Literatura victoriana

1. London, 24th May 1819 –
Osborne House (Isle of Wight), 22nd January 1901
Victoria I
Queen of England and Ireland
Empress of India

2. VICTORIA’s REIGN (1837-1901)- 64 years
• Early Victorian (1830-7)
• Mid-Victorian (1850-1877)
• Late Victorian (late 1870s-until
beginning of 20th century)

3. After Victorian period:
“Edwardian literature”
Reign of Edward VII (1901-1910)
“Georgian Literature”
George V’s reign (1910-1936)

4. Victorian period: Optimistic one?
-Monarchy as national symbol
- England’s prosperity:
- Imperial expansion
- Rapid industrialization (1800-1850)
- Increase of population
- Technological advances
- Changes in industry (cotton industry)
- Advances in coal and iron industries
- Boom in railroad constructions
- Many discoveries and inventions

5. NEW INVENTIONS:
Daguerrotype (1839)
Telephone (1876)
Phonograph (1877)
Record (1896)
Wireless radio (1896)
Cinema shows (1896)
AND SOCIETY’S CAPACITY
TO ASSIMILATE AND MAKE
USE OF THEM IN A
RELATIVELY SHORT PERIOD
OF TIME

6. THOMAS A. EDISON
(1847- 1931)
Phonographe
Lamps

7. Crystal Palace, Londres
Joseph Paxton (1803-1865)

9. Machinery Section at the Great Exhibition of 1851

10. Steam-Powered Tractor and Agricultural Machinery

12. Gothic-style Metal Stove

13. The old Brighton Pier

14. The other side of Victorian times
• Technology displaced people from natural
links and their surroundings
• The profits of the nation were not shared
by the poor
• Clash between rich and confident class
and the labour force: tensions

15. Tensions and changes
• Economic distress of working classes:
– Destruction of machinery (Luddites)
– Destruction of farm property
– Unions organized (1840: rise of Chartism)
• Middle class achieved political and
economic aims:
– Parliament was reformed

16. DISRAELI
GLADSTONE

17. From 1850s: challanges to Victorian optimism
• The Crimean War (1853-6): Britain,
France and Turkey against Russian
ambitions in the Middle East
• Mutinity in India (1857)
• Blow to religious beliefs: Darwin’s “Origin
of Species” (1859)
– Agnostic attitudes
– Socialist ideas
– Criticism of Victorian values (imperialism and
others)

18. Charles Robert Darwin
(1809-1882)
Beagle’s Trip

19. Rudyard Kipling
(1865 – 1936)