway opened • Connected Liverpool with Manchester • Miles of tracks have grown enormously over just a couple years • The train becomes the medium of mass transport • Picture: crowd with all kinds of people, all classes meet there • Railway traveling connects people • Communication enhanced on the train • Train also used for transportation of goods (new opportunities for dealing and fast distribution of newspaper) 5. Empire & Colonization • Colonization starts in 16th century • By 19th century England has already lost America (well…. :P) • Canada and Australia are important and India • Later Africa • Empire affects many people (job opportunities for administration • A dark prince meets Queen Victoria • He is given a book, probably the bible • • Bible brings civilization to colonies Colonization is something to be proud of (criticism later) • Advertisement • White colonists drink tea in India • Gives it an exotic/exciting flavor • Cocoa imported • Colonial products have become widely available • Guy: John Bull, very stout • His boots definitely put on India and maybe Egypt (also under England’s power) • 1870: new phase of colonial expansion • Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India (1876) • Companies controlled by India (miserable conditions for some people) • Uprising starts, call for independence • India then taken under state control 6. Electoral Reform • Revolution on the entire European Continent, but not really in England • Lower classes are kept comparatively happy • Reform Acts: who’s got the right to vote • 1832: 1st Reform Act Before: suffrage tied to land ownership After: right expanded to middle class people However: working class wants rights, too, so: • 1838-59: Chartism Political movement that demands certain rights, based on people’s charter, you could sign, but not accepted by parliament (later partly accepted in form of other Reform Acts) o 1st demand: all men over 21 should be allowed to vote o 2nd demand: secret ballots o 3rd demand: candidates do not need to have property o 4th demand: MPs should get paid (so that working class people could afford being an MP) o 5th demand: distribution of who is sent to parliament should be looked at First past the post system How do you define a constituency? (population growth in the cities) They want the boroughs to be reorganized (same number of people) • 1867: 2nd Reform Act Right for urban working men • 1871: Trade Unions Act • 1884: 3rd Reform Act Most men could vote • Labor regulations (there were none), how many hours of work per day • Protection of children and women 7. The Woman’s Quest • 1840s: Various Acts regulating working conditions for women and children • 1870: Married Women’s Property Act o Coverture: man + woman become one entity when married, represented by husband which means loss of property rights for woman o Women get more rights and liberty • 1880s & ‘90s: ‘New Woman’ o Women enter male professions like universities o She’s her own woman, she is educated • 1890s: ‘Suffragettes’ o people who favor women’s right to vote o 1918: they get it (but they have to be 30) 8. Science • Influence on culture and religion • Darwinism • Bible is questioned • How did old species come into being? • What about fossilization? • Darwin is also criticized Victorian Prose 1. Readership • Novels are very expensive (31 shilling 6 pence) • 1 pound = 240 pence, 1 pound = 20 shillings, 1 guinea = 21 shillings • 1 pound considered a shitload of money (worker makes 9 shillings a week) • Feb. 1971: Monetary reform • Growing literacy among population • Prohibitive price • ‘Mudie’s Select Library’ o Lending Library o Borrowing books for money o Everyone in a household should be able to read all books o Maintaining three volume structure o Books available for everyone o Influence on what is read (depending on their offer) • Influence on writers 2. Social Problem Novels • Interest in social structure and conditions of working class • All Victorian texts with a realistic mode • 1840s as a period of economic decline (hungry forties) • Authors tend to be from the middle class • Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present (1843) o Politician o Negative look at society, comparing it to the better past o Going back to a true aristocracy • Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845) o Rich vs. poor (truthfully portraying England) o Solution: upper class should be more caring • Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton (1848) o Interest in social developments o People should talk more • Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke (1850) • Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854) o Interest in social conditions o More about low life o Story set in an industrial center, but it’s about education and what it should be like o Against utilitarianism (what you do should make you happy; Dickens criticizes how it is put into practice) • Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (1854-5) • Everyone hates trade unions because they could lead to a revolution (so it’s not a solution; talk to each other) • Books raise awareness, but they remain conservative 3. Fictional (Auto-)Biography & ‘Bildungsroman’ • Looking at people’s lives from a realistic perspective • How a character is shaped by his surroundings • Charles Dickens, o Oliver Twist (1837-39) o David Copperfield (1849-50) o Great Expectations (1860-61) o Dicken’s characters are good even though they are robbers o He focuses on one character despite the use of many others o No big harm comes to the main character o Poetic justice (the good get rewarded) • Charlotte Brontë (Currer Bell), o Jane Eyre, An Autobiography (1847) o She works even though she is a middle class woman o Only opportunity: governess (education required) 4. Historical Novels • [Sir Walter Scott, Waverley, Or: ‘Tis Sixty Years Hence (1814)] o First historical novel (not a Victorian novel though) o Some people still know about what happened 60 years ago o 1745 is what he writes about, quite important period for England o Jacobite rebellion in the center of attention o Central character: Waverly, unwillingly drawn into rebellion o Not a historical figure as a protagonist • Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho! (1855) • Charles Reade, The Cloister and the Hearth (1861) • George Arthur Henty (1880s, 90s) o Military stories for boys • People are interested in reading about the past in a fictional context • History in a fictional story is something new 5. Popular Literature: Travel & Adventure Stories • Regarded as popular or low culture (if you still distinguish) • Everybody reads these texts (regardless of social background) • In 19th century, traveling is not what you do every day and not everyone can afford it Travel Writing • Mungo Park o He traveled to Africa • David Livingstone o Missionary in Africa o Travels around and writes about it o Traveling with imperial eyes o Becomes rich • Paul Du Chaillu o French-American o Involved in gorilla mania or gorilla craze o Travels in Congo and writing about these animals o Scientists are skeptical because he is not accurate with his descriptions and dates o Involved in scoundrels • Adventure stories aim at young readers • Ballantyne is asked to write a gorilla story for Christmas • He accepts and plagiarizes Adventure Stories • Captain Marryat • Robert M. Ballantyne • George Arthur Henty • H. Rider Haggard • H.G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895) o Sci-fi o He travels to distant future o Degeneration because humans become physically weak if they rely on devices and machines o Technological skepticism o Two species develop out of mankind o Criticism on society, poor vs. rich, let’s change something o Very distant future: sun will go out 6. Women Writers • Many female readers, hence more female writers • Focus on women, marriages,… • Jane Austen not a Victorian • What she talks about, however, is very typical for the Victorian period • Still not socially acceptable to write for profit • Female writers publish their books with pseudonyms (with male names) • [Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)] • Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847) • Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847) • Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) • George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860) • Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford (1851-53), Ruth (1853) 7. The Novel at the End of the Century • Expansion of skepticism, decay, decadence thinking • ‘Aestheticism’, L’art pour l’art o Growing aestheticism, connected to degeneration o Criticism of the opinion that art should have the function of maintaining morals o Art for the art’s sake, no didactic function o Walter Pater o Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890/91) • Realism/Naturalism o Growing interest o Stories end bleakly, not happy endings o Thomas Hardy Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) Jude the Obscure (1895) Victorian Poetry and Drama • Novel is the main genre in the Victorian period which does not mean, however, that poetry does not exist • In terms of prestige, poetry remains the most important genre 1. Poetry 1.1 Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) • He shapes the age and lives almost through the whole period • First poet to be made lord • Most famous poem: In Memoriam o Dedicated to his best friend who died o Writing is his way of dealing with it 17 years after his friend’s death o Immediate success o Book-long poem o Speaker does not believe in a God who takes the dead up to him o In Memoriam A.H.H., Canto 27 I hold it true, whate'er befall; I feel it when I sorrow most; 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. ✓ In loss we have something we love ✓ Spiritual uncertainty o In Memoriam A.H.H., Canto 56 Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation's final law Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek'd against his creed ✓ God vs. nature ✓ Nature cannot be denied o In Memoriam A.H.H., Epilogue Whereof the man, that with me trod This planet, was a noble type Appearing ere the times were ripe, That friend of mine who lives in God, That God, which ever lives and loves, One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event, To which the whole creation moves. ✓ In the end, he returns to a Christian version of God 1.2 Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) • Primarily not a literary man, but a school inspector • Commentator on culture and education • Defender of liberal education (artes liberals, reading the classics) • Only writes poetry in a certain period of time which lasts about 10 years • “Dover Beach” (1867) [...] Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. o Victorian uncertainty in a nutshell (Darwin and stuff, humanity not as something special) o But this poem is not a response to Darwin o Speaker looks out of the window and listens, everything is calm at the beach o He hears the surf coming in, link to Sophocles who compares human misery to the sound of waves o From a nice situation he talks himself into depression o Ending: the world seems nice, but it’s not reference to the Peloponnesian War (armies clashing at night) all we have are interpersonal relationships o He anticipates uncertainty at the end of the Victorian Age 1.3 Robert Browning (1812 – 1889) • Famous for his dramatic monologues • Longer speech by one person, speaker addresses another character • Speaker in this case is clearly identifiable • Speaker reveals something he does not want to reveal • “My Last Duchess” (1842) That's my last Duchess' painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf’s hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands. Will’t please you sit and look at her? [...] [...] [...] Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive. Will’t please you rise? [...] o Speaker is duke who wants to marry again o He shows somebody around the house who can arrange a marriage with a woman o They contemplate the picture of his dead wife o Speaker suspects that his wife cheated on him with the painter o He accidentally reveals that he therefore killed his wife and the painter 1.4 Elizabeth Barrett-Browning (1806 – 1861) • Robert’s wife • They got married secretly and ran away because she was clearly older (scandal) • Books of sonnets (published in the 1850s), sonnets from the Portuguese • Speaker feels inferior to her husband • Sonnets are not popular in the 18th century, but they are on their way of becoming a hit again • Sonnet III Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart! Unlike our uses and our destinies. Our ministering two angels look surprise On one another, as they strike athwart Their wings in passing. [...] o She feels inferior o Both have their guardian angles who wonder why they are in love • Sonnet XLIII How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. o Deep love 2. Drama 2.1 Decline of Drama? • There is no great drama in the 19th century • Victorians love theater though (20,000 plays produced in the 19th century) • Paradox • Lack of traces • Period of great actors, e.g. Henry Irving • “No great acting drama was written during the 19th century.” • But: Theatre was a popular form of entertainment during the 19th century 2.2 Importance of Shakespeare • Shakespeare’s texts are cut dramatically • Lavish productions • • • 50 people on stage at the same time Lots of music, scenery and effects Thomas Bowdler: He re-writes Shakespeare’s play to make them appropriate for the whole family by taking out swearwords and sexual allusions) 2.3 Melodrama • There is Victorian drama, of course • It tries to intensify the audience’s emotional response, happy endings • Sensationalism, exaggeration, improbable plots • Thomas Holcroft, A Tale of Mystery (1802) (Guilbert de Pixérécourt) • Tom Taylor, The Ticket-of-Leave Man (1863) o Man sentenced to jail (not his fault) o Woman waits for him, problems after his release o Guys who tricked him convicted in the end o Realism in improbable plots 2.4 Musical Entertainment • Acting and singing very popular, fueled by legal issues • Licensing Act 1737 Not every stage is allowed to perform spoken words • Gilbert & Sullivan, Trial by Jury (1875), HMS Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879) 2.5 Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) • Looking back at Victorian period • Playwright & poet • First works are failures • Satirical pieces on Victorian society • Vera; or, The Nihilist (1880) • The Duchess of Padua (1883/1891) • Salomé (1893/1896) • Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) • A Woman of No Importance (1893) • An Ideal Husband (1895) • The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) 2.6 George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) • Looking forward to 20th century • Humans are influenced by social conventions • Naturalistic setup • He wants to put ides on stage that are critical • Widowers’ Houses (1892) • Mrs Warren’s Profession (1893) o She becomes a prostitute, all the other jobs are dangerous and badly paid o It’s their own choice o Society has to change • Man and Superman (1902-03) • Pygmalion (1912-13) Modernism 1. The Edwardians • Very short period: 1901 – 1910 under the rule of King Edward VII. • Kind of a continuation of the Victorian Period • Debate about necessary new social legislation Unemployment is somebody’s own fault (being lazy) and not due to the lack of jobs because, c’mon, I mean that would be ridiculous, right? • Health care and insurance, pension system requested • Drama G.B. Shaw o Continuation of writing, looking forward, theater ideas o Naturalism (how individuals are shaped by their surroundings) John Galsworthy o Realistic plays o Tackling social issues • Prose o Realistic writing o Return to a realistic interest in social issues Arnold Bennett o Opponent of Virginia Woolf o Very focused on plot o Simple characters Joseph Conrad o Paved the way to Modernism o He is actually Polish o Interest in how a story is told, style, discourse • Poetry o Continuation of Victorian Period o G.K. Chesterton, Edward Thomas • Period of transition 2. The Modernist Revolution around 1910 • Modernists become interested in form (starts about 1910) • Bakthin: Russian formalist • Modernism also comprises art and music • Challenging texts, trying new things • David Lodge, After Bakhtin (1990): “[...] the characteristics of modernist art in general, and of modernist writing in particular, have been often enough described: formal experiment, dislocation of conventional syntax, radical breaches of decorum, disturbance of chronology and spatial order, ambiguity, polysemy, obscurity, mytho-poetic allusion, primitivism, irrationalism, structuring by symbol and motif rather than by narrative or argumentative logic, and so on.” 2.1 Poetry 2.1.1 Poetry of the Great War • Not particularly Modernist except for radical style • WWI more important to Brits • People were actually eager to go to war, but their attitude changed during war (dumbasses) • People then started to write poems out of the trenches about their experiences • Form of poems remains conventional and conservative, but the content is kinda new • Rupert Brooke, “The Soldier” o Soldier looks ahead to what might happen next o It’s very likely that he will die o Sonnet o Calm and sedate atmosphere o Looking at Britishness in an unusual way, not patriotic, not heroic o Becomes the quintessential poem of war (does not really support the idea of a war) o Quoted in a sermon which is reported on the news where it is presented as propaganda piece, author dies (he was in favor of war) o Poem not propagandistic, but it is given this spin o “If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is forever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam A body of England’s, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. [...]” • Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et decorum est” o Anti-war type of person o Author initially eager to join war, but he changes his attitude and becomes a critic o Criticizes how war is performed o It’s not sweet to die for your country o “double sonnet” o Group of soldiers walks away from trenches when they are suddenly surprised by a gas attack o One of them dies, this memory haunts him for the rest of his life o “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. [...] Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime... Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. [...]” 2.1.2 The Imagists • Group of people who thought about what poetry should be doing • • Poetry tries to create a visual impression Group of poets, including Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, T.E. Hulme, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) • T.E. Hulme, “Above the Dock” (1909) “Above the quite dock in midnight, Tangled in the tall mast’s corded height, Hangs the moon. What seemed so far away Is but a child’s balloon, forgotten after play.” o He sees something and describes it • Ezra Pound, “In a Station of the Metro” (1913) “The apparition of these faces in the crowd ; Petals on a wet, black bough.” o Image of something that you can see every day o Presenting one image in a very condensed way 2.1.3 T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot (1888-1965) • Best-known modernist poet • His poetry presupposes a lot of knowledge • Many allusions, he draws on many texts that only few people know (elitist poetry) • The Waste Land (1922) “April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. [...]” o Allusion to the Canterbury Tales o You need a lot of knowledge to fully understand what’s going on o Not a bestseller, however • Helped to push poetry forward and away from the traditional poetry writing 2.2 Narrative Prose • Decreased interest in o Plot (‘what happens’) o Linear development o External descriptions • Increased interest in o Discourse (‘how it is told’) o Perception and its representation How does human perception work?, not chronological order of the perception o Internal developments What happens inside of people, what do they think Not interested in their entire life span • Reader needs to decode • Stream of Consciousness o William James (psychologist): mental processes o Linear stream of consciousness o However: not presented as linear, the reader needs to find out • • o Many processes combine to form our consciousness o Narrative techniques: • Direct thought o He thought: “I will go to the market.” • Free indirect thought o He would go to the market. • Interior monologue James Joyce (1882-1941) o Irish o Ulysses as a key text of Modernism o Problems to find a publisher, banned in the US and in England (until 1930) due to indecency o Publication in France o Text comprises one day o Each chapter with a different format (one chapter looks like a theater play) o Ulysses (1922), Section 18 (Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy) “Yes because he never did a thing like that before as ask to get his breakfast in bed with a couple of eggs since the City Arms hotel when he used to be pretending to be laid up with a sick voice doing his highness to make himself interesting for that old faggot Mrs Riordan that he thought he had a great leg of and she never left us a farthing all for masses for herself and her soul greatest miser ever was actually afraid to lay out 4d for her