quick overview on English Literature

EnglishEnglish
LiteraryLiterary
Periods

3/9/2011 Prof. MSc. Maura Xavier Garcia
Chaucer made a crucial
contribution to English
literature in using English
at a time when much court
poetry was still written in
Anglo-Norman or Latin.

O’ = OF
S’ = IS OR WAS
‘T = IT
TH’ = THE
WHILE = WHILST
METHINKS = IT SEEMS TO ME
HENCE = FROM THAT PLACE
THEREAFTER = AFTER THAT
THITHER = TO THAT PLACE
WHITHER = TO WHICH PLACE
WHENCE = FROM WHICH PLACE
WHEREFORE = FOR WHICH REASON

The mind is its own
place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven
of Hell, a Hell of
Heaven.

The Vitruvian Man is
a world-renowned drawing created by
Leonardo da Vinci around
the year 1487e Canon of Proportions or, less often,
Proportions of Man. It is stored in the
Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Italy
Monalisa began to be painted in 1503

Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564[
– 8 January 1642), known as
Galileo, was an Italian
PHYSICIST, MATHEMATICIAN ,
ASTRONOMER and
OHILOSOPHER who played a
major role in the Scientific
Revolution His achievements
include improvements
to the telescope and
consequent astronomical
observations, and support
for Copernicanism

Newton (4 January 1643 – 31
March 1727 described
universal gravitation and
the three laws of motion, which
dominated the scientific view of
the physical universe for the
next three centuries.

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in
Europe during the 18th century in which people began to
change their views on the world and on society.
Salon Image: www.biographie.net/Anicet-Charles-Gabriel-Lem.
The Enlightenment
18/09/13 Prof. Ms. Maura Xavier Garcia

The equatorial armillary, used for navigation on ships
The Enlightenment
grew largely out of
the new methods and
discoveries achieved
in the Scientific
Revolution of the 16th
and 17th
centuries.
Image: www.math.nus.edu.sg/.../teaching/heavenly.htm

The Connection :
• The Scientific Revolution showed that nature
and the universe could be explained through
reason, using mathematical precision.
• So people began to believe that they could
explain the workings of society and the
relationships of people in terms of scientific
study.

B. Immanuel Kant – “What is Enlightenment?”
Enlightenment is man's release from his
self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man's
inability to make use of his understanding
without direction from another. Self-
incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies
not in lack of reason but in lack of
resolution and courage to use it without
direction from another. Sapere aude!
[Dare to know!][Dare to know!] "Have courage"Have courage
to use your own reason!"-to use your own reason!"- that is
the motto of enlightenment.

B. Immanuel Kant
[Dare to know!][Dare to know!]
"Have courage"Have courage
to use your ownto use your own
reason!"-reason!"- that is the motto of
enlightenment.

Central ConceptsCentral Concepts
A.A.The methods ofThe methods of natural sciencenatural science shouldshould
be used to understand all aspects ofbe used to understand all aspects of
life- through the use oflife- through the use of REASONREASON
B. Discover theB. Discover the natural lawsnatural laws of humanof human
society as well as the natural worldsociety as well as the natural world
(“social science”)(“social science”)
C. The idea ofC. The idea of progressprogress - The confidence- The confidence
in human power, human reason toin human power, human reason to
improve societyimprove society18/09/13 Prof. Ms. Maura Xavier Garcia

Central conceptsCentral concepts
D. Rejection ofD. Rejection of superstitionsuperstition andand traditiontradition
E.E. ToleranceTolerance andand equalityequality
F.F. DeismDeism - God does not intervene in the- God does not intervene in the
world through miracles; he created theworld through miracles; he created the
world, and then removed himself from itworld, and then removed himself from it

A. Denis Diderot -
The Encyclopedia -
a compilation of all
knowledge!

“[Our aim] is to collect all the knowledge
scattered over the face of the earth, … and
to transmit this to those who will come
after us.... It could only belong to a
philosophical age to attempt an
encyclopedia; … All things must be
examined, debated, and investigated
without exception and without regard for
anyone’s feelings…. We have for quite some
time needed a reasoning age.”18/09/13 Prof. Ms. Maura Xavier Garcia

B. MontesquieuB. Montesquieu - separation and- separation and
balance of powersbalance of powers

Montesquieu 1689 – 1755
• French philosopher
• Argued that no single set of laws could
apply to all people at all times
• Wrote the book –Spirit of the Laws -1748
• Stated monarchy was not necessary if
there was a better government

Separation of Power
• Montesquieu believed in idea of separation of
powers and checks and balances to divide
government into three branches
• Idea came from England—judicial, legislative,
and executive powers
• Became the framework of the Constitution

C. VoltaireC. Voltaire
1. freedom of thought1. freedom of thought
and religion ~and religion ~
tolerationtoleration
2. ridiculed the clergy2. ridiculed the clergy
for their bigotry,for their bigotry,
intolerance, andintolerance, and
superstitionsuperstition
3. Admired Louis XIV3. Admired Louis XIV
and Frederick theand Frederick the
Great - thoughtGreat - thought
people unable topeople unable to
govern themselvesgovern themselves18/09/13 Prof. Ms. Maura Xavier Garcia
It is dangerous to be right whenIt is dangerous to be right when
the government is wrong.the government is wrong.
I may not agree with what you haveI may not agree with what you have
to say, but I will defend to the deathto say, but I will defend to the death
your right to say it.your right to say it.

Voltaire 1694-1778
• French philosopher
• Believed in possibility of social change and
reform
• “Man is free at the instant he wants to be.”
• Tolerance, reason, freedom of religion and
speech – Bill of Rights

D. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(later Enlightenment)
1. Society is artificial and
corrupt - state of nature is
better - education
2. Valued impulse and emotion
more than reason
3. Believed in contract
government and individual
freedom
4.4. “General Will”“General Will” - republic as- republic as
ideal governmentideal government

Thomas Hobbs 1588- 1679
• People have a social
contract in establishing
a government.
• People get civil rights in
return for having a
government rule them.
Leviathan.
www.cdhi.mala.bc.ca/jengine/theory.htm18/09/13 Prof. Ms. Maura Xavier Garcia

John Locke 1632–1704
• English philosopher
• New ideas about rights of people
and their relationship to ruler
• Wrote that government was
created for the people
• If rules did not protect the rights,
then people had right to get new
government
• American Revolution resulted
from this idea
Image. www.
student.britannica.com/comptons/art-74910/Por...

“Must Read” Books of the Time

A Parisian Salon

A dissection at the Royal Academy, LondonA dissection at the Royal Academy, London

Chemistry Labs & Botany Gardens

Augustan Age
The Rise of Journalism
http://italiano.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/locations-and-travel/travel-backgrounds/5963939-old-engraved-map-of-
europe.php?id=5963939

The Rise of Journalism
Interest of the Middle Class in:
– Literature
– Art
– Social problems
– Political life
Desire of the Middle Class:
– To be informed
– To discuss events, famous people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_swift

The Periodicals
Joseph Addison (“The Spectator”)
Richard Steel (“The Tatler”)
Subjects of general interests:
– Fashion
– Literature
– Manners
– History
Aim:
– Moral Teachings and Entertainment
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spectator

The Tatler
• 3 times a week
• 1711
• Casual and conversational style
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatler18/09/13 Prof. Ms. Maura Xavier Garcia

The Spectator
• Daily (no on Sundays) 1711-1712
• Mr Spectator  imaginary club
• Comments upon:
– customs and morals
– virtues and vices
• Different social classes
• Clear and simple style
• Imitation outside England (“Il Caffè” – Verri)
http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/englishpeasants.jpg
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spectator

Other Periodicals
Novelists  careers as journalists
Jonathan Swift “The Examiner” (whig ministers)
Daniel Defoe “The Review” (home & foreign policy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Defoe

The period between 1660
and 1785 was a time of
amazing expansion for
England — or for "Great
Britain," as the nation came
to be called after an Act of
Union in 1707 joined Scotland
to England and Wales.

One lasting change was
a shift in population from
the country to the town.
"A Day in Eighteenth-
Century London" shows
the variety of diversions
available to city-dwellers.

