A presentation about how industrial revolution shaped English Literature

1. Literature of England's Industrial Revolution
Santiago Fernández Sánchez
Complementos para la formación disciplinar en Lengua Inglesa
Unidad 3

2. England pre-Industrial Revolution
Most
Englishmen
were peasants.
Lived on a
subsistency
level.
Constant
plagues and
wars
decimated the
population

3. Literature pre-Industrial Revolution
Development of the novel and
the satire
Importance of the figure of
Jonathan Swift, author of
Robinson Crusoe
Influence of Empirism
Pastoral poetry (Alexander
Pope)

4. Arrival of the Industrial Revolution
Around the year 1760 everything changed. England would never be the same.
"for the first time in history, the living standards of the masses of ordinary people
have begun to undergo sustained growth”
Robert E.Lucas Jr

5. A change in England
Cities grew, peasant life was abandoned.
Apparition of the “proletariat”, the new industrial
working class

6. Literature as social reflection

The demand that lyric poetry be virginal ... is itself social in nature.
It implies a protest against a social situation that every individual
experiences as hostile, alien, cold, oppressive, and this situation is
imprinted in reverse on the poetic work (T.W. Adorno)

7. Life conditions
‘I think I was well when mother died,
but I have never been rightly strong
sin' somewhere about that time. I
began to work in a carding-room soon
after, and fluff got into my lungs and
poisoned me.'
‘Fluff?' said Margaret inquiringly.
‘Fluff,' repeated Bessy. ‘Little bits, as
fly off fro' the cotton, when they're
carding it, and fill the air till it looks all
fine white dust. They say it winds
round the lungs, and tightens them
up. Anyhow, there's many a one
works in a carding-room, that falls into
a waste, coughing and spitting blood,
because they're just poisoned by the
fluff.'
Elizabeth Gaskell

8. Romanticism
Reaction against industrialization
Obsession with the supremacy of
nature over human rationality
Inevitability of death
Romantization of pre-industrial past

9. William Blake
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.
“Jerusalem”, a romantic anthem
against the industrialization (“these
dark Satanic mills”)

10. Machines as menaces

Lots of
intellectuals
and artists saw
industrial
progress as a
threat to
humanity.

Luddite
movement
protested
against new
machines.

11. William Wordsworth
Let Nature be your Teacher...
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of
things:
We murder to dissect.
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a
heart
That watches and receives.
“The Tables Turned”
Romantic poets reivindicated the power
of nature.

12. Folk songs
The working class created songs in
which they reflected the miseries of a
very hard existence.
One of the best examples is “Poverty
Knock”, from the 2nd
Industrial
Revolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blw5_H9aw-U
Poverty, poverty knock,
My loom it is saying all day.
Poverty poverty knock,
Gaffer's too skinny to pay.
Poverty, poverty knock,
Keeping one eye on the clock.
And I know I can guttle
When I hear my shuttle
Go poverty, poverty knock

13. Second Industrial Revolution
From 1860 on, and thanks to the development of the sources of energy (gas or
oil), the internal combustion engine and the means of transport England enters a
second phase of the Industrial Revolution.

14. The rise of the novel
Coinciding with a moment
in which alphabetization
began to be more usual
and printing and distributing
became easier novels
started being immensely
popular.
Social and industrial novels,
which depicted directly in a
realistic style the misery of
working class characters,
were the most prominent

15. Charles Dickens
Author of some of the most famous
novels in English language (such as
Oliver Twist, David Copperfield or A Tale
of Two Cities), was the prevalent
example of a realistic, social novelist.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the
age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the
season of light, it was the season of
darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the
winter of despair.”
A Tale of Two Cities

16. Bibliography

Reed, Lawrence W “Child Labor and the British Industrial
Revolution.” Freedom Daily

Rogers, Pat (Ed): The Oxford Illustrated History of English
Literature. Oxford: OUP, 1987.

VV.AA The Norton Anthology of English Literature, New York: W.
W. Norton & Company, 2012