Ca. 1890's

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 625.

Walter Scott

Historical romances

Ø 1^st convention which treats history as a subject, not background

- A failed poet, not a lot of money of poetry

- 1^st novels under pseudonyms

- he wrote about Scottish history; past but not remote

- 1745- the last rebellion against the English (last decisive moment; most of his novels are set in this time)

- he writes about the events that took place about 60years before his life (he's objective thanks to this)

- romantic protagonist (the man who fells in love with a woman also involved in r.) needs Scotts involved in resurrection

- He wrote about past to know it, but not to come back and analyze, not to get stopped

- he's pragmatic at history

- Romance- to distinguish from novel- realistic contemporary issues

- love and adventurous journey

Mickiewicz's works are somehow imitations of Walter Scott's style of writing.

WYKŁAD 7

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD (about 60 years)

symbolic ending of romanticism; bill regulating (reducing)

death of Walter Scott- work of children, time of work, etc- very symbolic

the last romantic- writing poet

(Wordsworth lives but doesn't write in this style)

1) 1832- 1860 The Early Victorian Era: Dickens, W. M. Thackery

2) 1860- 1890's The Late Victorian Era: new generation of writers

Great Expetations

· without revolutionary changes, rather evolutionary, a “growing revolution”

· novel is the most dominating genre, however, poetry is still important

· time of very spectacular changes

· period of drastic changes (but they were slow); a lot of things came to shape we know them today (banking, universities, first computers

Consequences of industrial revolution:

- England was rural, now there's growth of industrial cities

- landscape of England changes forever (organization changes)

- railway

- change of time (thanks to railway, to avoid mistakes in railway communication)

Social structure of English society:

Aristocracy

Middle class 18^th century

Peasants

19^th century

- appears working class (that for a long time has no right)

- rise of middle class- it's time of middle class; class that's no longer unimportant; more rights, quality, people who are consumer-read books, newspapers, etc

Population growth: result of improving medical knowledge; longer life expectancy

CENSUS: spis ludności (sort of fashion for big families)

1801- 10.5 mln

1901- 37mln

Advantages:

- bigger amount of men- bigger military potential

- medical knowledge- more people survived, people lived longer (hygiene was imposed); fashion of big families (6-8 children- in all classes)

Time of great colonial expansion

Essay by Thomas Matthus: people

number of people grows fast great gap

number of people grows slower

food

disasters, wars, epidemics- sent by God, natural regulation, we shouldn't prevent them

- it was very controversial

- thesis of Matthus were proven wrong

Adam Smith:

- free marker economy

- “the state shouldn't interfere too much; the less state the better”