methylated spirit telling me all her ailments she had too much old chat in her about politics and earthquakes and the end of the world let us have a bit of fun first God help the world if all the women were her sort down on bathingsuits and lownecks of course nobody wanted her to wear them [...]” ✓ Interior monologue only (more than 40 pages) ✓ Woman next to her husband in bed ✓ Work for the reader to discern the linear consciousness Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) o Founded a publishing house with her husband (published many modernist books) o Suffered from depression, committed suicide o To the Lighthouse (1927) o Mrs Dalloway (1925) “What business had the Bradshaws to talk of death at her party? A young man had killed himself. And they talked of it at her party— the Bradshaws, talked of death. He had killed himself—but how? Always her body went through it first, when she was told, suddenly, of an accident; her dress flamed, her body burnt. He had thrown himself from a window. Up had flashed the ground; through him, blundering, bruising, went the rusty spikes. There he lay with a thud, thud, thud in his brain, and then a suffocation of blackness. So she saw it. But why had he done it? And the Bradshaws talked of it at her party!” ✓ Focus on one character and one event, but her mind wanders and jumps around ✓ A veteran commits suicide, and people talk about it ✓ Free indirect speech ✓ Vision of suicide ✓ Mixture of narrative description and her thoughts ✓ Important is to get to know Mrs. Dalloway and her mind Literature after 1945 (1) 1. Britain after 1945 • High unemployment due to WWII • De-colonization, India’s independence in 1947 • Dismantling of the empire after WWII, loss of Pakistan and African regions • Importance of Britain decreases • Self-perception changes • Economic decline throughout the 20th century • Per capita income decreases as well • Other countries wrecked by war grow faster • In Britain: strong trade unions, not willing to accept compromises • 1984: Miner’s strike. people stop working • Thatcher’s policy as a response to strikes 2. Poetry in the 1950s 2.1 The Movement • Very vague term, not one common theme among authors • Tendency towards tradition of from (countermovement to Modernism) • There is no system/theory behind it, not necessarily myth or logical • Less artificial poetry, no experiments in form • Kingsley Amis, Philip Larkin, D.J. Enright, John Wain, Elizabeth Jennings, Thom Gunn, Robert Conquest • Term coined by J.D. Scott in 1954 • D.J. Enright (ed.), Poets of the 1950s (1955) • Robert Conquest (ed.), New Lines (1956) 2.2 Philip Larkin, “Places, Loved Ones” (1954) • No, I have never found The place where I could say This is my proper ground, Here I shall stay; Nor met that special one Who has an instant claim On everything I own Down to my name; [...] • Sparse language, rhyme • Very typical form 3. The ‘Angry Young Men’ • Group of writers from working class • United by experience of not finding a job • Increase in number of universities • These men went to war and had their education afterwards, they were actually qualified, but not offered a job because they did not have the right background • Angry at system • Theme in literature: upward movement, often connected to immoral choices to reach this movement • Drama: John Osborne, Look Back in Anger (1956) o Jimmy as main character (working class with good education) o Shopkeeper, married to a middle class woman -> conflicts o Jimmy is angry at the class system, harsh language directed at his wife o She leaves him and comes back again o They do not try to solve their problems, but ignore them Arnold Wesker, Bernard Kops • Novels: John Wain, Hurry on Down (1953) Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim (1954) o Jim made it, but he’s unhappy with his job as a university professor, no progress o He feels like he does not fit into this society o Gets kicked out of university o marriage and another job is offered to him -> forced happy ending o He does not change the system, he needs to change John Braine, Room at the Top (1957) Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958) 4. Some Big Novelists of the 40s, 50s & 60s • Difficult to determine clear-cut epochs • Often realistic • Proliferation of books • George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) o Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) ✓ People living on the street o Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) ✓ dystopia of the 20th century, repressive system, manipulation of people, skepticism o Started out as a journalist o Interested in social problems and politics, anti-fascist • William Golding o Nobel Prize winner o Allegorical style, human psyche, what makes humans human?, what makes men good or bad? o Lord of the Flies (1954) ✓ Boys on a deserted island, rivalries, criticism of civilization o Free Fall (1959) • Doris Lessing o Nobel Prize winner o Grew up in a former colony o The Grass is Singing (1950) o Children of Violence (1952-1969) o The Golden Notebook (1962) ✓ Key text of feminism 5. Theater of the Absurd • Albert Camus: human condition sunk to a level of absurdity • Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot (1948/1953/1955) Endgame (1957) • Harold Pinter • Existentialism, individuality of human existence • There is no goal or pain • Absurdity of