The Augustan Age
The Rise of the Novel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Defoe18/09/13 Prof. Ms. Maura Xavier Garcia

Features of the 18th century novels
1. Simple way of writing to be
understood
2. Realism in the way life was shown
3. Hero, a bourgeois man, mouthpiece
of the author
4. Contemporary names of characters
struggling for survival or social
success
5. Chronological sequence

Features of the 18th century novels
1. Particular times
2. Attention to the setting
3. Narrator never abandoned his
characters
4. Story appealing to the tradesman
5. Reward and Punishment  Puritan
ethics of middle classes

Jonathan Swift
http://www.mgrande.com/weblog/images/partosdepandora/Jonathan_swift.jpg

A brilliant satirist (1667 – 1745)
• Born in Dublin
• Moved to England
• Work for Sir William Temple
• Best satirical works:
– The Battle of the Books
– A Tale of a Tub
• Anglican priest in Ireland
• In London friendship with Pope
• Writings for Tory
• Back to Ireland Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral
• Pamphlets against sufferings of Irish
– A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture
– The Drapier’s Letter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Temple_(British_politician)

An Irish hero
National Hero
Ireland as a place of exile
Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
A Modest Proposal (1729)
– Irony and bitterness
– Against English rule
– Against Irish passive attitude
– Mocking the projector
Decay of Swift’s mental faculties
http://www.nt.armstrong.edu/ireland2map0.gif

A controversial writer
Labelled as
– a misanthrope
– morbid attitude
– monster
– lover of mankind
Concerned with politics and society
Conservative attitude
No optimism of his age
Irony, Satire and Parody
http://carbolicsmoke.com/wpcontent/uploads/2008/07/modestproposal.jpg

Gulliver’s Travel (1726)
• Greatest satire in the
language
• Imaginary voyage
• Pure fantasy
• Pessimistic portrait of
man and the social
institutions

First Voyage
In Lilliput, society is
reduced to a small
scale, since Gulliver is
taller than every
citizen
The simultaneous
recreation of Gulliver
as giant and prisoner –
irony
MetaphorMetaphor to make theto make the
satire strongersatire stronger
Part I – A Voyage to Lilliput

First Voyage
• Actions performed by the
Liliputians are absolutely
nonsense and they fought
over nothing – oxymoronoxymoron
• Invest on verisimilitude
• Just to finish off he leaves
his family and travel again

Second Voyage
To the giants land
Brobdingnag
both the human pride
and physical appearance
is attacked;
Gulliver is now feeling as
a lilliputian too small
when close to those
enormous creatures;
The demonstrationThe demonstration
that one day we canthat one day we can
be the hunter and onbe the hunter and on
the other we can bethe other we can be
huntedhunted

Second Voyage
Irony/ Satire when Gulliver
explains to the king
everything about politics.
A visible criticism of the
monarchy
Reversal when is treated
by the queen as if he was a
member of the monarchy

The third voyage extends Swift’s
attack to science, learning,
and abstract thought, offering
a critique of excessive
rationalism, or reliance on
theory, during the
Enlightenment.
In his description of the
technique used to move the
island from one place to
another, the movement of these
parts from one point to another
resembles the mechanistic
philosophical and scientific
descriptions of Swift’s time.
Third Voyage

Third Voyage
The Struldbrugs of Luggnagg
provide an opportunity for Swift
to satirize human desires. Many
would seek eternal life, and the
primary benefit of old age, as
Gulliver sees it, is the ability to
use one’s accumulated wisdom to
help humanity. The reality is
much less glorious—instead of
growing in wisdom, the immortal
Struldbrugs grow only more
prejudiced and selfish,
eventually becoming a detriment
to the whole Luggnaggian society.

Third Voyage
Furthermore, the Struldbrugs’
immense sadness despite their
seeming advantage shows
the emptiness of Gulliver’s
desire—a desire prominent in
Western society—to
acquire
riches. Swift denounces
such self-absorbed goals
as the province of
small minds unconcerned
with the good of society
as a whole.

Fourth Voyage
Directly attacks humankind,
without the subtlety of
satire or allusion
the Houyhnhmns
are gigantic

Fourth Voyage
• It is similarly possible to
regard Gulliver's preference
as absurd and the sign of
his self-deception.
• Regard them as a veiled
criticism by Swift of the
British Empire's treatment
of non-whites as lesser
humans

Conclusion
Swift in Gulliver’s Travels raises disturbing
questions about the discrepancies
between the ideals we profess and the
way we actually live. Far from being an
eminently rational creature who is
capable of reasoning but who uses his
intelligence and cunning for absurd and
selfish ends.

`Father, thy word is
passed, Man shall find
grace;
And shall Grace not find
means, that finds her way,
The speediest of thy
winged messengers,

British Romanticism
What was the
historical background
like?
Can we define the
beginning of British
romanticism?

British romanticism
originated in the
second half of the
18th century in
Western Europe, and
gained strength during
the Industrial
Revolution.

British Romanticism
formalized with the jointthe joint
publicationpublication by
Wordsworth and
Coleridge of Lyrical
Ballads in 1798.

•What are the
tenets of
Romanticism?

• tenets of Romanticism:
• Emotion – imagination over
reason
• Individual over society - Common
people over aristocrats
• Nature – wilderness over human
works (the healing power of
nature)
• Freedom over control and
authority

William Blake 1757-1827William Blake 1757-1827
•English poet,
visionary, painter, and
printmaker.
•Blake became a heroa hero
of the counter culturof the counter culture.

William BlakeWilliam Blake
He focused his creative efforts beyond the five
senses, for “If the doors of
perception were cleansed every
thing would appear to man as it
is, infinite. For man has closed
himself up, till he sees all things
thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern”
–

Some remarkable authors of the
period
Pandaemonium___John_Hannah.wmv
• William WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in
Cockermouth, Cumberland, in the Lake District. He
died on April 23, 1850. Slide 12
• Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Ottery St
Mary, Devonshire, England, in 1772. He died in
1834.
• Robert SoutheyRobert Southey was born in Bristol in 1774. He died
in 1843.
• Thomas De QuinceyThomas De Quincey was born Manchester,
Lancashire, in 1785. He died in 1859.
• William BlakeWilliam Blake was born on 28 November, 1757, in
London, England, died at home on 12 August, 1827.
ake

• William Wordsworth is actively engaged in trying
to create a new kind of poetry that emphasized
intuition over reason and the pastoral over the
urban, often in an effort to use ‘real’ language.
• The poem Splendour in the Grass is from
Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of
Early Childhood, which begins with the majestic:
There was a time when meadow, grove, and
stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.

Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge
• Iron Maiden, Powerslave (1984): Rime of the Ancient Mariner. the group
Iron Maiden recorded a version of Rime of the Ancient Mariner on their
Powerslave album in 1984.
• IronMaiden___Rime_Of_The_Ancient_Mariner._Part2.wmv
• Hunt Emerson, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, comic version (Knockabout).
It's a lovely, lovely parody, complete with an albatross that just won't die--
it keeps climbing back up the side of the ship.
• Kubla_Khan___Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge.wmv

Some remarkable authors of the
period
Pandaemonium___John_Hannah.wmv
• Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley was born in Horsham, Sussex,
England, in 1792. He died in 1822. (30)
• John KeatsJohn Keats was born in London, England, in 1795. He
died in 1821. (26)
• Robert BurnsRobert Burns 25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796, a
Scottish writer. (37)
• George Gordon ByronGeorge Gordon Byron 1788-1824 (36)
• Jane AustenJane Austen was born in Hamshire, England, in 1775.
She died in 1817. (42)
• Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyMary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born in London,
England, in 1797. She died in 1851. (54) Thomas HardyThomas Hardy
was born at Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, on June 2,
1840. He died on January 11, 1928 . (88)

Victorian period
Social Structure

Observe the pictures and say
• Who are they? Men? Women? Children?
• Where are they? Describe the place.
• What do they look like?
• What are they doing? Describe actions and
feelings; are they working, entertaining?
• What social class do you think they belong to?

Social Classes
• Upper Class – did not have to work
• Middle Class – performed clean work
• Working Class – physical labor

Upper Class
• Wealth came from inherited land or
investments
• Included people from the church and of
nobility
• Men Had to follow rules for introductions
• His Duty is always to his lady
• He had to Follow etiquette for dinner parties

Middle Class
• Only men provided the income
• Consisted of bankers, shopkeepers, merchants,
engineers, other professionals
• Only women of the upper and middle class have
completed education which signified availability for
marriage; also could be introduced into social life
• They Must follow a strict set of rules connected to
Outward appearance and Social behavior

Working Class
Poor living and working conditions
– Workers included women and children
• Women did all their own housework then had to go do chores for
more privileged women
• Men in this class held jobs for the unskilled
• Children even had to work to help support the family in textile mills
and factories
– Long work days
– Poor nutrition and health
• Living conditions: places were Often overcrowded, Poorly
ventilated, No sewage or drainage systems
• Did not follow rules of courtship /Did not participate in social entertainment/Had very little
chance for education

Courtship
• Rules varied based
upon class
• Courtship advanced
by gradations
• Lower classes had opportunities to socialize at
church and during holiday season
• Upper class held their own social events
throughout the season

Entertainment
• Several popular forms of entertainment vary
by socioeconomic class
• All could enjoy the arts except those of the
working class - Class distinction was evident in the type of dancing
• Middle and upper class read and studied society novels
• Women of higher class joined various social groups, they
were Limited to specific sports, but towards the end of the
era, women’s sports expanded

Men’s Entertainment
• Men joined various social groups and societies
• Card games and gambling became popular among
the males
• Well-bred men would frequent pleasure gardens like
the Cremorne Gardens

