HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

“Romantic and Victorian Period”

By:

Alfiani Aulia
Andhika Abdullah
Anggita Frisda Lisnadewi
Dhea Rizqy Amalia
Muhamad Zacky Al Faraby
Risa Deninta Irawan
Ruli Agustian
Rusmalia Anggraeni
Sabilla Ratnia Nasa Putri
Septiana Rinta Putri

PROGRAM STUDI SASTRA INGGRIS

FAKULTAS SASTRA
UNIVERSITAS PAMULANG
2019
 ROMANTICISM PERIOD

Romanticism (also known as the Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual
movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its
peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850.
The early period of the Romantic era was a time of war, with the French Revolution (1789–1799)
followed by the Napoleonic Wars until 1815. These wars, along with the political and social turmoil
that went along with them, served as the background for Romanticism.

The period typically called Romantic

Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on
emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all
the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than
the classical. It was partly a reaction to the Industrial
Revolution, the aristocratic social and political norms of
the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific
rationalization of nature—all components of modernity.
It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music,
and literature, but had a major impact on
historiography, education, the social sciences, and the
natural sciences. It had a significant and complex effect
on politics, with romantic thinkers influencing
liberalism, radicalism, conservatism and nationalism.
various greatly between different
countries and different artistic media or
areas of thought.
Like in some countries the period
denominated as Romantic can be
considerably different; musical
Romanticism, for example, is generally
regarded as only having ceased as a
major artistic force as late as 1910, but in
an extreme extension the Four Last
Songs of Richard Strauss are described
stylistically as "Late Romantic" and were
composed in 1946–1948

The movement emphasized intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience,

placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe—
especially that experienced in confronting the new aesthetic categories of the sublimity
and beauty of nature. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, but also
spontaneity as a desirable characteristic (as in the musical impromptu). In contrast to the
Rationalism and Classicism of the Enlightenment, Romanticism revived medievalism and
elements of art and narrative perceived as authentically medieval in an attempt to escape
population growth, early urban sprawl, and industrialism.
Characteristics of Literature
Romantic literary works are characterized by the slogan “emotion is more important than reason”,
“nature is the prime bringer of happiness”, “nature is the best teacher of morals”, “a language of
poetry should be the language of rural people”. These slogans begin with the assumption that
literary works are expressions of individual feelings, are subjective and emphasize feelings rather
than ratios.
A group of writers who opposed the slogans of the August period withdrew and lived in the
villages. They love nature in such a way that their assumption arises that "God resides in nature".
This assumption is better known as "pantheism".

Authors, and English Literature in the Romantic Period

POETRY
The most notable feature of the poetry of the time is the new role of individual thought and
personal feeling. Where the main trend of 18th-century poetics had been to praise the general, to
see the poet as a spokesman of society addressing a cultivated and homogeneous audience and
having as his end the conveyance of "truth," the Romance found the source of poetry in the
particular, unique experience. In this period,poetry literary work are flourished and it had so
many talented named of poet in this period

 William Wordsworth (1750-1850),

He lived in a district called the Lake District, in northwestern England. Wordsworth's
love at the time was favored big. He values nature in every form of having a pure soul.
Nature has become her religion and she was nicknamed "The High Priest of Nature"
(The Great Faith of Nature). His most opposed work is "The Prelude", which is a
picture of his childhood life on the Cumberland hills.
 Samuel Taylor Colleridge (1772-1834),
His critical articles and his intelligent talk left everyone stunned. he is a very broad-
minded poet. His works are Ode on the Destruction of Bstille, Ode to France.

 Sir Walter Scott (177-1832)

He was the one and only prose writer placed in this period. Some of his most famous
works are "Mrs. Last Artist" (1805), and "Mrs. Lake" (1810) in the form of historical
narrative poetry.

 John Keats (1795-1821)

He is best known for his statement related to his poem "Endymion" which reads:
"Something beautiful is joy forever: its beauty increases: its beauty increases: it will
never turn into rigidity".
PROSE and NOVEL
Prose literary works in this period developed very slowly. What is interesting in this period
is non-fiction literary works such as historical literature, biographies, criticisms and so on. Some
notable figures are Charles Lamb (1775-1834), Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859),
One of the most popular novelist of the era was Sir Walter Scott, whose historical romances inspired
a generation of painters, composers, and writers throughout Europe. Scott's novel-writing career was
launched in 1814 with Waverley, often called the first historical novel.
Jane Austen's works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are
part of the transition to 19th-century realism. Her plots, in novels such as Pride and Prejudice (1813),
Emma (1815), though fundamentally comic, highlight the dependence of women on marriage to
secure social standing and economic security.

DRAMA
Drama literary works experience a bleak period in this period. This was due to the
middle class who dominated British society at that time did not really appreciate drama
literary works as works of art. Thus, the playwright's figure is unknown in this period.
 Victorian Period
(1837-1901)

Queen Victoria

In the history of the United Kingdom, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign,
from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. In this era, literature mainly written in
English during the reign of Queen Victoria and It was preceded by Romanticism and followed by
the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Hence, it can also be called a fusion of romantic and realist style
of writing.
During the 19 century the novel become the leading form of literature in English. The works by
pre-Victorian writers such as Jane Austen and Walter Scott had perfected both closely observed
social satire and historical fiction.

Victorian Literature’s characteristic

This period has three general characteristics :
1. Literature in the Victorian age tended to come face to face with realism. This reflected
more on practical problems and interests. It becomes a powerful instrument for human
progress.
2. The Victorian literature seems to deviate from the strict principle of “art for art’s sake”
and asserts its moral purpose.
3. This was more like the age of pessimism and confusion. The influence of science was
strongly felt here.
 Authors and English Literature in Victorian Period
Poetry
Much of the work of the time is seen as a bridge between the romantic era and the modernist
poetry of the next century.

 Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809–92)

He was described by T. S. Eliot, as "the greatest master of metrics as well as melancholia", and as
having "the finest ear of any English poet since Milton". His work like The Lady of Shallot.
 Robert Browning (1812-89) and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61)
They conducted their love affair through verse and produced many tender and passionate poems.

 Matthew Arnold (1822–88)

The poetry of this period was heavily influenced by the Romantics, but also went off in its own
directions. Particularly notable was the development of the dramatic monologue, a form used by many
poets in this period, but perfected by Robert Browning.

 Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–82)

Was a poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with
William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais.

Novels
Tend to be idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck
win out in the end. They were usually inclined towards being of improving nature with a central
moral lesson at heart. While this formula was the basis for much of earlier Victorian fiction, the
situation became more complex as the century progressed.

 Charles Dickens (1812–70)

He is the most famous Victorian novelist. Extraordinarily popular in his day with his characters
taking on a life of their own beyond the page; Dickens is still one of the most popular and read
authors of the world. His first novel, The Pickwick Papers (1836–37) written when he was twenty-
five, was an overnight success, and all his subsequent works sold extremely well. The comedy of his
first novel has a satirical edge and this pervades his writing.

 William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63)

He was Dickens' great rival in the first half of Queen Victoria's reign. With a similar style but a
slightly more detached, acerbic and barbed satirical view of his characters, he also tended to depict a
more middle class society than Dickens did. He is best known for his novel Vanity Fair (1848),
subtitled A Novel without a Hero, which is an example of a form popular in Victorian literature: a
historical novel in which recent history is depicted.
  The Brontë sisters, Emily (1818-48), Charlotte (1816-55) and Anne (1820-49)
They were other significant novelists in the 1840s and 1850s. Emily Brontë's novel was Wuthering
Heights and, according to Juliet Gardiner, "the vivid sexual passion and power of its language and
imagery impressed, bewildered and appalled reviewers," and led the Victorian public and many early
reviewers to think that it had been written by a man. Jane Eyre (1847) is Charlotte Brontë's most
famous work.
Other novelist in Victorian era are Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–65), Anthony Trollope (1815–
1882), George Meredith (1828–1909), and George Gissing (1857–1903).

Drama
Drama and musical performances are competed with Shakespeare production. Serious dramatist
like James Planche and Thomas William Robertson. In 1855, the German Reed
Entertainments began a process of elevating the level of musical theatre in Britain that the
famous series of comic operas by Gilbert and Sullivan and were followed by the 1890s with the

 Thomas William Robertson (1829 – 1871)

Usually known professionally as T. W. Robertson, was an English dramatist and innovative stage
director best known for a series of realistic or naturalistic plays produced in London in the 1860s that
broke new ground and inspired playwrights such as W.S. Gilbert and George Bernard Shaw.

 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

He is one of the most prominent playwrights of the Victorian era. “Wilde’s easy wit insured an
immediate success for the brilliant series of dramas that he wrote in the early nineties.

American Novels
By the mid-19th century, the pre-eminence of literature from the British Isles began to be
challenged by writers from the former American colonies. A major influence on American
writers at this time was Romanticism. The romantic American novel developed fully with
Nathaniel Hawthorne's (1804–1864) The Scarlet Letter (1850), a stark drama of a woman cast
out of her community for committing adultery. Hawthorne's fiction had a profound impact on his
friend Herman Melville (1819–1891).

American realist fiction began in the 1870s with the works of Mark Twain, William Dean
Howells, and Henry James. Mark Twain was the first major American writer to be born away
from the East Coast – in the border state of Missouri. His regional masterpieces were the novels
Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).
The most significant American novelist of the late 19th-century was Henry James (1843–1916).
Although born in New York City, he spent most of his adult years in England. Many of his
novels centre on Americans who live in or travel to Europe. James confronted the Old World-
New World dilemma by writing directly about it. His works include The Portrait of a Lady, The
Bostonians (1886), The Princess Casamassima (1886).

American Poetry
America also produced major poets in the 19th century, such as:

 Emily Dickinson (1830–86)

Within its formal structure, her poetry is ingenious, witty, exquisitely wrought, and
psychologically penetrating. Her work was unconventional for its day, and little of it was
published during her lifetime.

 Walt Whitman (1819–92).

He was a working man, a traveler, a self-appointed nurse during the American Civil War (1861–
65), and a poetic innovator. His major work was Leaves of Grass, in which he uses a free-
flowing verse and lines of irregular length to depict the all-inclusiveness of American
democracy.

Children’s Literature
Literature for children developed as a separate genre. Some works become internationally
known, such as those of Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel
Through the Looking-Glass. Robert Louis Stevenson's (1850–94) Treasure Island (1883), is the
classic pirate adventure. At the end of the Victorian era and leading into the Edwardian era,
Beatrix Potter was an author and illustrator, best known for her children's books, which featured
animal characters. In her thirties, Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale
of Peter Rabbit in 1902. Potter eventually went on to publish 23 children's books, and became a
wealthy woman.

Drama and musical performances are competed with Shakespeare production. Serious dramatist
like James Planche and Thomas William Robertson
 REFERENCES

History of English Literature Meeting 9 “Romantic Period”

History of English Literature Meeting 10 “Victorian Period”
https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-Romantic-period
https://penapena-sastra.blogspot.com/2019/02/periode-victoria.html?m=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian.era