life Literature after 1945 (2) 1. Structuralism • Early 20th century • Sassure: Arbitrariness of the sign • Emerges in the field of linguistics • Two levels of the sign: o Signifier: the word or the letters, what you can see o Signified: the concept in your mind that emerges when you see that word • Their relationship is arbitrary (no reason why a tree is called tree) • Scholars tried to establish a system to create meaning • Human behavior can be analyzed in terms of structure • 1960: School of Thought questions structuralism because meaning is created by the difference between signs which they do not appreciate (poststructuralism), radical questioning of truth • Jaques Derrida “The movement of signification is possible only if each socalled ‘present’ element, each element appearing on the scene of presence, is related to something other than itself, thereby keeping within itself the mark of the past element, and already letting itself be vitiated by the mark of its relation to the future element, this trace being related no less to what is called the future than to what is called the past, and constituting what is called the present by means of this very relation to what it is not.” o If one word is always determined by another, there will be no meaning o Sign only becomes meaningful because of what it is not o Some rules are determined in a society; they are taken for granted o What is it that is taken for granted in a society or a text? o Find out the ideology of a society or a text o Concept of truth is problematic for poststructuralists o Language and meaning are vague o If you think of something, it will be different to someone else’s thoughts about the same thing o Hierarchies and authorities can always be questioned 2. Postmodernism and the Novel • Extremely vague term • Origin in America, culture that goes against mainstream • Postmodern texts do not require adequate knowledge • Popular culture, mass culture, raising barriers between high and low art • • • Acceptance of mass culture Anything can be culture and high art (even the picture of a can of soup) Death of the author (Roland Barthes) o No longer received as the person who generates all the meanings in a text o Meaning and the postmodernism are not monolithic phenomena (Hans Bertens) o Different interpretations by different people o Questioning a meaning-giving system o Author’s intention is not important, meaning is what the reader get out of it o There is more than one meaning • Historiographic Metafiction (Hutcheon) o Writing of history o Many texts refer to history or rewrite history o Metafiction: looking at what you’re doing o Narratives tell you about the act of narrating o “I remember it like this and that’s the way I’m going to tell you.” 3. Some Examples of ‘Postmodern’ Novels • John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969) o Nicely displays historiographic metafiction o Playing with the reader’s expectations o Each chapter starts with a quotation giving information about his writing o Author enters story as a character o This story: three possible endings -> there is no narrative truth • Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children (1981) o Narrator talks about the act of narrating • Graham Swift, Waterland (1983) o Set in England • Julian Barnes, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters (1989) o 1st chapter told by a woodworm o He insists on telling the truth o Each chapter from a different point of view o Important: A history, what is a half chapter? o Playing with expectations • A.S. Byatt, Possession. A Romance. (1989) o Questioning access to past • Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus (1984), The Bloody Chamber (1979) o Rewriting • Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry (1989), Written on the Body (1992) o Feminist writing o Playing with uncertainty • Recent Trends in the ‘English’ Novel o Internationalization o Regionalization (caring for a regional market rather than the entire country) o ‘Subcultures’ o Fantastic/Gothic o Neo-... 4. Self-reflexive Drama • Also called meta drama • Rewriting other texts • Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) o Review of Shakespeare’s Hamlet o Two character who are friends with Hamlet disappear in the original version, but here they are the main characters o Use of Shakespeare’s lines o Story told from their point of view o They cannot make their own choices; the play has already been written o They become aware of that • Edward Bond, Lear (1971) • British Drama after 1968 ->Radicalization • 1968: End of Licensing, Student Revolts o No censorship anymore o People try out everything (nude characters) • Howard Brenton, Romans in Britain (1980) o Accused of indecency because of nudity and gays o Political play actually • Caryl Churchill, Top Girls (1982) o Feminist play • “In-Yer-Face-Theatre” (1990s) o Very explicit and violent o Often political background o Attempt to analyze society o Sarah Kane, Blasted (1995) o Mark Ravenhill, Shopping and Fucking (1996) 5. Poetry • Too many different trends • Who needs poetry anymore? • Anything goes • Carol Ann Duffy, “Politics” (2009) o How it makes of your face a stone that aches to weep, of your heart a fist, clenched or thumping, sweating blood, of your tongue an iron latch with no door. How it makes of your right hand a gauntlet, a