Reforms
Education reforms: Moving to provide education for
more than just the privileged
Factory reforms : Moving to get children out of the
factories and provide better conditions of living
Political reforms : moving to diminish the huge
gap between the classes

A beast of a servant came up with a lantern, at last, shouting - ‘Keep fast, Skulker, keep
fast!’ He changed his note, however, when he saw Skulker’s game. The dog was
throttled off; his huge, purple tongue hanging half a foot out of his mouth, and his
pendent lips streaming with bloody slaver. The man took Cathy up; she was sick: not
from fear, I’m certain, but from pain. He carried her in; I followed, grumbling execrations
and vengeance. ‘What prey, Robert?’ hallooed Linton from the entrance. ‘Skulker has
caught a little girl, sir,’ he replied; ‘and there’s a lad here,’ he added, making a clutch at
me, ‘who looks an out-and- outer! Very like the robbers were for putting them through
the window to open the doors to the gang after all were asleep, that they might murder
us at their ease. Hold your tongue, you foul- mouthed thief, you! you shall go to the
gallows for this. Mr. Linton, sir, don’t lay by your gun.’ ‘No, no, Robert,’ said the old fool.
‘The rascals knew that yesterday was my rent-day: they thought to have me cleverly.
Come in; I’ll furnish them a reception. There, John, fasten the chain. Give Skulker
some water, Jenny. To beard a magistrate in his stronghold, and on the Sabbath, too!
Where will their insolence stop? Oh, my dear Mary, look here! Don’t be afraid, it is but a
boy - yet the villain scowls so plainly in his face; would it not be a kindness to the country
to hang him at once, before he shows his nature in acts as well as features?’ He pulled
me under the chandelier, and Mrs. Linton placed her spectacles on her nose and raised
her hands in horror. The cowardly children crept nearer also, Isabella lisping - ‘Frightful
thing! Put him in the cellar, papa. He’s exactly like the son of the fortune-teller that
stole my tame pheasant. Isn’t he, Edgar?’

Finalmente, apareceu a besta do criado com uma candeia a gritar:
-- «_Agarra Skulker, agarra!»
-- Porém, quando viu o que o cão estava a agarrar, mudou logo de tom. O cão foi
afastado violentamente pela trela, quase ficando esganado: a sua grande língua rosada
pendia-lhe da boca e, dos beiços, pingava uma mistura de baba e sangue.
-- O homem pegou na Cathy, que, entretanto, perdera os sentidos, não do medo, mas
da dor. Levou-a para dentro de casa. Eu fui atrás dele, gritando tudo o que me vinha à
cabeça de insultos e ameaças.
-- «_Então, Robert, qual é a pressa?», perguntou o Linton da entrada.
-- «_O Skulker apanhou uma menina» respondeu. «_E está também aqui um rapaz«
acrescentou, agarrando-me, «que parece um ladrãozeco! Com certeza, os ladrões que
por aí andam tencionavam metê-los dentro de casa para depois lhes abrirem a
porta e nos matarem a todos durante o sono. Cala-te, meu safado, ou vais parar à forca.
Não largue a espingarda, Mr. Linton!»
-- «_Está descansado, Robert» disse o tonto do velho.«_Estes :, patifes sabiam que
ontem era o dia de receber as rendas e pensavam que me podiam roubar. Entrem, vão
ter uma óptima recepção. John, tranca a porta. E tu, Jenny, dá de beber ao Skulker.
Assaltar um magistrado na sua própria residência, e ainda por cima no Dia do Senhor!
Onde é que isto irá parar? Mary, querida, olha-me só para isto! Não tenhas medo, é
apenas um garoto. Porém, o rapaz tem cá uma cara que seria um favor para todos
enforcá-lo imediatamente, antes que passe das palavras aos actos.»
-- Levou-me para debaixo do lustre. Mrs. Linton pôs os óculos e elevou as mãos aos
céus horrorizada. Os filhos aproximaram-se cobardemente. Isabella ciciou: «_Meu
Deus, que coisa mais horrível! Feche-o na cave, papá. É igualzinho ao filho daquela

In Wuthering Heights, by Emily
Bronte,
• the Lintons represent the Victorian family
ideal through their genteel mannerisms and
lack of concern for the poor. This is evident
when the Lintons shun Heathcliff; yet
immediately look after Catherine because she
appears injured. This is also ironic because the
Lintons are nonviolent and Catherine hurt
herself at Thrushcross Grange.

• During the time that Wuthering Heights was written,
violence was definitely not a common part of
Victorian family life – among the upper class.
Lockwood is another person who represents the
Victorian ideal. Lockwood is also very polite, and
solves his problems nonviolently, which can be seen
by the way he talks to Heathcliff after he was
insulted. Lockwood is very kind to Heathcliff and
Cathy, yet he treats Hareton curtly because he thinks
of him as simple. Violence in the Victorian era was
thought of as low-class, Heathcliff was violent,
therefore was thought of as lowly.

Kate Bush's version of Wuthering Heights
Out on the wiley, windy moors
Wed roll and fall in green.
You had a temper like my jealousy:
Too hot, too greedy.
How could you leave me,
When I needed to possess you?
I hated you. I loved you, too.
Bad dreams in the night.
They told me I was going to lose the fight,
Leave behind my wuthering, wuthering
Wuthering heights.
Heathcliff, its me--cathy.
Come home. Im so cold!
Let me in-a-your window.
Ooh, it gets dark! it gets lonely,
On the other side from you.
I pine a lot. I find the lot
Falls through without you.
Im coming back, love.
Cruel heathcliff, my one dream,
My only master.
Too long I roam in the night.
Im coming back to his side, to put it right.
Im coming home to wuthering, wuthering,
Wuthering heights,
Ooh! let me have it.
Let me grab your soul away.
Ooh! let me have it.
Let me grab your soul away.
You know its me--cathy!

Sources
• www.umd.umich.edu
• www.studyworld.com
• www.bbc.co.uk
• www.victoriaspast.com
• www.ancestry.com
• www.english.uwosh.edu
• www.fortunecity.com
• www.victoriancourt.com
• www.victorianweb.org
• www.victorianbazaar.com

VictorianVictorian
PeriodPeriod
an age ofan age of
transitiontransition
HistoricalHistorical
BackgroundBackgroundProf. Ms. Maura Xavier Garcia
Queen Victoria
( 1837-1901)

• Changed life patterns: Growth of urban
population, Starving population and
unemployment, homeless children and
prostitution
• Code of values - morality (to balance the
anarchy)
• Just towards the end of this period there was
a Shift in religion – Darwin’s theory of
Evolution, but remained a Christian nation
• The printing press experienced a great
development during the last 20 years of the
19th
c.

Victorian novelVictorian novel
• Most Victorian novels were long and full of intricate
language, verisimilitude, that is, they presented a close
representation to the real social life of the age – effects of
Realism
• Long complicated plots ( full descriptions and expositions,
multiplotting and several central characters )
• Deeper analysis of the characters who are blends of virtue
and vice
• Chronological structure
• Closed form, a final chapter where the whole texture of
events is explained and justified

Victorian novelVictorian novel
• Most novels of the Victorian period were
published in serial form; that is, individual
chapters or sections appearing in subsequent
journal issues. As such, demand was high for each
new appearance of the novel to introduce some
new element, whether it be a plot twist or a new
character, so as to maintain the reader's
interest.
• During this time, authors were paid by the word,
which tended to create wordy prose. In part for
these reasons, Victorian novels are made up of a
variety of plots and a large number of
characters, appearing and reappearing as
events dictate.

Victorian novel
• female authors assumed a central role: The English
novel was defined, to a large extent, by the works of
Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot.
• Emily Bronte and Charles Dickens wrote in very
different styles and addressed altogether different
themes.
• Key to Victorian style is the concept of the authorial
intrusion and the address to the reader. For example,
the author might interrupt his/her narrative to pass
judgment on a character, or pity or praise another,
while later seeming to exclaim "Dear Reader!" and
inform or remind the reader of some other relevant
fact.

