GENERAL QUESTIONS Flashcards
EXAMPLES OF INDUSTRIAL AND ‘CONDITION-OF-ENGLAND’ NOVELS
Industrial and condition-of-England novels focus on the horrors of factory work and the living conditions of the poor with reform as the ultimate goal. Some examples include:
- Elizabeth Gaskell - North and South
- Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist and David Copperfield
- Charlotte Bronte - Shirley
WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF A VICTORIAN NOVEL, HOW WOULD YOU RECOGNIZE A VICTORIAN NOVEL?
Victorian novels stress the importance of the historical background in which they're set. They centralise class-connected issues, have an almost romantic insistence that the subject is, in fact, not romantic. They're recognisable by the following elements: emphasis on domestic dramas and details of domestic life, they are centered around childhood and innocence, stress the importance of vocation and money, the bildung narrative with strong female protagonists, omniscient narrator modes and many plots, moral anthropology. The Victorian novel was influenced by the economical, social and political changes of the time, social class reforms, institutional reforms in Great Britain, local migrations to the cities, factories overflowing with working young children...
WHICH AUTHORS MIGHT BE REGARDED IN TERMS OF EUROPEAN REALISM AND WHY?
- WILLIAM THACKERAY - Vanity Fair: there are no heroic personalities, reality is bleak and there are no great love stories. His recreation of London is historically accurate, the author includes the names of real personalities but there are NO COINCIDENCES –>NO CAUSAL DETERMINISM (more on that later)
- GEORGE ELIOT -The Mill on the Floss: this is the closest to European psychological realism (she imitated Dostoevsky and Tolstoy). The author emphasised the subjective reality of men’s psyche, like D and T, who relativized reality, not made it objective. George Eliot’s very careful in constructing the psychology, taking into account all the basic premises: genetic predisposition, the environment, the historical moment. Therefore, the fates of her characters couldn’t have been any different. EVERYTHING LEADS TO EVERYTHING ELSE. Eliot was heavily influenced by Darwin’s The Origin of the Species, characters are often compared to animals.
- MAYBE CHARLES DICKENS - Oliver Twist: but he might be regarded more in the terms of social and romantic realism as he focuses on the lives of the vulnerable little people and criticises the contemporary bourgeois society.
WHAT IS THE ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EUROPEAN REALISM AND VICTORIANISM?
Victorianism is connected with the English society, its political and cultural circumstances. It differs from European realism in FORM and CONTENT. Victorian novels were released as triple-deckers in serial newspapers, so every update ended with a cliff-hanger and as already mentioned, Victorian novels focus on Britain’s industrialisation, urbanisation, social structure, domestic life, the role of women ect. Victorian writers were satirical and showed through parody the reality of everyday life.
Another essential difference is the use of causal determinism, the belief that every specific cause has a specific effect and the belief that along with each even that happened beforehand, the characters are defined by the time, their heredity and environment.
DESCRIBE THE PREDECESSOR OF THE DETECTIVE NOVEL
THE NEWGATE NOVELS followed a specific formula: set the story back in the previous century, open the action with spectacularly foul weather, introduce a child who is low-born and either an orphan or as good as one, have them corrupted into a life of crime, portray several thieves’ dens and if possible a hideout in a cave like Batman, sprinkle the dialogue with low-life slang, add a plot twist involving shady doings by the high-born and end with the central figure managing against all odds to display true gentlemanliness, marry an heiress and reform just before or on the very last page. An example of a Newgate novel is Bulwer-Lytton’s Paul Clifford.
EXPLAIN THE RISE OF THE SCI-FI NOVEL AND NAME 3 AUTHORS
Science fiction developed as a response to the technological and scientific developments. This happened because during the Victorian period, the rise of science profoundly affected the cultural imagination. Science was exciting and popular and accessible, which reflected in the novels. The very first sci-fi novel was Marys Shelley’s Frankenstein, other examples are: Haggard: King Solomon’s Mines; Wells: The Invisible Man and The Time Machine; Fawcett: Hartmann the Anarchist.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE MALE AND FEMALE BILDUNGSROMAN?
The main difference is that the male protagonists in Victorian novels were much more passive, they only follow women and rarely condition any action, whereas women had to be a lot more active in order to achieve moral stability, since they have to break down the norms and fight the system, with marriage as their ultimate goal. Victorians were very interested in the development of the individual from their childhood and were of the belief that everyone has to fins their place in the world and society on their own.
Examples of the male bildungsroman: Dickens - Great Expectations and David Copperfield
Examples of the female bildungsroman: Eliot - The Mill on the Floss; Bronte - Jane Eyre; Dickens - Bleak House
WHICH NOVELS PROMOTE FEMINIST VIEWS?
- Bronte in general, specifically Jane Eyre: the heroine is incredibly active to fight the passivity imposed on her by society. Bronte discusses issues of the position and role of women and criticises society for not allowing women to get proper education
- The Mill on the FLoss: a novel of education, discusses position of girls/women in society and criticises the educational system in relation to women and the prescribed roles for women, or “women tasks”
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PROVINCIAL AND REGIONAL NOVELS AND WHICH NOVELS ARE EXAMPLES OF COMBINING THE TWO?
REGIONAL NOVELS offer a neutral or positive set of multiple local differences. The settings in regional novels are closely tied to a real historical geography and are used to show how the changes in society affect the little people and are causing tradition to disappear.
PROVINCIAL NOVELS are often satirical and offer a negative difference expressed as a typical identity. Names of provincial towns are fictional to express their archetypal character. Provincial novels represent a traditional England that selectively absorbs the forces of modernization.
In best works, provincial and regional elements are combined: Eliot - Middlemarch; Bronte - Shirley; Hardy - Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
WHICH VICTORIAN AUTHOR BEST TOOK INTO ACCOUND THE SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS OF THE TIME IN THEIR WRITING?
George Eliot. She was fascinated with Darwin’s theory, heavily influenced by his Origin of the Species and was his great supporter. Characters in The Mill on the Floss are often compared to animals and through her writing, Eliot understands and explains her characters’ present in terms of the past.
WHAT IS THE DEFINING FEATURE OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL?
According to Lukacs it is “…derivation of the individuality of the characters from the historical particularity of their age.”