glove-puppet of the left, of your laugh a dry leaf blowing in the wind, of your desert island discs hiss hiss hiss, makes of the words on your lips dice that can throw no six. How it takes the breath away, the piss, makes of your kiss a dropped pound coin, makes of your promises latin, gibberish, feedback, static, of your hair a wig, of your gait a plankwalk. How it says this – politics – to your education education education; shouts this – Politics! – to your health and wealth; how it roars, to your conscience moral compass truth, POLITICS POLITICS POLITICS. o Political poem addressing the money scandal The Internationalization of English Literature 1. The Empire Writes Back • This phrase goes back to a poem that had this line in it • English not regarded as the property of the English people anymore • It’s used all over the world • Language therefore has been altering • It basically describes literature that is written in English, but not in England • Various terms to describe this movement: o Postcolonial literature o Commonwealth literature • Practical example: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) o Canonical English literature put in a dialogue by non-English people o She’s from the Dominican Republic o Her text is an engagement with Jane Eyre o It’s like a prequel because it depicts Bertha, Rochester’s mad wife in the attic (where she obviously belongs) and how her health deteriorated o She criticizes the point of view in Jane Eyre 1.1 Settler Colonies – South Africa • Colony in which settlers intend to stay and literally take over the land • Supremacy of the whites • The white population very quickly outnumbers the native population • South Africa is not a typical example (but Jochen decided to talk about it anyway) o There was an active pull of Britons to South Africa o BUT: the whites have never outnumbered the indigenous population • Olive Schreiner o Colonial person o Different point of view on South Africa than the rest of Britain o Feminist perspective included as well • Nadine Gordimer o Very big and important name o Nobel Prize in 1991 o Criticizes apartheid • J.M. Coetzee o Nobel Prize in 2003 o Criticism of white South Africa o Complicated writing o Looking at transition period in South Africa (end of apartheid) o Left for Australia • Zakes Mda o Native South African o Various genres o Commentator of South African culture • Phaswane Mpe o Writing about problems in South Africa nowadays 1.2 Colonies of Exploitation – India • Colonizers as a minority • They certainly do not intend to spend the rest of their lives there • • • • • • They just do it to push their careers Main aim: getting resources White elite is there to run the show It therefore takes longer for English literature to develop Texts for the British market, texts by non-English people are produced rather late Henry Derozio (1809-1831) “To India – My Native Land” (1827) o Born in India (he is just a quarter Indian) o But he sees himself as an Indian o First one to write about India in English as an Indian o Short poem about India’s glorious past, wake-up poem • Michael Madhusudan Datta (1824-1873), “The Captive Ladie” o Looking at Indian past o Indian greatness • Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004) Untouchable (1935) o Writings about the Indian caste system o First Indian-born author who does not target colonization • Salman Rushdie (*1947) Midnight’s Children (1981) o Biggest name o He’s an Indian, but educated in England and worked there o People criticize him for not knowing about what’s going on back in India o What is national literature? o Book is a smash hit o Internationality o Use of European intertext o Questioning history ->postmodern o Fantasy book, children get magical gifts for being born in the period of transition, fairy tale elements (not Fairy Tail!!!) 1.3 Colonies of Exploitation – Africa • Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) Things Fall Apart (1958) o Writer, critic, academic o He started African literature in English o Said to be racist, but he does not really give a shit about Africa; it just happened to be the setting of his story o Journey of the white man o Focus on problems within society, not European influence in the foreground • Wole Soyinka (*1934) Kongi’s Harvest (1965) o Looking at effects of colonization • Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (*1938) A Grain of Wheat (1967) o Fighting within Kenyan society after Europeans leave o Why in English? Doesn’t have anything to do with the Brits o He later stopped writing in English 2. Black British Writing • Black here means non-white (racist!!!) • Emerged in the time when the British Empire started to be dismantled • Gastarbeiter encouraged to come to England (Jamaica) • 1948: Empire Windrush Brings 493 immigrants from Jamaica • • • • People who bear an entanglement of cultures in them write in English and about (English) experiences Hanif Kureishi (*1954) The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) o He’s a hybrid and that’s what he writes about o Character born in England, but visibly different because of foreign roots o He’s treated like a foreigner Monica Ali (*1967), Brick Lane (2003) o Notorious, people didn’t like it Zadie Smith (*1975), White Teeth (2001) o Story set in England o People from different cultures o Culture conflicts o Questioning identity