British Romantics

Question 1

Romantic theorising

Answer 1

is a reflection of the poets’
poetic technique.

Question 2

The poet (rather than nature or the rules of decorum)

Answer 2

is seen as the source and touchstone of art.

Question 3

German theories were

Answer 3

pragmatic.

Question 4

British theories were

Answer 4

expressive

Question 5

Enlightenment emphasises

Answer 5

analysis

Question 6

Romanticism focuses on

Answer 6

synthesis

Question 7

Wordsworth’s work:

Answer 7

1802, Preface to Lyrical Ballads

Question 8

What comprises Lyrical Ballads

Answer 8

Lyrical Ballads comprises poems by Wordsworth and
Coleridge that are distinct but complementary in
kind.

Question 9

What kind of objects does Wordsworth select in Lyrical Ballads

Answer 9

Wordsworth selects objects from nature, from the
mundane, everyday world of the countryside and its inhabitants and renders them in the light of wonder.

Question 10

What kind of objects does Coleridge select in Lyrical Ballads

Answer 10

Coleridge presents a supernatural world in such a way
as to render it almost natural.

Question 11

Defamiliarisation

Answer 11

the distinctive effect achieved by
literary works in disrupting our habitual perception
of the world, enabling us to “see” things afresh.

Question 12

Rime of the Ancient Mariner uncovers

Answer 12

(behind the
supernatural veil of his tale) dramatic and
emotional truths.

Question 13

suspension of disbelief

Answer 13

refers to our ability to temporarily suspend the
claims of reason and logic and to enter, through
the power of imagination, into the life and heart
of a poem.

Question 14

What is emphasized in reconsidering mimesis

Answer 14

In reconsidering mimesis emphasis is placed on
poetic transformation rather than imitation.

Question 15

How is poetry to be regarded in British Romanticism?

Answer 15

Poetry is now to be regarded as self-expression,
as a ‘journal’ of the unique perceptions of an
individual.

Question 16

For Wordsworth, poetry

Answer 16

is a personal reflection of
the poet’s interactions with himself and his
world.

Question 17

what does Wordsworth’s nature poetry primarily reflect upon

Answer 17

Wordsworth’s nature poetry is less a reflection on
nature than on the feelings and ideas excited in
the poet as he contemplates nature (redefining
Aristotle, where the feeling gives importance to
the action).

Question 18

How is taste viewed in neoclassical art

Answer 18

By contrast, in neoclassical art taste is a form of
social discrimination because great art engages
only a small fraction of society, one capable of
receptivity.

Question 19

Romantic poetry looks for

Answer 19

transcendental meaning in
the human world.

Question 20

Keats - The egotistical sublime

Answer 20

is a quality of
strong, dominant poetic personalities who
mediate their visions of the world through
themselves.

Question 21

Negative capability

Answer 21

is the ability to
transcend the constraints of any epistemology
and remain in uncertainty.

Question 22

For Keats, Milton and Shakespeare

Answer 22

possessed negative capability, i.e.
selfless receptivity; Wordsworth was overcome
by the egotistical sublime.

Question 23

For Keats, Coleridge

Answer 23

seeks knowledge over beauty.

Question 24

The egotistical sublime is a kind

Answer 24

of “poetic
narcissism”.

Question 25

Romantic emphasis on imagination replaces

Answer 25

the
neoclassical bias for decorum.

Question 26

Romantic paradox

Answer 26

a paradox where poetry functions both in the name of nature and in the name of art.

Question 27

P. Shelley wrote

Answer 27

A Defence of Poetry

Question 28

A Defence of Poetry

Answer 28

is
a Romantic response to
Plato’s challenge.

Question 29

Shelley gives preference to

Answer 29

the imagination,
rather than reason.

Question 30

Shelley’s rebuttal of Plato

Answer 30

1. Language is inherently poetic and poetry has the
   power to preserve language.
2. Imagination is “the great instrument of moral
   good” (1962: 234) (cf. Plato’s critique, Sidney’s
   apology)
3. Literature is a means towards self-knowledge.
4. Poetry is the origin of all systems of thought. It is
   never more necessary than at the time marked by an
   “excess of the selfish and calculating
   principle”
5. True poetry lives in social institutions because it
   supplies them with wisdom.
6. Plato was a poet whereas “Shakespeare, Dante, and
   Milton…are philosophers of the very loftiest
   power.” (1962: 231)
7. Poetry conveys life’s “eternal truth” (1962: 231) by
   way of defamiliarisation.
8. Poets are the greatest creators and innovators of
   society.

Question 31

What does Romantic theorizing about literature and art derive from

Answer 31

Romantic theorising about literature and art
derives from the Kantian notion of genius,
which they reinterpret with an emphasis on
creative subjectivity as a source of art.

Question 32

British Romantics highlight the significance

Answer 32

of imagination in its capacity to evoke the
defamiliarisation of the mundane world

Question 33

What role does Coleridge’s notion of “a willing suspension of disbelief” open up for the reader

Answer 33

Yet in claiming that art calls for “a willing
suspension of disbelief” Coleridge opens up
space for the agency of the reader, whose role
will rise into view in Reader Response theories.

Question 34

What does Keats’s critique of the Wordsworthian sublime and his concept of negative capability demonstrate

Answer 34

Keats’s critique of the Wordsworthian sublime
and his idea of negative capability demonstrate
the internal contradictions in Romantic
epistemology.