Representative authors of the Victorian Period
• Charlotte Brontë (1816-55) born at Thornton, Yorkshire, England. Dies in pregnancy.
• Emily Brontë (1818-48) born at Thornton, near Bradford, Yorkshire, England. Dies of inflammation of the lungs.
• Anne Brontë (1820-49)
• Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson was born on 29 September 1810 in Chelsea, London,
England. In 1865, at the age of fifty-five, she died suddenly of a heart attack .
• George Eliot [pseudonym of Mary Anne or Marian Evans] (1819-
1880) in Warwickshire, England
• Charles Dickens (1812-1870) Charles John Huffman Dickens was born on 7 February, 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire,
England. He died from a cerebral hemorrhage on 9 June 1870 at his home, Gad’s Hill.
• Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854-1900) was born on 16 October 1854,
in Dublin, Ireland, died of meningitis on 30 November 1900
• Lewis Caroll born on January 27 1832 in Daresbury in Cheshire. Died in 1898 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
• Robert Louis Stevenson 13 November 1850– 3 December 1894was a Scottish novelist,
poet, essayist and travel writer.
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), Scottish author, Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born
on 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland

Emily Brontë (1818-48)
• (1847)
• Poems
• Representative authors of the Victorian Period The_League_...
•Pseudonym Ellis Bell

Charles Dickens
MASTERPIECE_CLASSIC__The_Tales_of_Charles_Dickens__PBS(2).wmv
• author of short
stories, plays,
novellas, novels,
fiction and non,
known for his
remarkable
characters, his
mastery of prose
in the telling of
their lives, and his
depictions of the
social classes. He had
his share of critics like
Virginia Woolf and
Henry James, but also many
admirers, even into the 21st

Charles Dickens
(1968). Great expectations
(pp. 78-80; 114-116; 121).
New York: Lancer Books.
What are the themes?
Tone, atmosphere?
Historical clues?
What are the views on love?

... I was half afraid. However, the only thing to be done
being to knock at the door, I knocked, and was told from
within to enter. I entered, therefore, and found myself in
a pretty large room, well lighted with wax candles. No
glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it. It was a
dressing-room, as I supposed from the furniture, though
much of it was forms and uses then quite unknown to
me. But prominent in it was a draped table with a gilded
looking-glass, and that I made out at first sight to be a
fine lady’s dressing-table.
Whether I should have made out this object so soon, if
there had been no fine lady sitting at it, I cannot say. In
an armchair, with an elbow resting on the table and her
head leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have
ever seen, or shall ever see.

She was dressed in rich materials--satins, and lace and
silks -- all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a
long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had
bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some
bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands,
and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table.
Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and
half-packed trunks, were scattered about. She had not
quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on --
the other was on the table near her hand -- her veil was
but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on,
and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets, and
with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers,
and a Prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the
looking-glass.

It was not in the first few moments that I saw all these things,
though I saw more of them in the first moments than might be
supposed. But, I saw that everything within my view which ought
to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and
was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress
had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no
brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that
the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young
woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had
shrunk to skin and bone. Once I had been taken to see some
ghastly waxwork at the Fair, representing I know not what
impossible personage lying in state. Once, I had been taken to
one of our old marsh churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of a
rich dress, that had been dug out of a vault under the church
pavement. Now, waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes
that moved and looked at me. I should have cried out, if I could.

“Who is it?” said the lady at the table.
“Pip, ma’am.”
“Pip?”
“Mr. Pumplechook’s boy, ma’am. Come-to play.”
“Come nearer; let me look at you. Come close.”
It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note of the
surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at
twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had stopped at
twenty minutes to nine.
“Look at me,” said Miss Havisham. “You are not afraid of a woman who
has never seen the sun since you were born?”
I regret to state that I was not afraid of telling the enormous lie
comprehended in the answer “No.”
“Do you know what I touch here?” she said, laying her hands, one upon
the other, on her left side.
“Yes, ma’am.” (It made me think of the young man.)
“What do I touch?”
“Your heart.”
“Broken!”
She uttered the word with an eager look, and with strong emphasis, and
with a weird smile that had a kind of boast in it. Afterwards, she kept her
hands there for a little while, and slowly took them away as if they were
heavy.
“I am tired,” said Miss Havisham. “I want diversion, and I have done with
men and women. Play.”

I crossed the staircase landing, and entered the room she indicated. From that
room, too, the daylight was completely excluded, and it had an airless smell
that was oppressive. A fire had been lately kindled in the damp old-fashioned
grate, and it was more disposed to go out than to burn up, and the reluctant
smoke which hung in the room seemed colder than the clearer air--like our own
marsh mist. Certain wintry branches of candles on the high chimneypiece
faintly lighted the chamber; or it would be more expressive to say, faintly
troubled its darkness. It was spacious, and I dare say had once been
handsome, but every discernible thing in it was covered with dust and mold,
and dropping to pieces. The most prominent object was a long table with a
tablecloth spread on it, as if a feast had been in preparation when the house
and the clocks all stopped together. An épergne or centre-piece of some kind
was in the middle of this cloth; it was so heavily overhung with cobwebs that its
form was quite undistinguishable; and, as I looked along the yellow expanse
out of which I remember its seeming to grow, like a black fungus, I saw
speckled-legged spiders with blotchy bodies running home to it, and running
out from it, as if some circumstance of the greatest public importance has just
transpired in the spider community.
I heard the mice too, rattling behind the panels, as if the same occurrence were
important to their interests. But the black beetles took no notice of the agitation,
and groped about the hearth in a ponderous elderly way, as if they were short-
sighted and hard of hearing, and not on terms with one another.

These crawling things had fascinated my attention, and I was watching them from a
distance, when Miss Havisham laid a hand upon my shoulder. In her other hand she had
a crutch-headed stick on which she leaned, and she looked like the Witch of the place.
“This,” said she, pointing to the long table with her stick, “is where I will be laid when I
am dead. They shall come and look at me here.”
With some vague misgiving that she might get upon the table then and there and die at
once, the complete realization of the ghastly waxwork at the Fair, I shrank under her
touch.
“What do you think that is?” she asked me, again pointing with her stick; “that, where
those cobwebs are?”
“I can’t guess what it is, ma’am.”
“It’s a great cake. A bride-cake. Mine!”
* * * * *
“On this day of the year, long before you were born, this heap of decay,” stabbing with
her crutched stick at the pile of cobwebs on the table but not touching it, “was brought
here. It and I have worn away together. The mice have gnawed at it, and sharper teeth
than teeth of mice have gnawed at me.”
She held the head of her stick against her heart as she stood looking at the table; she in
her once white dress, all yellow and withered; the once white cloth all yellow and
withered; everything around, in a state to crumble under a touch.
“When the ruin is complete,” said she, with a ghastly look, “and when they lay me dead,
in my bride’s dress on the bride’s table--which shall be done, and which will be the
finished curse upon him--so much the better if it is done on this day!”

Great_Expectations_(1946)_'Boy_Meets_Girl'__Part.2.wmv

Dicken’s works
• Fiction
– A Christmas Carol
– A Message from the Sea
– A Tale of Two Cities
– All The Year Round
– American Notes
– Barnaby Rudge
– Bleak House
– David Copperfield
– Daombey and Son
– Great Expectations
– Hard Times
– Holiday Romance
– Hunted Down
– Little Dorrit
– Martin Chuzzlewit
– Master Humphrey’s Clock
– Mudfog and Other Sketches
– Nicholas Nicklebv
– Oliver Twist
– Our Mutual Friend
– Reprinted Pieces
– Sketches by Boz
– The Battle of Life
– The Chimes
– The Cricket on the Hearth
– The Haunted Man and the
Ghost’s Bargain
– The Lazy Tour of Two Idle
Apprentices
– The Mystery of Edwin Drood
– The Old Curiosity Shop
– The Pickwick Papers
– The Uncommercial Traveller

atividades
• Imagem de Londres e Paris no sec.XIX – conflitos internos devido aos
problemas sociais – quais tipos de expectativas uma criança poderia
ter nessa época – e hoje.
• Ler trechos de Great Expectations e Oliver Twist – em grupos
linguagem, tom, ponto de vista da narrativa etc. – Trechos do filme e
comparação – BILDUNGSROMAN 50´
• Imagem do retrato de Dorian Gray – discussão do tema relacionando
aos dias de hoje e ao período Vitoriano
• (poder ser uma entrevista com o professor após discussão da
imagem – levar chapéu, cachecol e luvas) Leitura de trechos de
Dorian Gray – detecção de estilo de linguagem, indicação de
contexto histórico-social – como transformariam em linguagem
teatral – produção escrita para discussão das características do
gênero.

atividades
• Montagem da árvore genealógica dos personagens
com as características – atividade em grupo –
coletiva (tag names) – Apresentam-se em 1o.
Pessoa
• Comentar sobre o enredo (deduzirinferir de
acordo com expectativas ou quem leu conta) – ler a
letra da música e verificar se corresponde às
características dos protagonistas conforme foi
apresentado.
• Leitura de trechos do livro para análise de aspectos
do estilo e contexto e falar sobre a autora

Charlotte Brontë
(1816-55)
• Life in mourning, struggle
against the grim realities which
surrounded her —
abandonment, brutalization,
emotional deprivation, death
(the traumatic loss of her
mother, her four sisters, and her
brother)
• her novels are secretly fairy
tales, variations on the
Cinderella theme, ardent,
sensitive, lonely, passionate
heroines who are versions of
herself
•First wrote under
pseudonym of Currer
Bell

Charlotte Brontë (1816-55)
• Works
• Jane Eyre (1847)
• Shirley (1849)
• Villette (1853)
• The Professor (1857)

