El reciente artículo publicado recomendando cinco adaptaciones cinematográficas basadas en obras de Jane Austen es una excelente razón para compartir más abajo el resumen que suelo mandar a aquellas personas que están interesadas en el temario (resúmenes en realidad como sabéis si habéis ojeado el blog).
Las películas según el artículo son : Sentido y Sensibilidad; Amor y Amistad;Mansfield Park; Emma; y Orgullo y Prejucio.
¿Estás de acuerdo? ¿Cuál es tu favorita? ¿Tienes alguna recomendación cinematográfica relacionada con el tema? A mí me gustó mucho Bright Star de Jane Campion sobre John Keats.
La elección del tema 48: Romanticism in Great Britain: Novel and poetry no es casual ya que es el tema que elegí para desarrollar en la última oposición del 2021 y con el que no solo aprobé sino saqué una buena nota.
Es un tema que al igual que todos los de literatura tienen mucho potencial y dan mucho juego para dar ese toque de originalidad, este tema en particular además tiene la ventaja de que los autores y sus obras están claramente definidos.
Actualización 19/04/2024: ChatGPT le pone una nota de 8.00 que está a menos de medio punto de lo que saqué en la oposición en la parte del desarrollo del tema. Ver comentarios al final del tema.
ENTRADA RELACIONADA:
Modelo de examen o ejemplo de desarrollo de un tema de la oposición
ARTÍCULOS RELACIONADOS:
LAS 21 MEJORES ADAPTACIONES DE JANE AUSTEN, EN RANKING
TEMA 48. EL ROMANTICISMO EN GRAN BRETAÑA: NOVELA Y POESIA.
1. INTRODUCTION
2. HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND AND SOURCES OF INSPIRATION
3. CHARACTERISTICS
OF ROMANTICISM
4. POETRY
5. NOVEL
6. CONCLUSION
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. INTRODUCTION
In this topic we will study the historical background and the main features of the Romantic period focusing on the Romantic novel and poetry in English. Romanticism began in Germany at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, but 1798 is considered the key year for English Romanticism when Lyrical Ballads was published by Wordsworth and Coleridge.
We will divide the topic in different
sections. First, we will approach to a historial background and sources of
inspiration during this period. Secondly, we will analyse the characteristics
of Romanticism. Thirdly, we will study both novel and poetry in English at that
time. So let’s begin with our first part.
2. HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND AND SOURCES OF INSPIRATION
Romantic
literature is often compared
with the Augustan or classic literature. The improvements in medicine,
economics, science and industry made Classical writers base their literary
works on logic, reason and intellect. Children are
very important for them since they have to be trained into civilisation in
order to develop into adults. The literature focuses on what can be logically
measured and rationally understood. They look for the balance and symmetry
of the heroic couplet in their works.
The social
instability caused by the Industrial Revolution originated unemployment,
poverty and an impersonal society; and the political instability caused by the French Revolution in 1789 and the American Declaration of Independence in
1776 made Romantic writers think that they could only trust feelings, intuition
and the individual. They see children and nature as uncorrupted by civilisation
and the source for spontaneous feeling. Their literary works concentrate on the
irrational,
mysterious and supernatural which are written in a
simple language, near to the everyday speech to be understood by everybody.
Some previous authors had great influence on the
Romantic writers regarding the language, ideas and themes. Among these authors
we find John Milton and the use he
made of the blank verse in Paradise Lost as well as the
treatment of the sublime.
Rousseau with his idea of man good by nature but corrupted by society and also the establishment of a democratic government was very influential as well.
The political radicalism of William
Godwin who in the 1790’s maintained the necessity for an equal wealth distribution in order to remove
poverty is also influential.
The Germanic
culture had a great impact on Romantic writers, specially because of the
topic they dealt with; the ghostly ballads of Bürger like Lenore or Sorrows of Young Werther
by Goethe were the main sources of
inspiration for many authors.
3. CHARACTERISTICS
OF ROMANTICISM
Although
the Romantic writers cannot be grouped in a movement since they were
individualists, there are 3 characteristics which are common in their works, the
context of the time, the function of the poet and the use of common subjects.
Most of the Romantics writers rebelled against the
social conventions of the time. The 1st generation
writers preferred to live near nature
and write about common people or supernatural
dreams as opposed to the ugly
industrial life. The 2nd generation
writers were more radical and revolutionary trying to change the
world. In this way the former were labelled as the passive school whereas the
latter were labelled as the active school.
