S4: The Victorian Age II Flashcards
What is the „fin de siecle“? (6)
- „end of the century“
- 1880-1914
- feeling that an Epoch had ended
- time of change = feminism, Darwinism, urbanism
- excitement and anxiety
- reaction against morals and beliefs of the Victorian age
What are main features of astheticism? (4)
- „art for art‘s sake“ = no moral Message, no didactic aims
- beauty is more important than morals
- art is more important than life
- figure of the dandy
What is the dandy?
Sich übertrieben modisch kleidender Mann
What are 3 of Oscar Wilde‘s main works?
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
- An Ideal Husband (1898, play)
- The Importance of Being Earnest (1898, play)
What about Oscar Wilde and trials?
- relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas („Bosie“)
- in 1895, Bosie‘s father, the Marquess of Queensberry, leaves a note addressed „Wilde, sodomite“
- Wilde sues Queensberry for libel
- Wilde arrested for „gross indecency“
- sentenced to two years hard labour
Decadence
Verfall
What about the theme of „decadence“?
- intense refinement
- artificiality preferred to nature
- attitude of ennui/boredom
- interest in transgression and perversion
Was ist das „Yellow Book“ (1894-1897)?
- britische Literatur und Kunstzeitschrift
- Titel kommt von einem Yellow Book, das in „The Picture of Dorian Grey“ eine Rolle spielt
Whats a farce?
Kürzeres, derbkomisches Lustspiel (in Versen)
What is the importance of being earnest?
- a trivial comedy for serious people
- hugely successful but also beginning of end of Wilde‘s career
- comedy, humour, wit
- A farce?
- statire of Victorian social norms and institutions, esp. marriage
- themes: triviality of life in the upper classes, norms surrounding courtship and marriage
- linguistic humour, play on words
What was the Boer War?
1899-1902
Konflikt zwischen UK und Burenrepubliken, endete mit deren Eingliederung ins UK Imperium
Arson
Brandstiftung
What was characteristic about the Edwardian Period?
- Boer War
- Suffragettes (vote for Women (1918), The Women‘s Social and political union, radical tactics (Hungerstrikes, arson, bombs))
- critical of Victorian themes and attitudes
- emancipation of women
- subject of nostalgia
Modernism, characteristics
- late 19th, early 20th century
- appears in all art forms, international
- self-conscious break with tradition = avant-Garde
- representation of reality no longer important
- stress on form and material
- new ways on representations
- stream of conciousness (Ulysses, Mrs Dalloway) - abstract art, twelve tone music
What is the futurist manifesto?
Manifesto written by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and published in 1909. Marinetti expresses an artistic philosophy called Futurism that was a rejection of the past and a celebration of speed, machinery, violence, youth and industry. It also advocated the modernisation and cultural rejuvenation of Italy.