Anne Brontë
(1820-49)
• Works
• Agnes Grey (1847)
• The Tenant of
Wildfell Hall (1848)
• Selected Poems
•Pseudonym Acton Bell

Elizabeth Gaskell
(1810-1865)
• Fiction
• A Dark Night’s Work
• Half A Life-Time Ago
• Lizzie Leigh
• Mary Barton
• Ruth
• Sylvia’s Lovers
• The Doom of the Griffiths
• The Moorland Cottage
• Wives and Daughters
• Non-Fiction
• The Life of Charlotte Bronte
• Short Stories
• An Accursed Race
• Cousin Phillis
• The Half-Brothers
• The Manchester Marriage
•

Charles Lutwidge
Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)
alice in wonderland.wmv
• Useful and Instructive
Poetry (1845)
• Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland (1865)
• Phantasmagoria (1869)
• Through the Looking
Glass (1871)
• Rhyme? and Reason?
(1883)
• Sylvie and Bruno (1889)

Robert Louis
Balfour
Stevenson
(13 November 1850 – 3
December 1894)
Representative authors of the Victorian Period The_League_...
The Victorian poet and
novelist Robert Louis
Stevenson once said,
"Don't judge each day
by the harvest you reap,
but by the seeds you
plant." The author of the
magical A Child's Garden
of Verses and the
chilling The Strange
Case of Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde, Treasure
'Jekyll_&_Hyde'_on_Broadway_~~_Part_6_of_16.wmv
Dr._Jekyll_&_Mr._Hyd

Short Stories
The Devoted Friend
The Happy Prince
The Nightingale and the Rose
The Remarkable Rocket
The Selfish Giant
Poems in Prose
The Young King
The Birthday of the Infanta
The Fisherman and His Soul
The Star Child
The Sphinx Without a Secret
The Model Millionaire
Essays
The Critic As Artist
De Profundis
The Decay Of Lying: An Observation
Pen, Pencil, And Poison - A Study In Green
The Soul Of Man Under Socialism
The Truth Of Masks -a Note On Illusion
The Rise of Historical Criticism
The English Renaissance of Art
House Decoration
Art and the Handicraftsman
Lecture to Art Students
London Models
Selected Prose
Shorter Prose Pieces

Eliot deals with themes of social change and
triumphs of the heart and has a remarkable
talent for showing us the depth and scope of
Provincial English life: its classes, pretensions,
and hypocrisies. Many of her novels today are
included in the canon of classic 19th century
literary works. She also wrote poetry and
essay.
Fiction
Adam Bede
Brother Jacob
Daniel Deronda
Middlemarch
Scenes of Clerical Life
Silas Marner
The Lifted Veil
The Mill on the Floss

Fiction
A Duet
A Study in Scarlet
Beyond the City
Micah Clarke
Rodney Stone
Round the Red Lamp
Sir Nigel
Tales of Terror and Mystery
The Adventures of Gerard
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Captain of the Polestar
The Doings of Raffles Haw
The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard
The Firm of Girdlestone
The Great Shadow and Other Napoleonic Tales
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Lost World
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
The Mystery of Cloomber
The Parasite
The Poison Belt
The Refugees
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
The Sign of Four
The Stark Munro Letters
The Tragedy of the Korosko
The Valley of Fear
The White Company
Uncle Bernac

Irish dramatist, poet, and author wrote the
darkly sardonic Faustian themed The Picture
of Dorian Gray (1891) Representative authors of the Victorian Period The_League_...
Fiction
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
The Canterville Ghost
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Portrait of Mr. W. H.
Plays
A Florentine Tragedy:
A Woman of No Importance
An Ideal Husband
La Sainte Courtisane
Lady Windermere's Fan
Salome
The Duchess of Padua
The Importance of Being Ea
Vera, or the Nihilists
The_Secret_of_Dorian_Gray_(1970).wmv

TEARS AND RAIN close reading James Blunt
Tears And Rain Lyrics Video.wmv
How I wish I could surrender my soul
Shed the clothes that become my skin
See the liar that burns within my
needing
How I wish I’d chosen darkness from
cold
How I wish I’d screamed out loud
instead I’ve found no meaning
I guess it’s time I run far, far awayI guess it’s time I run far, far away
Find comfort in pain,Find comfort in pain,
All pleasure’s the same: it just keepsAll pleasure’s the same: it just keeps
me from trouble. Hides my true shapeme from trouble. Hides my true shape
like Dorian Gray.like Dorian Gray. I’ve heard what theyI’ve heard what they
say, but I’m not here for trouble,say, but I’m not here for trouble,
it’s more than just words - It’s just
tears and rain
How I wish I could walk through the
doors of my mind/ Hold memory close
at hand, Help me understand the
years. How I wish I could choose
between Heaven and Hell. How I wish
How do you see this
individual related to
society according to the
underlined sentences

VICTORIANVICTORIAN
PERIODPERIODwhen we use the adjective victorian, quite often we
mean values as: hard workhard work, thrift (frugality)thrift (frugality), strictstrict
moralitymorality, family virtuesfamily virtues, pruderyprudery, bigotrybigotry or
intolerancesintolerances, and hipocrisyhipocrisy

...
1854: In October 16th was born Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde in
Dublin.
1879: He starts to be famous as `dandy´. The magazine Punch makes fun
about his appeareance.
1884: He works as a journalist in London. He gets married with Constance
Lloyd.
1885: His son, Cyril, is born. He becomes a literary critic at the magazine
Pall Mall Gazette.
1886: His second son, Vivian, is born. It starts the rumours about his
`double life’.
1887: He rules the magazine The Woman’s World (until 1889).
1891: He meets Lord Alfred Douglas. He often travels to Paris.
1893: He is an hedonist and shows his vices without shame.
1894: His public life is almost a scandal.
1895: The Queenberry’s Marquis, Lord Alfred’s father, writes to Wilde an
insulting letter. Oscar makes an accusation and he gets involved in three
trials, after them he is sentenced to two years in jail, at Wandsworth and
Reading Gaol.
1897: He gets out of jail and he lives in exile in France. He meets with Lord
Alfred at Italy.
1900: Poor and ill, he dies November the 30th in Paris.
Wilde’s biography from the works of Mª Concepción Sanz Casares(11-14):

Pre-raphaelite movement: John Ruskin belonged to this
movement against the ugly uniformity of the age,  Also Walter
Pater (1839-94) and Matthew Arnold (1822-88)
Pater influenced  Wilde because of his artistic and sensual style
In the "The Renaissance"(1873), Pater says “the artist gets rid
from some `powers´, so he would be able to get more originality
than his models”. His ascesis is epicurean and hedonist. The
truth is in the things, the mind is like a stream of
sensations. Whatever is morally good is related with the
pleasure.
As a result of  Ruskin’s Pre-Raphaelite ideas, Pater’s ascesis and
Arnold’s cultural moralism, together with the relations between
literature and visual, the period between 1870 and 1900, in
the English literature, has been called successively
aestheticism, decadentism and symbolism.
the concept of aestheticism, and the idea of  the art for art’s sake.
Keats, Flaubert and Pater influenced him according to Wilde
himself

• Gothic and autobiographicalGothic and autobiographical
• Elements of the supernatural and a Dark
atmosphere
• According to Philippe Lejeune On
Autobiography (1989) a “retrospective prose
narrative written by a real person concerning
his own existence, where the focus is his
individual life, in particular the story of his
personality.”

Letter and diary
• “Dear Mr. Payne, the book that poisoned, or
made perfect, Dorian Gray does not exist; it is a
fancy of mine merely.
• I am so glad you like that strange many
coloured book of mine (): It contains much of me
in it. Basil Hallward is what I think I am. Lord
Henry, what the world thinks of me. Dorian
what I would like to be in other ages, perhaps.”

Letter and diary
• 20th
September, 1900
• Minha primeira obra realmente significativa foi O
Retrato de Dorian Gray. È um livro estranho, cheio
de vivacidade e da estranha alegria com que foi
escrito. Escrevi-o depressa e sem nenhuma
preparação séria e, como resultado, minha
personalidade inteira está em algum ponto dele:
mas acho que não sei onde, exatamente. Existo em
todas as personagens, embora não possa pretender
compreender as forças que a impulsionam.

modifications(1890 version)
• “Then I feel Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to
some one who seems to take a real delight in giving me
pain. I seem quite adjusted to it. I can imagine myself doing
it. But not to him, not to him. Once or twice we have been
away together. Then I have had him all to myself. I am
horribly jealous of him, of course. I never let him talk to me
of the people he knows. I like to isolate him from the rest
of life and to think that he absolutely belongs to me. He
does not, I know. But it gives me pleasure to think he does.
“

(1891 version)
• “Then I feel, Harry, that I have given
away my whole soul to some one
who treats it as if it were a flower to
put in his coat...”