For the Romantic writers the poet is a visionary who must be sensitive and has to observe the world through visions and nature. Those visions would help them to resist the tyrants. This way of seeing the poet and the poetry helps to understand the difference in the literary language between the Classical and the Romantic writers. For the former, poetry is an imitation of human life whereas for Wordsworth and the Romantics in general, poetry is the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”.
Another common aspect for all Romantics is the treatment of similar subjects; imagination, nature, the supernatural, human conditions, children and the self.
Imagination is considered the most important feature since it is used to escape from reality. Through imagination new worlds far from reality were created; techniques that developed imagination were dreams as in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, opium as in Kubla-Khan by Coleridge, madness or hypnosis.
Nature was considered as one of the most influential sources
of imagination since it represents beauty, the state of the mind and moral
health. For many Romantic writers god could only be perceived in nature. This
element is very important for William Wordsworth because he lived in the Lake District;
he considered people from country uncorrupted by society and his poetic
language was that of those individuals.
The supernatural attracted many Romantic writers although some preferred everyday things. The best example is Coleridge with his mysterious and magical stories in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christabel or the already mentioned Kubla-Khan. The appearances of dark landscapes, castles or old mansions in the gothic novels are all examples of the use of the supernatural and mysterious.
Romantic writers rebelled against capitalism and the political order because of the poor human conditions of the ordinary people. Because of this they sympathized with the poor and the children using a plain language which could be understood by everybody. Wordsworth considered children as the nearest creatures to god because they are uncorrupted by society. Children are the source of natural and spontaneous feeling. This idea can be seen in My Heart Leaps up by Wordsworth.
The inequalities in the social order made Romantic
writers trust only themselves. According to Blake, God operates in
the human soul and help us to create a new world trough imagination.
4. POETRY
Romantic poets are usually classified into 3 groups, pre-romantics, 1st generation and 2nd generation poets. Among the pre-romantic poets we find writers such as Thomas Gray, Robert Burns and William Blake.
PRE-ROMANTIC POETS
Thomas Gray is considered as the most scholarly and well-balanced of the pre-romantic poets. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was very influenced by Horace Walpole. Although his early poems are labelled as Neo-classic, his latter work shows interest in nature, in common men and in medieval culture. His best work is Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.
Robert Burns is a Scottish writer who suffered from extreme poverty, reason why he showed sympathy for the poor. This is a key aspect of Romanticism. He was considered one of the best song writers in the world; he used to take old Scottish tunes to compose new songs written in the Scottish dialect. The sympathy for the poor is seen in his poetic language, very musical and expressive following simple metres. As he had to work in the fields, his portrayal of country life is based on experience, not on observation, as it happens with other romantic writers.
Among his best known poems we find The
Tree of Liberty, supporting the French Revolution; A Man’s a Man for A’That,
hoping for social equality; Scots Wha Hae, showing his
patriotism and opposition towards oppression; and Holy Willie’s Prayer, a
satire on religious hypocrisy.
William Blake represents a complete break with Neo-classicism; educated at the Royal Academy of Art, he is best known for his poetry as well as for his illustrations. Influenced by completely different works such as the Bible, Milton’s Paradise Lost or the children’s poetry of Isaac Watts, he sees the world in terms of opposites. The major opposition is the order of Classicism against the liberty of Romanticism.
Some of the symbols he uses are key to understand
Romanticism. Innocence is symbolised
by children, flowers or lambs. Oppression
and reason are symbolised by social
institutions and the industrial life. Human
creativity and inspiration are
symbolised by a tiger which appears in his best-known poem The Tyger.
Common topics in his works are his sympathy for the
French Revolution which shows his attitude of revolt against authority. His
early poems show simple vocabulary but
his latter ones, found in his prophetic books are quite mystical and difficult
to understand. His best-known collection of poems is Songs of Innocence and of
Experience, being published first separately and then together in 1794.
The two books are in contrast to each other “showing the Two Contrary States of
the Human Soul”; this is why some of the poems in this collection come in
pairs. The city of London is portrayed with happy visions in Songs of Innocence
and as agonising city in Songs of Experience. The language he uses is very
simple, as we said before, because he took popular rhymes and street ballads of
children to write the songs.
In his prophetic books he evolved a new type of allegory with characters named by his own invention and representing psychological or spiritual forces; these books are more difficult to understand because the language is not so simple. Among those we find The French Revolution written in 1791, America written in 1793, Europe written in 1793 or Jerusalem written between 1804 and 1820 among some others. His main prose work was Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
FIRST GENERATION POETS
William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey are the poets belonging to the first generation. We will deal with the first two being the main ones.
