Romanticism

Question 1

What are the overarching themes of the seventh session?

Answer 1

1. Forerunners and Beginners
2. The older Generation of British Romanticists
3. The Poetics of Individualism

Question 2

What are the main themes of the precursors to Romantic poetry?

Answer 2

1. Nature/The countryside (Lake poets)
2. Melancholy
3. The Ancient and Exotic (Saving the oral tradition by putting it into print)
4. Pre-romantic individualism
   - Contrasts and Antitheses
   - Against Conventions
   - A private Mythology

Question 3

Who are the six “Big” English Romantic Poets?

Answer 3

1. Generation
   - William Blake (1757-1827)
   - William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
   - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
2. Generation
   - George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
   - Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
   - John Keats (1795-1821)

Question 4

What are the political and social backgrounds of Romanticism?

Answer 4

1. Agitation for social and political reform (Revolutionary thinkers arguing for a reconstruction of the entire social structure and the introduction of reason and criticism, e.g. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, William Godwin etc.).
2. Political events/Conflicts:
   - American Revolution (1776)
   - French Revolution (1789)
   - Napoleonic Wars (until 1815)
3. General social and political unrest (questioning of authorities)
4. Industrial Revolution (With both its advantages and disadvantages [pauperism])
5. Water-driven spinning machines - multiplied production of thread that was then woven into cloth
6. Invention of the steam engine by James Watt, latet 1760s
7. Factory work, population streaming to tthe new cities; urbanisation.
8. Disintegrattion, exploitaition, social misery, child labour and environmental pollution.

Question 5

What were the Reactions of Romantic Poets to Their Contexts?

Answer 5

1. The responses were ambivalent and contradictory
2. Ranging from revolutionary criticism to conservative escapism (Romanticism isn’t just about nature but often nature works as a refuge and a solace)
3. Female poets frequently commented on social injustice and areas of feamle experience

Question 6

What were the main themes of the Romantic Poets Older Generation?

Answer 6

1. Nature as a refuge/solace
2. Individualism
3. Imagination

Question 7

Whatt are the contexts of Romantic Poetry?

Answer 7

1. Industrial revolution (from mid-18th century), urbanisation (Romanticism as a countermovement against the industrial revolution and urbanisation)
2. Enlightenment rationality, the sciences and nature (Romanticism as a counter-movement. You go into nature to let go of rationality. And we aren’t entirely rational beings)
3. French Revolution (1789-99) (initial enthusiasm until Robespierre turned it into tyranny)
4. Reform Bill (1832) (acknowledgment of change in British society)

Question 8

What were the take-home messages on romantic poetry?

Answer 8

1. The topics and concerns that characterise Romantic poetry can
   already be found in pre-Romantic poetry throughout the 18th century.
2. Although the Romantic period was short (ca. 1790s to 1820s or 30s), it brought about a significant change in the self-awareness of authors.
3. Romanticism can be seen as a counter-movement reacting to
   dominant mentalities of the late 18th century.
4. ’The Romantics’ were never a unified group; all writers have their own individual approaches, themes, and styles.
5. Some authors (Burns, Blake) who wrote ca. in the Romantic period are difficult to subsume under the label Romanticism.

Question 9

What is “The Sublime”?

Answer 9

“The attraction of the grotesque, the terrible and
the uncontrollable, a stark contrast to the prevailing 18thcentury preferences for the controlled and balanced.”

or

“Delightful Horror” (It is triggered by extremes). Horror in the arts can be perceived as pleasure. Horror can be attractive within the literature. Horror thus needs to be portioned in order to excite the reader without scaring them away. Awe-inspiring nature that isn’t explainable by reason. The idea to go into nature that was untouched by nature was an ideal. We as humans are so tiny and nature is so huge and beautiful and impressive.

Question 10

Who are the three main poets of the High/late romanticism era?

Answer 10

1. Lord Byron (George Gordon)
2. Percy Shelley
3. John Keats

Question 11

Which three characteristics of Byron were kept within the lecture?

Answer 11

1. He lived an unorthodox (and contradictory) life-style fashioning an artist-persona which was close to the heroes in his stories (He was known to have several affairs and had to leave England because of his horrible reputation).
2. He coined the Byronic hero (“a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection.”) A man always in extremes and embracing sin.
3. He is closer to classicist models than all other romantic poets.
4. He was an aristocrat (Didn’t have to work for a living…Idleness is something only the upper classes like him could afford).
5. He often wrote about supernatural forces and old and exotic elements.

Question 12

Which three characteristics of Percy Shelley were kept in the lecture?

Answer 12

1. He was against conventions (social ones like marrriage; poetical and literal conventions [makes a plea for the freedom of the imagination and plays with the literary form showing the limitlessness of the human imagination], religious conventions [Atheism])
2. He was a political radicalist (Most of his readers were pro the things that he was against. He has an early political agenda against capitalism and pro development of anarchist movement. Liberation from capitalist society as a personal goal.)
3. His poetological programme was the power of imagination (We as humans should (and can) change the world we live in)

Question 13

Which characteristics of Keats were kept in the lecture?

