This is a complete summary of the 1st-semester course 19th Century Literature 1. It is a combination of the ppt's, my own personal notes and some extra information from the internet and Litchart.
‣ Romanticism is an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards
the end of the 18th century.
‣ Many Romantic ideals were rst articulated by German thinkers in the Sturm und Drang
movement (= a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music that
occurred between the late 1760s and early 1780s), which elevated intuition and
emotion above Enlightenment rationalism.
‣ It was characterised by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as
glori cation of the past and nature, preferring the medieval to the classical.
‣ Romanticism was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, and the prevailing
ideology of the Age of Enlightenment, especially the scienti c rationalisation of Nature.
‣ The events and ideologies of the French Revolution were also direct in uences on the
movement; many early Romantics throughout Europe sympathised with the ideals and
achievements of French revolutionaries.
‣ Coleridge translated a lot of German Romantic works which is how the style spread
around in English literature.
‣ The Romantics were writers of extreme emotions: in Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth wrote
about what good poetry looks like according to him: “Poetry is the spontaneous
over ow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.
‣ Romanticism came to the US quite late. The US was at that point a very young country.
Establishing new literary traditions and literature in general were not a priority. By the
time it got popularised in the US, the “hype” had already died down in Great Britain.
1.1. The “Long Nineteenth Century”:
‣ The Long Nineteenth Century is a term
for the 125-year period beginning with
the onset of the French Revolution in
1789, and ending with the outbreak of
World War I in 1914.
‣ The term refers to the notion that the
period re ects a progression of ideas
which are characteristic to an
understanding of the 19th century in
Europe.
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,‣ During this time democracy was widely implemented and fought for in Europe. People
started questioning the system of monarchy and the claim that power was a God-given
right, given to only speci c bloodlines.
‣ It could also be said that The Long Nineteenth Century started in 1776, with the
American Declaration of Independence. This is the rst time that democracy worked in
recent history. The French and the Belgians also looked to the US Constitution when
drafting their own constitutions.
1.2. Age of Revolution - Londen by William Blake
London - William Blake (1789-1794)
I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does ow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear
How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls
But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infant’s tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse
‣ The speaker is describing the dullness of London and how dreary it is.
‣ The use of repetition with the word ‘every’ is driving this point home: everything in
London is dull.
‣ A charter = the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognises
the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights speci ed.
‣ The speaker is describing the streets and the Thames as chartered; even the Thames
can not choose where it goes, it is regulated and ruled by man. The same goes for the
streets and the people. We impose ourselves with the rules we create.
‣ Mind-forg’d manacles: we did this to ourselves. We are trapped in a prison we made
ourselves.
‣ Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) expressed this idea before:
- “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.” - Le Contrat Social (1762)
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, - “Our wisdom is slavish prejudice, our customs consist in control, constraint,
compulsion. Civilised man is born and dies a slave. The infant is bound up in
swaddling clothes, the corpse is nailed down in his cof n. All his life long, man is
imprisoned by our institutions.” - Émile, ou De l’education (1762)
- Liberté, égalité, fraternité: the moto of the French revolution. In this era of
Revolutions, people are ghting more for their personal freedom. The French
Revolution was a source of inspiration for the Romantics.
LitCharts Extras:
The poem describes a walk through London, which is presented as a pained, oppressive, and impoverished
city in which all the speaker can nd is misery. It places particular emphasis on the sounds of London, with
cries coming from men, women, and children throughout the poem. The poem is in part a response to the
Industrial Revolution, but more than anything is a erce critique of humankind's failure to build a society
based on love, joy, freedom, and communion with God.
Themes: the Oppression of Urban Life, the corruption of childhood
1.3. Features of Romanticism:
‣ Emancipation of the individual
- Artistic
- Political
‣ Subjective worldview
- Insistence on personal feelings
- Exploration of the mind and soul
- Cult of Beauty
- Obsession with death
‣ Attitudes toward time
- Past
- Present
- Future
‣ Attitudes toward space
- Indoor
- Outdoor
★ Read PDF on Features of Romanticism for more info on each point.
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, 2. Romantic Poetry - The Big Six
2.1. “The Mind-forg’d Manacles I Hear”:
‣ William Blake and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were not the only ones to put this idea into
words.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797):
‣ “A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a sel sh temper and con ned views.
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.” -
Re ections on the Revolution in France (1790)
‣ Burke was the rst to write a pamphlet on the French Revolution.
‣ Many wrote pamphlets in response to him; The French Revolution = pamphlet war.
‣ He believed that “revolutions eat their young” and that certain things were worth
conserving.
- absolutism? NO! But aren’t we going a bit too fast?
‣ A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
(Burke, 1757):
- Burke wasn’t the rst to use the word sublime, but he was the rst to theorise
what it meant.
- “Whatever is tted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to
say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or
operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is
productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”
- It’s so overwhelming and awe-inspiring that it’s almost impossible to put into
words.
- cf. the Romantic sublime: an experience beyond reason; it inspires terror,
wonder, and awe, and lls the mind with a “delightful horror.”
Thomas Paine (1737-1809):
‣ Common Sense (1776):
- A pamphlet he wrote advocating for independence from Great Britain to the
people of the 13 American colonies.
- He writes about how it’s common sense that the colonists want freedom and
independence.
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