Romanticism, The Canon, and 19th Century Literary Movements

Romanticism

An immense focus on human subjectivity, an evaluation of nature, which was seen as a vast repository of symbols, of childhood and spontaneity, of primitive forms of society, of human passion and emotion, of the poet, of the sublime, and of imagination as a more comprehensive and inclusive faculty than reason.  An ability to accommodate conflicting perspectives of the world

The canon

An 'authoritative' list of the greatest and most influential works in history.

-complex, original, wise, influential, beautiful

Blank verse

Poetry written in iambic pentameter but with no rhyme scheme.

Wordsworth literature

1) more open form (black verse) 2) About the poet himself.

The sublime

A feeling of mixed fear and pleasure that comes from confronting something far greater than the self.

Lyrical Ballads

Wordsworth's theory of poetry - Subject = real, normal, rural life - Style = 'the real language of men.'

Enjambment

In poetry, when a sentence/phrase continues past the line break with no punctuation or natural pause.

Pastoral poetry

Poetry that celebrates and idealizes rural life, particularly the relationships between humans and nature, as a contrast from the urban world.

Wordsworth themes

- Modern life spoils us - We must revere nature - Memory and poetry are the means → this gives us empathy.

Lyric

A poem with a first-person speaker explaining a process of thought or feeling. Associated with sincerity, expression of the self.

Ballad

A Folk song or oral poem told in the 3rd person. Tells a popular story, often local stories or legends, often tragic. Direct narrative style.

Ode

A lyric poem that is dedicated to and/or praises someone or something inspirational.

Negative capability

A willingness to embrace doubt and mystery, and to accept the limits of human perception and knowledge → term invented by Keats.

The uncanny

That which is almost entirely familiar, but just strange enough to unsettle our sense of what is real, possible, and known.

Epistemology

The theory of knowledge itself - of what it is possible to know and how we decide when we know something.

Intertextuality

- Literary technique of referring to, or including other texts in a text - Creates a relationship between the inside of the text and the outside.

Homosociality

Same-sex relationships that are not sexual, but deeply intimate and may even seem romantic. In the Victorian period, these bonds between men were considered a kind of social glue

Separate spheres

The theory that women and men, based on inherent biological, natural differences, properly inhabit different roles in society: men in the public world, and women in the domestic world.

The In Memoriam stanza

4 lines: ABBA, iambic pentameter - It's not Tennyson's invention. It is just associated with him because of how obsessively he used it in In Memoriam AHH.

Types of colonialism

- Settler colonialism - Administrative colonialism - Informal empire.

Dramatic monologue

A first-person poem in which a speaker is a character (not the poet) and is speaking to/is in the presence of another character (not the reader) who remains silent.

Irony (2 types)

Situational: Something that happens against expectations. Verbal irony: a tension between two competing perspectives in the same utterance: one naive, and the other knowledgeable (knowing/aware) → sarcasm is an example.

Institutions

Repeated patterns of social organization that impose order on the behavior of individuals - can be formal (enforced by authority) or informal (developed through custom).

Interpellation

The act of being spoken to, or 'hailed' by a larger force, such as a police officer, or a text. The act of being hailed brings you into an involved relationship with the larger force

Discipline

Self-regulation in keeping with what is considered the 'norm' and the internalization of how norms and hierarchies as natural. It is inescapable.

Utilitarianism

A philosophy of social organization in which the right action is the one that maximizes pleasure for the most people. 'The greatest happiness of the greatest number.'

Bootstrapping

The philosophy that a person can be completely self-made by achieving success without aid or support from others (or the government).

Pre-Raphaelite art

A Victorian movement in painting and poetry. Interested in lushness, intense detail, emotion, and sensuality.  Rebelling against artistic norms, they believed were too mannered or false.

The Fallen Woman

A Victorian term for a woman who had experienced sex outside of marriage. Fallen women were cast out of the social sphere.

Fin de siecle

- Literally means 'end of the century.' - Particularly refers to the end of the 19th century: 1880's and 1890's. - Associated with decadence, pessimism, degeneration, and the collapse of elite culture.

Aestheticism

An artistic movement in the late 19th century that valued beauty and pleasure over sociopolitical use or meaning - 'Art for art's sake.'

The Dandy

A man who was extremely devoted to fashion, leisure, and pleasure. He could blend in with aristocrats without being one.

Civilizing mission

A justification for colonialism that promises to bring progress to the colonized people.

Scientific racism

The claim that certain races are hierarchically superior because of supposedly 'scientific' differences, such as biology, evolution, etc. Scientific racism pretends that race is scientifically real, rather than a social construct.