Answer 13

1. He favoured a retreat into nature.
2. He followed a melancholic quest for beauty
3. He also wrote on the power of imagination
4. Acceptance of death

Question 14

What are the features of this Dark Romanticism era?

Answer 14

1. In American literature: Individualism as in Transcendentalism, but they focus on the negative/self-destructive forces of the individual.
2. In British literature: Byronic heroes, The Gothic novel.

Question 15

What are the features of the gothic novel?

Answer 15

1. Setting: Medieval castles, monasteries and wild landscapes.
2. Plot/Action: Mysterious occurences, disappearances, the “damsel in distress”, power and manipulation, violence. Everything is totally irrational.
3. Mood: Mystery, doubt, threat, terror and high-strung emotion (melodrama).
4. Length: Most of them are around 500-700 pages long.

Question 16

What is a typical feature of Mary Shelleys novels?

Answer 16

1. Sublime Landscapes
2. The gothic tradition
3. Unconventionality
4. Topos of what would happen if creativity would be let loose.

Question 17

What are features of American Transcendentalism?

Answer 17

1. It is a broad and vague term for a heterogeneous group of non-conformists. (transcending boundaries of thinking, traditions, institutions and hierarchies)
2. Influence of British/European Romanticism, but less introspective, more utopian.
3. Individual Spirituality
4. Program of self-actualisation.
5. Principle of self-reliance.

Question 18

What are features of Ralph Waldo Emersons literature?

Answer 18

1. Idealism
2. Nature
3. Spirituality
4. Notion of deep oversoul

Question 19

What is the main topos of Margaret Fullers literature?

Answer 19

Feminist transcendentalism

Question 20

What are the main topoi of Henry David Thoureaus literature?

Answer 20

1. Anti-consumerism
2. Environmentalism

Question 21

Who are the two main poetic individualists in America?

Answer 21

1. Waltt Whitman
2. Emily Dickinson

Question 22

What are the take-home messanges on late romanticism?

Answer 22

• the younger generation of Romantic poets differs from the older with regard to their treatment of nature (the sublime – but cf. nature in Byron in contrast to Keats!) and in their political interest (Shelley).
• Romanticism had a ‘dark’ side that represents a decidedly nonrational approach to (extremes of) human sensitivity and emotions.
• ‘Gothic’ is a broad term that covers both Gothic novels proper, and more generally the mentality of dark romanticism.
• in America, the use of Gothic motives, Transcendentalism and other forms of non-conformism can be seen as parallels to the facets of continental Romanticism.

Question 23

What are the main themes of the lake poets?

Answer 23

1. Wordsworth = The nature poet
2. Coleridge = The poet of fascination and imagination
3. Blake = The poet of social criticism

Question 24

What is the romantic understanding of nature?

Answer 24

1. They concive nature as carrying both beauty and terror.
2. The relation between human and nature can be projected onto anything else.

Question 25

Why did the canon of romantic poetry change from the “Big Six”?

Answer 25

Because of feminist criticism in the 1970s and 80s which acknowledged that there female romantic poets aswell. These wrote about female experiences of life and other different topics than the male writers.

Question 26

How is the relationship between british poets and revolution?

Answer 26

Many romantic poets were excited by the ideas of the Revolutions. The idea of a nation of brothers appealed to them. However, this turned sour when Robespierre turned the Revolution into a tyranny. Thus the initial enthusiasm was lost very soon.

But it introduced the concept of questioning authorities.

Question 27

How does Wordsworth depict nature?

Answer 27

Nature works as a refuge and a solace. This he perceives very positively. He likes solitude and it is not just a picture of nature but he rather invokes particular themes onto nature.

Question 28

Where does romanticist poetry take its origins from?

Answer 28

Emotions and Tranquility

Question 29

In what sense is the romantic period also about the liberty of writing?

Answer 29

It is about renegotiating and questioning what is the norm.

Question 30

What is the role of the poet in romantic belief?

Answer 30

Poets had a certain selfconfidence as they carry the sensibility required to understand the world.

“I am telling you what it means to be a human being.”

Question 31

What does the ideal refer to?

Answer 31

In romantic poetry, the concept of the ideal often refers to an elevated or transcendent state of existence, beauty, truth or experience that represents perfection or a higher reality.

Question 32

What is a closet drama?

Answer 32

A theatre play that wasn’t supposed to be acted out on stage. They often contained extreme emotions and actions.

Question 33

What does Utilitarianism refer to?

Answer 33

The ideology which says that in a progressive society everything must be geared toward the maximization of development and profit.

Question 34

What does the notion of deep oversould refer to?

Answer 34

Wherever you look at creation we look at a divine creation.

Question 35

What is characteristic of Walt Whitman?

Answer 35

Poetry of the development of a free spirit. Anti-conventional in use of metre, disregard of rhyme, poetic form and content. Idea that with the assasination of Lincoln a great liberator died and there was a great sadness among his devotees.

Question 36

What is characteristic of Emily Dickinson?

Answer 36

1. Orthodox religion vs. unconventional poetry.
2. Her semantics and syntax are completely unorthodox. Very fragmentary and celebrated as a forerunner of modernism (Broke with most of the artistic conventions at the time)