English society between 1789 and 1830

French revolution, two reactions: terror of Jacobinism which seized ruling

classes, support from intellectuals who saw in the revolution the possibility
of equality and justice ( spirit of rebellion and enthusiasm in their
works);
Disillusion for turning into tyranny, ex. Edmund Burke became the
leading voice of conservatism against Revolution (he had prophesied the
bloodshed caused by the terror);
War between Britain and France: clear supremacy at sea of Britain.
Admiral Horatio Nelson was the hero for his victory at Trafalgar ( Duke
of Wellington led the soldiers in Portugal for a victory). Surrender of
Napoleon in 1814, the Duke then defeated him at Waterloo in 1815.

! Napoleon gave birth to nationalist sentiments in various countries (such as

Greece, Italy and Poland). Therefore refugees fled to England, only for finding
no support by the government.

No balance from the Treaty of Vienna: huge costs of the war caused
trade slumps, higher unemployment chaos and misery brought to
soldiers and sailors. discontent caused disorders: Luddities (artisans
under Ned Ludd) destroyed the machines which took away their jobs;
Brutal repression adopted by the ruling classing as attempt to maintain
their property and their wealth Firing on the crowd at St Peters
Fields (Manchester), ironically called Peterloo, where local militia shoot
on the audience of Henry Orator Hunt;
Policy of laissez-faire, government activity was minimal birth of a
religious movement called the Evangelicals. Goal was to raise
awareness of social problems and try to resolve them. They abolished
slave trade and brought basic education to working children, also tried
to reform prisons;
Period called the Regency (George III was mentally ill so his son, the
eventually George IV, was the Regent extravagant fashions, and
architectural works like Brighton Pavillon);

upper and middle classes lived regardless of these changes, though the
Romantic revolution had begun to develop. Women still precluded from having
different careers than the ones of wives and housewives.

Egoistical sublime

Readjustments of the cultural view: willingness to explore new

possibilities of outlook, interest and behaviour. Further use of
imagination in order to express emotional experiences. Use of drugs
to explore subconscious levels, along with dreams, madness and
hypnosis;

Concerns about experience and insights of childhood: child saw as a

pure being, unspoilt by civilization, therefore closer to God;
Importance of individual: man in a solitary state stressing the
qualities of the individual, an exaltation of the atypical, the
outcast, the rebel; cult of the hero (rebel in Coleridge,
Prometheus in Shelley, Byronic hero in Byron) and view of the
society as an evil force.
Jean Jacque Rousseau believed social conventions were a
restriction to the individual, which should return to the stage of
noble savage, in which he was impulsive and unrestrained; its
positive because of its instinctive knowledge;
Cult of the exotic: travel as challenge, interest in the unfamiliar in
custom and social outlook human experience in danger, disaster,
adventure and inexplicable;

Reality and Vision

Imagination gained a primary role, following the philosophy of J.G.

Fichte. It was almost a divine faculty, and allowed the poet to be a
visionary prophet, and to mediate between man and nature.
Nature no more described for its own sake, but as a mirror of the poets
mood; view of nature as a living force, and as the expression of God.
Also source of inspiration.
Central was the problem of the language, abandonment of the poetic
diction for more vivid and familiar words, replacing artificial
circumlocutions of the past. Syntax was more linear and symbol
assumed vital role. Return to past forms of poetry.
Two generation of poets: the Lake poets (William Wordsworth and S.T.
Coleridge) attempted to theorize about poetry (ex. In Lyrical Ballads,
Wordsworth wrote only about nature and ordinary things, while Coleridge
dealt with visionary topics and mystery), while the second generation
(George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats) died very
young, as a result of a stronger political disillusionment,
indivisualism and escapism, with poetry coinciding with the desire of
challenge. This translated in various attitudes in the poets works
(Byronic hero, Prometheous and Keatss escape into classical beauty);

The Novel of Manners

Set in upper- and -middle-class society;

Influence of class distinctions on character;
Visits, balls, teas as occasions for joining up;
Main themes: marriage, the complications of love, friendship;

Third-person narrator;
Dialogue as the main narrative mode;
Passions and emotions not expressed directly;
Use of irony;

Flat and Round Characters

Flat characters: also called types or caricatures, are built around a

single psycological trait and they therefore dont change throughout
the course of the story;
Round characters have more than on facet, and they are more complex;
their personality develops along the changes that happen during the
story;

The beginning of an American identity

The origins of an autonomous literature: in Puritans beliefs, emigrated

from Britain, to seek after an utopian society called the city of God.
Therefore the style and taste was still linked to British literature, and they
wrote only sermons, pamphlet and diaries, with a strict morality and selfdetermination. no theatre;
America shortly began a melting pot for immigrants, African slaves and
American Indians;
The Enlightenment also spread idea amongst intellectuals such as
Benjamin Franklin (who gave birth to the American Dream), Thomas
Jefferson (who wrote the Declaration of Independence, and became
president) and Thomas Paine (who encouraged the independence
through ideas of justice and equality in his Common Sense);
1789 marked the start of the Federal Government, New York City was the
temporary capital, and George Washington the first president, followed
by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
Expansion towards the West, removal of the Indians.
The declaration of war against Britain helped developing a spirit of
national unity and pushed the creation of an American culture and
literature. This also brought to the publishing of Websters American
Dictionary;
The East and the West dominated the new American cultural image: the
first characterized by wealth and respectability, the latter by the pioneer
spirit and the myth of the frontier;
Short stories were the distinctive form of American prose, providing
entertainment, and the novel began to talk about fantastical and
mysterious topics; the former genre had as major writer Edgar Allan
Poe, whilst the latter James Fenimore Cooper;