Oscar Wilde does not
celebrate homossexuality,
he just presents two
corrupted ways of love...
The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray_(1945)_Original_Trailer.
wmv
The_Secret_of_Dorian_Gray_(1970).wmv
Dorian_Gray_Movie_Trailer.wmv

Dorian Gray was later
reincarnated in
"Dorian" by Will Self
• Dorian Gray was also re-
done in a modern setting
in a novel by Rick R. Reed
"A Face Without a Heart“
(2000). The plot takes
place in a gay club scene
and a sophisticated
hologram stands in for the
painting.

• The book was parodied in The Green Carnation by Stanley Hichen.
• A 1981 episode of the TV series Blake’s Seven, "Rescue", featured a
character named "Dorian", whose base contained a room that functioned
like the portrait in Wilde's story: "The room exists, Avon. And since I found
it I haven't aged one day. It cleanses me of all the corruptions of time and
appetite. "
• The character also featured in the 2003 motion picture The League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen , but, despite references to the book in the comic
book series the film was based on, the character is not a major part of the
comic series.
• The 1945 film version was nominated for several Academy Awards and starred Peter
Lawford and Angela Lansbury. The portraits used in the film were by Ivan Albright.
• A 1976 BBC Television adaptation of the novel in the Play of the Month strand was scripted
by John Osborne and starred Peter Firth, Jeremy Brett and John Gielgud. This production is
available on DVD from BBC Worldwide.

"Throughout Wilde’s writings he never
ceased to argue that the `real men’, the
poets, philosophers, men of science and
culture, were those `who have realised
themselves and in whom all humanity gains
a partial realisation’[...] The drive
towards a higher state of consciousness
was the purpose of life.“
Entrevista de EL PAIS SEMANAL de
19/01/97 : "When a play that is a work of
art is produced on the stage what is being
tested is not the play, but the stage;
when a play that is not a work of art is
produced on the stage what is being tested
is not the play, but the public"

Oscar Wilde
(1854-
1900)High,
small, puffy
and patchy
MASTER OF
chi·as·mus
A rhetorical inversion of the
second of two parallel
structures
/ka æzɪˈ m sə /

"Life imitates"Life imitates
artart
far more thanfar more than
art imitatesart imitates

Thin and uniform
•Wilde conveys his belief that the
purpose of life is self-expressionself-expression,
with art being a great aid in that
endeavor.
•It's a fitting observation from one
who once said, "I have put my genius
into my life; I have put only my talent
into my work."

Low, puffy and
piled up
"The soul is born old, but grows young.
That is the comedy of life.
And the body is born young and grows old.
That is life's tragedy.“
“Nowadays, all the married men live like bachelors,
and all the bachelors like married men.”
"The Ideal man … should always
say much more than he means,
and always mean much more than he says.“
"No crime is vulgar,
but all vulgarity is crime.“
"Nothing can cure the soul but the senses,
just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul."

ImpliedImplied
chiasmuschiasmus"Work is the curse
of the drinking
classes."Popular saying:
"Drink is the curse of the working classes."
"The English have a miraculous
power
of turning wine into water."
reversing the biblical phrase about turning water into
wine, this was Wilde's assessment of the wine-making
skills of the English. (Dr. Mardy Grothe)

Nobody talks more
passionately about
his rights than he
who, in the depths of
his soul, is doubtful
about them.
Friedrich Nietzsche
(1844-1900)

Oscar Wilde
• “Man tells nothing when he
speaks on his behalf, but give
him a mask and he will tell the
truth.”

ModernismModernism
• Theoretical science, meanwhile, was rapidly
shifting from two-hundred-year-old
Newtonian models to Einstein’s theory of
relativity and finally to quantum mechanics.
• experimental movements, which were
sometimes collectively termed “modernist”
because of their emphasis on radical
innovation, swept through Europe.

Modernism and Modern literature
• Modernist literature is the literary form of
Modernism defined by its move away from
Romanticism and Victorian period venturing into
subject matter that is traditionally mundane.
• Modern literature is the history of the modern
novel and modern poetry.
• Modernist literature was at its height from 1900
to 1940, and featured such authors as T.S. Eliot,
James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, W.B. Yeats, Thomas
Mann

anglophone literature
• “modernism” more nearly describes an era
than a unitary movement.
• But what connects the modernist writers—
aside from a rich web of personal and
professional connections—is a shared desire
to break with established forms and subjects
in art and literature.

modernist writers
• rejected realistic representation and
traditional formal expectations.
• In the novel, they explored the
Freudian depths of their characters’
psyches through stream of
consciousness and interior
monologue.

Modernist writers
• In poetry, they mixed slang with elevated
language, experimented with free verse, and
often studded their works with difficult
allusions and disconnected images.
• Among the earliest groups to shape English-
language modernism were the imagists, a
circle of poets led initially by the Englishman
T. E. Hulme and the American Ezra Pound, in
the early 1910s.

Imagist poetic doctrineImagist poetic doctrine
• included the use of plain speech, the
preference for free verse over closed
forms, and above all the creation of the
vivid, hard-edged image.
• Shaped by Asian forms such as the
haiku, the imagist poem tended to be
brief and ephemeral, presenting a single
striking image or metaphor

innovation
• Eliot’s Waste Land and James Joyce’s Ulysses
were technically innovative and initially
controversial (Ulysses was banned in the
United States and Great Britain), but their
eventual acceptance as literary landmarks
helped to bring modernism into the canon of
English literature.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
• English novelist and critic, best known for his dystopian novel Brave New World (1931).
• Besides novels he published travel books, histories, poems, plays, and essays on philosophy, arts,
sociology, religion and morals
• At the age of 16 suffered an attack of keratitis punctata and became for a period of about 18 months
totally blind.
• Huxley's first novel, Crome Yellow (1921), a witty criticism of society, appeared in 1921. Huxley's style, a
combination of brilliant dialogue, cynicism, and social criticism, made him one of the most fashionable
literary figures of the decade. In eight years he published a dozen books, among them Point Counter
Point (1928) and Do What You Will (1929).
• Brave New World Revisited appeared in 1958.
• The Devils Of Loudon (1952), depicting mass-hysteria and exorcism in the 17th-century France.
• Island (1962) was an utopian novel and a return to the territory of Brave New World, in which a
journalist shipwrecks on Pala, the fabled island, and discovers there a kind and happy people. But the
earthly paradise is not immune to the harsh realities of oil policy.
• In 1954 Huxley published an influential study of consciousness expansion through mescaline, The Doors
Of Perception and became later a guru among Californian hippies.
• In 1961 Huxley suffered a severe loss when his house and his papers were totally destroyed in a bush-
fire.
• In 1963 appeared Literature And Science, a collection of essays.
• He also started to use LSD and showed interest in Hindu philosophy.

James Joyce (1882-1941)
• Irish novelist, born in Dublin, a journalist, teacher
• noted for his experimental use of language in such
works as Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939)
• extensive use of interior monologue; a complex
network of symbolic parallels drawn from the
mythology, history, and literature, and created a
unique language of invented words, puns, and
allusions.
• In 1907 Joyce had published a collection of poems,
Chamber Music - Dubliners in 1914, Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man in 1916, a play Exiles in 1918,
and Ulysses in 1922. IN 1939 Finnegans Wake

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
• Born in London, English author, feminist, essayist, publisher, and critic
wrote A Room of One’s Own (1929)
• In some of her novels she moves away from the use of plot and structure
to employ stream-of-consciousness to emphasise the psychological aspects
of her characters. ThemesThemes in her works include gender relations, class
hierarchy and the consequences of war.
• Suffered from bi-polar disorder and she suffered at the hands of her half-
brother
• married left-wing political journalist, author and editor Leonard Woolf
(1880-1969) on 10 August 1912. They would have no children.
• Mrs. Dalloway (1925) which inspired a film “The Hours” in 2002. To The
Lighthouse (1927) was followed by Orlando: A Biography (1928)
• screen in 1993- A roman à clef, Orlando’s character is modeled after Vita
Sackville West (1892-1962), friend and possible lover of Woolf
• she drowned herself in the River Ouse near their home in Sussex, by
putting rocks in her coat pockets. Her body was found later in April and she
was then cremated

D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930)
• David Herbert Lawrence was born on September 11, 1885, in Eastwood,
Nottinghamshire, central England. His father was a coal miner, a heavy
drinker. His mother was a former schoolteacher, superior in education to
her husband. Lawrence's childhood was dominated by poverty and friction
between his parents.
• English novelist, storywriter, critic, poet and painter.
• Lawrence's mother died in 1910; he helped her die by giving her an
overdose of sleeping med
• "Snake" and "How Beastly the Bourgeoisie is" are probably his most
anthologized poems
• first novel, The White Peacock(1911)
• Sons and Lovers appeared in 1913 and was based on his childhood (married
in 1914 to Frieda)
• fourth novel, The Rainbow (1915)
• Women In Love (1920)
• best known work is Lady Chatterly's Lover (1928) It tells of the love affair
between a wealthy, married woman, and a man who works on her
husband's estate.

