Inglese
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INDIVIDUALISM
There was new emphasis on the significance of the individual.
The Romantics saw the men essentially in a solitary state. They exalted the atypical, the outcast, the rebel.
GOTHIC NOVEL
An increasing interest in individual consciousness revealed itself in fiction.
It was marked by a taste for the strange and the mysterious, by an impulse for freedom and escape from the ugly world and by the fear of the triumph of evil and chaos over good and order.
The interest in this kind of novel, called “Gothic novel” was huge and common to all social classes.
Gothic novels intended to arouse (infondere) fear in the reader.
The setting of Gothic novels was influenced by the concept of the sublime; it includes ancient settings, like isolated castles.
The most important events take place during the night because darkness is a powerful element used to create an atmosphere of oppression and mystery.
The Gothic hero is usually isolated either voluntarily or involuntarily.
THE SUBLIME
THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE SUBLIME BECAME A MAIN THEME OF 18TH CENTURY AESTHETICS.
FOR BURKE THE SUBLIME IS ‘WHATEVER IS FITTED IN ANY SORT TO EXCITE THE IDEAS OF PAIN AND DANGER […] OR OPERATES IN A MANNER ANALOGOUS TO TERROR. HE ARGUED THAT TERROR AND PAIN ARE THE STRONGEST EMOTIONS AND THAT THERE IS AN INHERENT PLEASURE IN SUCH FEELINGS.
WHATEVER PROVOKED THESE EMOTIONS COULD BE DEFINED AS SUBLIME.
ROMANTIC POETRY
At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, English Romanticism saw the prevalence of poetry, which best suited the need to give expression to emotional experience and individual feelings.
THE ROMANTIC IMAGINATION
Imagination gained a primary role in the process of poetic composition.
Thanks to the eye of the imagination Romantic poets could see beyond surface reality and discover a truth beyond the powers of reason.
The poet was seen as a visionary prophet or as a teacher whose task was to mediate between man and nature, to point out the evils of society, to give voice to the ideals of freedom,beauty and truth.
THE FIGURE OF THE CHILD
There was a serious interest in the experience and insights of childhood.
Childhood was considered a temporary state, a necessary stage in the process leading to adulthood.
To a romantic, a child was purer than an adult because he was unspoilt by civilization.
His uncorrupted sensitiveness meant he was even close to God and the sources of creation, therefore childhood was a state to be admired.
The importance of the individualism
There was new emphasis on the significance of the individual.
The Romantics saw the men essentially in a solitary state. They exalted the atypical, the outcast, the rebel.
THE VIEW OF NATURE
There was a revolution in the concept of nature.
The classical view of nature as an abstract object as a set of divine laws and principles established by God was slowly replaced by the view of nature as a real and living being.
The Romantic poets regarded nature as a living force and, in a pantheistic vein, as the expression of God in the universe.
Nature became a main source of inspiration, a source of comfort and joy.
TWO GENERATIONS OF POETS
The great English Romantic poets are usually grouped into two generations.
The poets of the first generation, Wordsworth and Coleridge, were characterised by the attempt to theorise about poetry.
While planning the “Lyrical Ballads”, they agreed that Wordsworth would write on the beauty of nature and ordinary things with the aim of making them interesting for the reader, Coleridge, instead, should deal with visionary topics, the supernatural and mystery.
The poets of the second generation, Byron and Percy Shelley, experienced political disillusionment which is reflected in their poetry. Individualism and escapism, as well as the alienation of the artist from society.
WILLIAM BLAKE
The poet William Blake can be regarded as a forerunner of Romantic poetry because of his interest in social problems and his unique use of symbols.
LONDON
The poem conveys Blake’s view of the suffering brought by industrialisation.
This poem is significant to show the negative aspects of industrialisation and that society and nature are controlled by economic interests.
It shows the victims of the epoc which are the chimney sweepers that represent the workers living bad life conditions.
Than there are the civilians called to war,the soldiers,and the harlot,unlucky woman.
MARY SHALLEY
Mary Shelley was born in London in 1797.
She was the daughter of two radical thinkers: William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft (protofeminist), who died after her birth.
This event shaped her life and when her father later remarried, this caused her great suffering.
Mary did not receive any formal education, but she received great intellectual stimulus, in fact her father’s house was a meeting point of famous philosophers, writers and poets, such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
In 1814 Mary met the poet Shelley and the two began a relationship.
The two lovers eloped to France and then Switzerland, but they had to return to England for financial problems.
In Switzerland Mary conceived the idea for the book that would make her famous, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus that was published anonymously in 1818.
The book was a great success.
After husband died in 1822, Mary Shelley returned to England with her son, where she continued to write novels, among them Valperga (1823), a historical novel set in Medieval Italy, and The Last Man (1826).
She died in London in 1851.
FRANKENSTEIN
The plot of the novel is very simple: victor, Frankenstein or Swiss scientist manages to create a human being by joining parts, selected from corpses.
The monster becomes a murderer, and in the end he destroys his creator.
Depressed, empty and lonely.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
The relationship between man and nature
Rather than a precise and object observation of natural phenomena, his poetry offers a detailed account of the complete interaction between man and nature, of the influences, insights, emotions and sensations which arise from the contact.
Wordsworth believed that man and nature are inseparable: man exists not outside the natural world but as an active participant in it.
The poet’s task and style
The poet has a great sensibility and an ability to see into the heart of things.
The power of imagination enables him to communicate his knowledge,
COMPOSED UPON WESTMISTER BRIDGE
The poet says that he has seen the most beautiful scene on earth while passing over Westminster Bridge early in the morning.
Only those who are dull or lack any taste for beauty could pass by without catching the wonder of the sight.
The poet compares the city of London to a lady who is wearing the beauty of the morning like an elegant dress.
This beauty is due to the time of day because the town is still sleeping.
The setting is silent because of the early hour.
The word smokeless’ means that neither the typical London fog nor the smoke from the chimmeys can obscure the sunlight.
The poet says that this vision of London makes him feel calm.
Even the river is described as a patient person who takes his time and flows without rushing.
He moves according to ‘his own sweet will’.
The houses are personified as asleep, but it is the people inside the houses who are sleeping at this early hour.
The city looks like one big, peaceful sleeping body.
Its heart is lying still’ for the moment, before the city awakens for a new working day.