Wordsworth, as his colleagues, had great interest in the French
Revolution; he was influenced by Godwin’s
Political
Justice towards the French Revolution. For Wordsworth and for the
Romantic writers, poetry was considered a vocation, a profession, not just a
mere hobby. He saw the poet as a prophet, not the transcriber of other men’s
truths. Although inclined towards Classicism in his early days, Wordsworth
changed towards intuition after the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798.
He considered nature as the teacher of morals where God resides.
His settlement in the Lake District made Wordsworth
get in touch with rural and quiet life. He is known as a pantheist, identifies the natural
universe with God. This worship leads Wordsworth to venerate the common people
who live surrounded by nature, they are purer ad their language is unspoilt. He
sees children as a symbol of wisdom
and truth, unspoilt by education and uncorrupted by the world. This idea is
seen in his Ode: Imitations of Immortality.
His language is plain although technically his range is very wide, the blank verse (influence of Milton), the Italian sonnet, a variety of stanza-forms or the free Pindaric metre. In his poems there are descriptions of nature, mountains, rivers, flowers, birds, children and peasants.
The Lyrical Ballads is his best-known work, written along with S. T.
Coleridge. But it is also considered the best work in the English Romantic
poetry. The Prelude was published in 1850, after his death; it is a
long autobiographical poem whose main concern is the psychology of the
individual. Other important works include Lines Written in Early Spring, To the
Cuckoo, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud or The Solitary Reaper.
S.
T. Coleridge differenciates
from Wordsworth in the use of the supernatural.
Both used everyday language in their works but Wordsworth concentrated on the
everyday language whereas Coleridge concentrated on the romance and mystery of
the past. This aspect is best seen in his best-known poems, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,
his main contribution to the Lyrical Ballads; Christabel and
Kubla-khan written in
SECOND GENERATION
POETS
The 2nd generation include Lord Byron,
Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats; they all died very young after living in a
romantic style.
Lord Byron was considered the man of the crusades. He was influenced by Dryden, Pope and Fielding from whom he learnt their mock-heroic style. He has some non-romantic features such as his defence of the language and style of 18th century poetic tradition. He didn’t believe in the importance of imagination or in the poet as a prophet.
But he is considered to belong to the Romantic period
because he shares characteristics from the period such as individuality and the
use of glamorous and mysterious characters like the Byronic Hero. His main contributions are Chide Harold’s Pilgrimage,
Oriental Tales, Manfred, Cain or his unfinished masterpiece Don
Juan.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born and brought up during the stormy years of the French Revolution which had a strong influence on him. This is the reason why he was the most revolutionary of the Romantic period. His ideals are in opposition against institutions such as the family, monarchy or the church, so liberty is a constant theme in his works. Despite his reaction against the church, he saw Jesus Christ as an example of love and suffering due to tyrant’s oppression. From Plato he took the idea of liberty; the political radicalism of Paine and Godwin influenced his works; and he compared Rousseau with Jesus Christ for being a visionary, an idealist and a thinker.
Like many Romantics he uses in his works dreams, imagery and irony. Common subjects in his works are Nature as the only eternal thing, revolution against the tyrants, art as eternal which lasts forever and he also liked the mysterious. His main contributions to the Romantic period were Prometheus Unbound, Queen Mab, Adonais, The Mask of Anarchy, Ozymandias or Triumph of Life.
John Keats poetry was strongly influenced by Wordsworth and Coleridge. Common themes in his works are death, suffering, eternal beauty and human imagination. Like Coleridge and Wordsworth, Keats thought that suffering was needed in order to understand world worries.
Among his main contributions we find his early long poems like Endymion influenced by Greek myth and legends and The Fall of Hyperion influenced by Milton. Ode to a Nightingale is a meditation on the immortal beauty of the nightingale song and the sadness of the observer, who must at the end accept sorrow and mortality.
5. NOVEL
At the end of the 18th century two new kinds of fiction appeared, the popular novel and the gothic novel. The main characteristic of the popular novel is the sensibility seen in human relations; it is the result of the reaction against the brutality of the 18th century. Sensibility became a fashionable attribute sometimes criticised for being dangerous because it could make women look feeble and vulnerable.
Among the best-known writers of gothic novels we find Horace Walpole, Anne Radcliffe or Mary Shelley. One of the main characteristics of the gothic novels is that pain and terror could produce a sort of delightful horror. They used to look back to the past and set landscapes with castles, Medieval cathedrals, ruins or obscure landscapes. Gothic novelists were also against reason, order, political stability and commercial progress. Gothic novels of the romantic period strongly influenced Dickens, the Brönte sisters, Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Edgar Allan Poe.
