Victorian Era and Literary Realism Flashcards
What era does ‘Golden Age’ refer to
Victorian Literature - 1837 and 1901
What was typical of Victorian writers
Turn away from abstract expressionism of Romantic period and towards realism
What was the leading literary genre in Victorian era
The novel
What event of the Victorian era was causing tension between the church and the academy
Scientific advancements such as Darwin’s discoveries of evolution
Why was the pace of life increasing in the Victorian era
advancements in technology - introduction of the telegram and then the phone, train and automobile, bike and camera
Why were people in the Victorian era finding cities to move to
Industrial Revolution in full swing
How were novels printed in the Victorian era
Usually serially, in sections over months, then collected into a completed edition, helping to grow excitement
Name some famous novelists of the Victorian period
William Thackery, the Bronte sisters, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell
How were poets experimenting in the Victorian era
With metre and rhyme, often prioritising internal rhyme and alliteration over end rhymes, began writing without metre or with inconsistent metre
What is Victorian poetry often recognised for
Melancholy and nostalgia for simpler times, although not as idealising of the past as Romantic poetry
What genre of fiction rose in Victorian era
Children’s fiction
Who collected and preserved traditional folk tales in the Victorian Era
Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm
Why was children’s fiction rising in popularity
literacy began to improve and social programs fought to ban child labour
What was the aim of literary realism
to represent subject matter truthfully and depict life as it truly and honestly was
What inspired literary realism
the enlightenment - was closely aligned with scientific advancements of the period, rejected pastoralism and fantasy of romanticism and gothicism
What did literary realism focus on
Everyday people, individual struggles and societal issues
What is the writing style of literary realism
Very detailed with attempts to capture the sound of spoken language in dialogue
What was the style of Russian Realism
Direct and factual, most writers prioritising character development over plot and action, demonstrating understanding of human spirit
Name some key Russian Realists
Fydor Dostoyevsky, the Brothers Karamazov and Leo Tolstoy
What was America’s most popular literary genre after the Civil War
Regionalism or ‘local colour’
What is a key focus of regionalism
Key focus on the work’s location, detailed landscape descriptions to carefully copied dialect
What do regionalist texts often focus on
lives of agricultural workers and the working class, in rural or provincial settings, addressed conflicts with ‘outsiders’ who wanted to eploit the region economically
Key writers of literary regionalism
William Faulkner, Mark Twain and Kate Chopin
What was typical of the work of Charles Dickens
often social commentary using comedy and irony, heavily inspired by the picaresque novel tradition
What is the picaresque novel tradition
features rougish but appealing lower class heroes fighting against corrupt higher society
Why was Alfred Tennyson criticised by contemporaries
For being too sentimental
What was a key feature of the early work of Tennyson
Powerful medieval imagery, influencing the Pre-Raphelites
What was a lot of Tennyson’s work based on
Mythology from Greece or Rome
Who was Ida B. Wells
Acclaimed American journalist and civil rights leader, born into slavery in 1862
What did Ida B Wells draw attention to through her writing
Lynching and the wrongful deaths of black men - in 1892, a mob attacked and destroyed the office she worked in