George Orwell(1903-1950)
• George Orwell [pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair],
journalist, political author and novelist wrote Animal
Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949);
• Born in Bengal (Bihar) India / lower-upper middle class
• Purposefully lived as a tramp in LondonPurposefully lived as a tramp in London and stayed with
the miners in the north. IN 1932 he was a teacherteacher
• Learned French with Huxley, studied with Tolkien
• Shot in the throat during the Spanish Civil war. He was
a War correspondent
• He wanted to transform political writing into art
• (1949) he had tuberculosis, died at the age of 46

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
• Born in Dublin. His first volume of verse appeared in 1887
• Together with Lady Gregory he founded the Irish Theatre, which was to
become the Abbey Theatrethe Abbey Theatre, and served as its chief playwright
• His plays usually treat Irish legendstreat Irish legends; they also reflect his fascination with
mysticismmysticism and spiritualismspiritualism
• The Countess Cathleen (1892), The Land of Heart's Desire (1894), Cathleen
ni Houlihan (1902), The King's Threshold (1904), and Deirdre (1907) are
among the best known
• After 1910, Yeats's dramatic art took a sharp turn toward a highly poetical,
static, and esoteric style
• His poetry, The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), Michael Robartes and the
Dancer (1921), The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair and Other Poems
(1933), and Last Poems and Plays (1940), made him one of the outstanding
and most influential twentieth-century poets writing in English.
• ThemesThemes: the contrast of art and life, masks, cyclical theories of life
(the symbol of the winding stairs), and the ideal of beauty and
ceremony contrasting with the hubbub of modern life.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
• Born in Dublin, His education was irregular, due to his dislike of any organized training
• music and theatre critic in the eighties and nineties
• Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898), Widower's Houses and Mrs. Warren's Profession
savagely attack social hypocrisy, while in plays such as Arms and the Man and The Man of
Destiny the criticism is less fierce.
• Shaw's radical rationalism, his utter disregard of conventions, his keen dialectic interest and
verbal wit often turn the stage into a forum of ideas, examples in the famous discourses on
the Life Force, «Don Juan in Hell», the third act of the dramatization of woman's love chase
of man, Man and Superman (1903).
• Caesar and Cleopatra (1901), a historical play filled with allusions to modern times
• Androcles and the Lion (1912), in which he exercised a kind of retrospective history and
from modern movements drew deductions for the Christian era.
• Major Barbara (1905), one of Shaw's most successful «discussion» plays, the audience's
attention is held by the power of the witty argumentation that man can achieve aesthetic
salvation only through political activity, not as an individual.
• The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), facetiously classified as a tragedy by Shaw, is really a comedy
the humour of which is directed at the medical profession.
• Candida (1898), with social attitudes toward sex relations as objects of his satire, and
• Pygmalion (1912), a witty study of phonetics as well as a clever treatment of middle-class
morality and class distinction MY_FAIR_LADY_(1964)_Trailer.wmv

Origins of the AbsurdOrigins of the Absurd
Early German Expressionism
Concerned with the effects of an uncaring
society upon the individual and the emotional
angst this caused.
Exhibited in many art forms: painting, literature,
theatre, film, architecture and music, it
concentrates on communication through
emotion
Friedrich Nietzsche was a key player in the origins
of modern Expressionism when he presented his
theories of the Apollonian And the Dionysian - a
dualism between the plastic ‘art of sculpture’ - of
lyrical dream inspiration, identity, order,
regularity and calm repose and on the other
hand the non plastic ‘art of music’ - of
intoxication, chaos and dissolution of identity.

Absurd and Conventions of DramaAbsurd and Conventions of Drama
• Asides
• Aston: What? Didn’t they give you the food?
• Davies: Well... They did, but... What tiny piece of crap food they did give me! What were
they thinking? That I was a dog? An animal?
• Aston: [in an aside] Maybe not a dog, but you should at least be thankful.
• Davies: Sorry?
• Aston: Never mind. I have another pair of shoes, why don’t you try them?
• Dramatic monologue
• [while Davies was trying the other pair of shoes, Aston walked to the corner of the room,
thinking out loud]
• Aston: What an idiot! Why does he have to complain about everything? He should be happy
for getting the things he has for a homeless man!
• Those conventions are used to reveal the conflict,
external (between the characters) and internal
(within one character)

Absurd and Conventions of DramaAbsurd and Conventions of Drama
• Inserting of harmony resorting to :
• dreams, nightmares
• new characters
• detailed scenery or organized one+ flashbacks
• Focus on theme to help the identity issue
• Keep the atmosphere of suspense
• The use of references and more symbolic elements
• The insertion of a PLOT, giving a storyline to it
instead of the depiction of a situation and taking
away excerpts clearly with lack of purpose (...being
a decorator or not...)

Explanation of the Absurd
Characteristics of the movement include illogical situations,
unconventional dialogue, and minimal plots in an attempt to reflect
the absurdity of human existence.
‘Theatre of the Absurd’ was not the name of the movement to which
playwrights such as Beckett and Pinter claimed to be part of, but
instead a name given to their work by others. To be part of the ‘anti-‘anti-
theatre’theatre’ movement was found more acceptable, as they attacked
traditional artforms as no longer being valid in this pointless
existence.
The ‘absurd’ in this sense refers not to the ridiculous, but to being
‘out of harmony’.‘out of harmony’.
While the theatre was shocking to audiences, viewing it as ‘absurd’,
Camus argues that it is the world that is absurd.
Eugene Ionesco claimed that the ‘Absurd is that which is devoid of‘Absurd is that which is devoid of
purpose…’purpose…’

Anti- Theatre
The term ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ was first coined by Martin Esslin
in his 1961 book. The playwrights included in this prefer to use the
term ‘anti-theatre’, which was founded in the 1950s.
In 1953, Ionesco used the subtitle ‘anti-play’‘anti-play’ for his piece ‘Bald
Prima Donna’, which made the term accessible for critics and the
media.
‘Anti-Theatre’ combines futurism and surrealism, and illustrates a
rejection of the traditional psychological play.rejection of the traditional psychological play.
It can be characterised by a critical and ironic attitude towards the
traditions of society and art.
It claims that the stage is no longer able to give an accurate
account of the modern world, and embraces illogical action and a
rejection of all values.
In literary theatre, the emphasis is usually on the language itself,
while the language is often contradictory to the action onstage inthe language is often contradictory to the action onstage in
anti-literary theatreanti-literary theatre..

Impact
The ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ can be seen as a statement of
hopelessness, but for this entire movement to have been born out of
something as universally depressing as a world war perhaps casts
some hope.
‘Theatre of the Absurd’ forces us to face the awful situations we
have brought upon ourselves, and so society can choose to do
something about it.
It has been suggested that the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ was only a
product of a very specific point in history and consequently since
gone ‘the way of the dinosaur’.
It could also be claimed, however, that the sense of ‘absurdity’ in
theatre has only disappeared as it has become more acceptable and
less shocking to audiences.

Samuel BeckettBorn in Dublin, in 1906, He died in Paris,
December 22, 1989.
It is difficult for an audience to find a
single meaning to many of Beckett’s
plays, reflecting his despair at being
unable to find a meaning to existence.
Along with the other playwrights
within ‘Theatre of the Absurd’,
Beckett aims not to
illustrate a narrative of any
kind, but simply a situation.

Samuel Beckett
‘Eleutheria’, ‘Waiting for Godot’ and
‘Endgame’ were all written in
French.
‘Waiting for Godot’, once described
as ‘terrible’ due to the fact that
‘nothing happens, nobody comes,
nobody goes’, is now hailed as ‘one
of the greatest successes of the post-
war theatre’, and has been
translated into over twenty
languages.
 Beckett won the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1969.
‘Waiting for Godot’

Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter was born in 1930 and
frequently comments on the ‘irrelevancy
of everyday speech’.
‘Mountain Language’ (one-act play 1988)
He died on December 24, 2008.
Despite having been criticised for not
having fully rounded characters, Pinter
defends this as being more realistic.
He is critical of communication but
suggests that people permanently try to
avoid it, rather than simply being bad at
it.
‘A Slight Ache’ (tragicomic play 1958)

Harold Pinter
 Pinter’s first full-length play, ‘The Birthday
Party’ can be seen to comment on conformity,
death, and ‘the individual’s pathetic search
for security’.
 Like Beckett before him, in 2005 Pinter won
the Nobel Prize for Literature.
•Pinter seems to be obsessed with the most basic of theatrical techniques,
particularly the traditional idea of suspense.
- ‘The Room’
- ‘The Dumb Waiter’

•"We are the hollow men- We are the stuffed men"
• We are seemingly stuffed but in the depth of our souls we are empty. The hollow
men are Eliot's modern, empty corrupted man.
•"Leaning together/ Headpiece filled with straw“
• We are like Guy Fawkes effigy; our heads are filled with despair, delusions but
empty at the core. The hollow men are like walking corpses whose minds are
empty and detached from reality and life. They are alive but they are also
experiencing death at the same time. The situation of them is like "life in death".
They are lifeless without direction and hope of salvation. They have force but a
paralyzed one so they can not get into action.
•"Those who have crossed with direct eyes, to death's other kingdom“
• In those lines Eliot mentions the dead, who have faced the death with direct eyes'.
Direct' indicates the positive aspect of death. Eliot may refer to the idea of life in
death for the hollow men. Hollow men can not really die they are in between life
and death.
•"Remember us not as lost violent souls but as the hollow men“
•" Lost violent souls" may represent the two epigraphs- Mr. Kutz and Guy Fawkes they
hope to be remembered as hollow men. Eliot probably hints that it is better to be lost
violent souls than being "hollow" and "stuffed" man.