The main novels of this period are: The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole; it is considered the first gothic novel written; the story deals with a heroin trapped between her parents and a villain. The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian both by Anne Radcliffe; she is considered the best gothic novelist, her terror novels end with a rational ending. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; the descriptions of nature in this novel are the result of Shelley’s admiration for Wordsworth and Coleridge, especially The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Frankenstein is not fully considered as a gothic novel since it transforms a story about a fabricated monster into a representation of moral distortion; he is rejected by society because he diverges from the norm which is beauty.
The romantic period produced two major novelists, Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen. Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish poet and novelist; he is best-known for his historical novels which cover a wide period from the Jacobine rebellion of 1745 to the 12th century crusades, from the relations between Normans and Saxons to the time of Mary Queen of Scots. He used his mother tongue in his writings, reason why many Scottish spoken words were introduced into literature. His most important works are Waverly, Guy Mannering, Ivanhoe, Kenilworth or Rob Roy.
Jane Austen cannot be considered a
Romantic although she lived during the romantic period; she didn’t deal with the
same topics as romantic writers. Among the main features of her novels, she had
an ironic observation of the heroin; the main themes were love intrigues,
marriage and social status. She focused on young heroines such as Elinor and
Marianne in Sense and Sensibility, Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice,
Fanny Price in Mansfield Park or Anne Elliot in Persuasion. These novels
along with Emma are considered her best ones. Jane Austen used the novel
to give moral examples, to ridicule manners or to describe ways of life.
6. CONCLUSION
To sum up this topic we must say that Romanticism was strongly influenced by the French Revolution and the war of Independence in America. Romantics valued individualism above all. As a reaction to classicism Romantic writers used simple language in order to be understood by the ordinary people who they considered to be uncorrupted by society. Nature and imagination were seen as the sources for inspiration.
A way to talk about this topic in class is by looking at the abridged versions of some of the novels, or watching the films made about Scott’s historical novels. To look at the poetry is more difficult although some work can be done on the song Rime of the Ancient Mariner by heavy metal band Iron Maiden which is a way to introduce students into this kind of literature.
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY
·
A Brief History of English Literature
·
The Short Oxford History of English Literature
·
The Oxford Companion to English Literature
·
The Oxford Anthology of English Literature
ACTUALIZACIÓN 19/4/2024
Corrección con ChatGPT tras pasarle los criterios de evaluación, indicadores y porcentajes:
Deep and Updated Scientific Knowledge of the Topic (30%):
- The introduction provides a clear overview of the topic, establishing historical context and key milestones in English Romanticism.
- Definitions and exemplifications are adequately provided, enhancing understanding of Romantic literature.
- Pertinent bibliographical references are mentioned, though more extensive citations and referencing could strengthen the scholarly depth.
Assessment: 26/30 (86.7%)
Structure, Full Development, and Originality of the Essay (40%):
- The essay maintains a coherent structure, with clear divisions between sections and a logical progression of ideas.
- Each part of the topic is adequately developed, covering historical background, characteristics of Romanticism, and analysis of novels and poetry.
- The conclusion offers a suitable synthesis of key insights, though it could be more nuanced in its treatment of the broader implications of Romanticism.
Assessment: 32/40 (80%)
Presentation, Order, and Writing (30%):
- The essay exhibits fluency of expression and clarity in presenting ideas, facilitating understanding for the reader.
- The language and structure are appropriate for academic writing, maintaining a suitable register throughout.
- Some instances of awkward phrasing are present, but they do not significantly impede comprehension.
Assessment: 22/30 (73.3%)
Final Mark:
- Criteria 1: 86.7% of 30% = 26/30
- Criteria 2: 80% of 40% = 32/40
- Criteria 3: 73.3% of 30% = 22/30
Total Mark:
Final Mark (from 0 to 10):
COMENTARIOS SOBRE LA CALIFICACIÓN DE CHATGPT: Es muy similar (menos de medio punto de diferencia) a la obtenida del tribunal (este tema fue el que desarrollé en la oposición del 2021).
Feedback:
This revised version of the essay demonstrates significant improvement in addressing the assessment criteria. The introduction effectively sets the stage for the discussion, while subsequent sections provide comprehensive coverage of Romanticism in Great Britain. The essay maintains a coherent structure and presents ideas with clarity and fluency. Minor revisions to refine language and eliminate awkward phrasing could further enhance the overall presentation. Overall, this essay offers a thorough exploration of the topic and earns a commendable grade of 8.0 out of 10.
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