"Eyes I dare not meet in dreams in death's dream
kingdom“
In those lines the speaker fears facing the death, the eyes of
death even in his dreams. We, hollow men, can only encounter with
the eyes' symbols like "sunlight on a broken column" which
gives broken light "a tree" and "voices in the wind". All of
these are perceived indirectly. To reach the direct eyes are more distant
and more solemn than the fading star which represents remoteness
from reality, especially spiritual reality. In short, he fears the meet
with direct vision of death.
"Let me be no nearer in death's dream kingdom“
The speaker doesn't want to come any closer to death kingdom in
other words he doesn't want to be near to death. He wants to be
disguised among other hollow men. He wants to conceal himself
and he wishes to "wear such deliberate disguises/rat's
coat, crowskin, crossed staves" and behave as the wind
behaves. He tries to disguise himself among hollow men like a
scarecrow with crossed staves. Crossed staves may be
related to being stuffed with delusions and hopelessness.

"there is dead land, cactus land / Here the stone
images" . Stone (lifeless) images of spiritual is meant here. It is a
dead land like its inhabitants. Here the representation of the spiritual
world and worship of hollow men (its inhabitants) are depicted. Dead
worship and supplicate those stone images.
"Under the twinkle of fading star" gives a remoteness from
reality, life, spirit and naturally spiritual. The narrator wonders whether
being dead and this world is the same.
"Death's other kingdom" is related with the world hollow men
lives, in other words Eliot's view of world at his time. Narrator fears the
afterworld will be empty as this world. He will be awakening by lips
praying to broken stones. The narrator fears also that whether death is
lack of spirituality like this world also lacks. As it is mentioned before,
the hollow men are searching for the salvation. Since they are in life in
death, the speaker wonders whether salvation can be achieved by
death.

" The eyes are not here/ There are no
eyes here" In this part the narrator becomes
progressively indifferent to the eyes of dead in
contrast to previous lines of the poem. The fading star in
previous stanzas becomes "dying star". The darkness
increases as the shadow of the death in the hollow valley of
death emerges.
"Gathered on this beach of the tumid
river" is an allusion to Dante's Inferno, on the far
side of the river there is Hell . They gather on the banks of
the river to get to "death's other kingdom". Eliot
uses the word "sightless" because without any eyes
(eyes of death) they don't have any sight. However,
"multifoliate rose", which is a symbol of paradise in
Dante's Divine Comedy, is their hope for salvation.

"Here we go round the prickly pear/ At five o'clock in
the morning": It is in fact a variation of a children's rhyme: "Here we
go round the mulberry bush" substituting a prickly pear cactus for the
mulberry bush. These lines may suggest the frustration and reality of the
hollow men. At intervals the frustrating shadow of fear interferes in every effort
to make potential become actual. "Shadow" must be isolating the hollow men,
making their movement and feeling impossible. "For Thine is the
Kingdom": This line is a part from the Bible is said to serve as a
reminder that God will not accept any excuses for sin. Another
interpretation can be exhausted, fearful hollow men recite Bible to strive for
salvation. This is the way the world ends / not with a bang but with a whimper /
Life is very long” It suggests that the end will be with whimpers of fear of hollow
men not with the bang of Creation. The whimper may be caused from the
longing for the salvation of their souls. In those lines, the tone of the poem is
sad and hopeless about life and spiritual journey. The narrator thinks that
the end will be not with an apocalyptic catastrophe as in the Bible but
through mankind who allow themselves slowly decay, degrade, exhaust
and be empty at the core

Central symbol = GYRE
• Conical shape consisting of series of ever-widening,
connected circles
• Repeating trends of history; psychological development,
subjectivity vs objectivity, life vs death
• An age in history spreads its “ever-widening” influence
until it spends its force and ends
• Each spiral = 200 years
• Beginning of each new gyre brings about chaos and the
destruction of the old
• Poem describes current historical period (1921) – world
on the brink of some apocalyptic revelation
Slide 2

Introductory Notes
• Poem suggests that the Second
Coming of Christ instead of bring
about good will bring about a state of
anarchy on earth
• Title is derived from Bible – Matthew
24 and St John’s description of the
Beast of the Apocalypse in Revelation
• STANZA 1: conditions present in the
world, anarchy, things falling apart
• STANZA 2: surmise that these
conditions foretell of a monstrous
Second Coming

Song of Kabir, Rudyard Kipling
• My brother kneels, so saith Kabir,
• To stone and brass in heathen-wise (atheist)
• But in my brother’s voice I hear
• My own unanswered agonies.
• His God is as his fates assign
• His prayer is all the world’s... And mine.

Postmodern eraPostmodern era
• Many significant literary movements in the later
half of the 20th century were directly or indirectly
influenced by SurrealismSurrealism.
• Salman Rushdie, when called a Magical Realist,
said he saw his work instead "allied to surrealism“
• Magical Realism is a popular technique among
novelists of the latter half of the 20th century and
it has some obvious similarities to Surrealism with
its juxtaposition of the normal and the dream-
like

Salman Rushdie• His works [what are his themes???]
• 1975: Grimus;
• 1987: The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey;
• 1990: Haroun and the Sea of Stories
• 1980: Midnight's Children
• 1983: Shame
• 1989: The Satanic Verses
• 1991: Imaginary homelands
• 1994: East, West 1995: The Moor's Last Sigh
• 1999: The Ground Beneath her Feet

Major Themes
• India’s National Identity vs. British
colonization
• Indian diaspora
• His definition of migrant identity and
the themes of Indian diaspora
• Colonialism and Gender/Power
Struggle

migrant identity
• Rushdie: migrant identity What is the best thing
about migrant peoples and seceded nations? I
think it is their hopefulness... And what is the
worst thing? It is the emptiness of one's
luggage....We have floated upwards from
history, from memory, from Time. (70-71) 'It
maybe be argued that the past is a country
from which we have all migrated, that its
loss is part of our common humanity. . . .'

Midnight’s Children:
• The narrator and narrative methods
• Digressive, foreboding and summarizing.
• Talking about his own writings. A mixture of
tones: humorous, poetic, crude and with
ribald jokes. Mixing the personal and the
historical/political Motifs
• Can you give me an example from the
reading of the first page of Satanic Verses?

BASIC ASSUMPTIONS OFBASIC ASSUMPTIONS OF
POSTMODERNISMPOSTMODERNISM
• THERE ISTHERE IS NONO UNDERLYINGUNDERLYING OBJECTIVE REALITYOBJECTIVE REALITY
• EVERYTHING ISEVERYTHING IS SUBJECTIVESUBJECTIVE
• THERE ISTHERE IS NO ABSOLUTENO ABSOLUTE REFERENCE POINT TO JUDGE BETWEENREFERENCE POINT TO JUDGE BETWEEN
– TRUE AND FALSETRUE AND FALSE
– RIGHT AND WRONGRIGHT AND WRONG
– REAL AND UNREALREAL AND UNREAL
– GOOD AND EVILGOOD AND EVIL
– BEAUTIFUL AND BASEBEAUTIFUL AND BASE
• EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE TO INDIVIDUAL VIEWS, PERCEPTIONS,EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE TO INDIVIDUAL VIEWS, PERCEPTIONS,

REVISIONISTREVISIONIST
• RELATES TO THE RE-EVALUATION AND REWRITING OF
HISTORY
• HISTORY IS SEEN AS THE HISTORY OF ONE GROUP
OPPRESSING ANOTHER
• HISTORY IS ABOUT OPPRESSION AND THE QUEST FOR
POWER
• EACH GROUP HAS A UNIQUE STORY AND MUST TELL ITS
OWN STORY

CHARACTERISTICS OFCHARACTERISTICS OF
POSTMODERNISM IN CULTUREPOSTMODERNISM IN CULTURE
• image has become more important than the
written word
• - loss of universal stories that relate
universal themes and truths
• emphasis on the present not the past
– (history is not important)

• disembodied communication
internet (cyberspace)
Texting
Instant messaging
“Twitter”

• uncertainty about the individual person
– ( what is a human being?)
– Is an embryo a human being?
– Is cloning right?
– What is it that makes us human?

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