CM Littérature L2S4

How long was the Victorian period ?

How long was the Victorian period ?

1837 to 1901.

Can you tell me about the general ideas and context of the Vic Era ?

Notions : repression, prudishness, 2nd British renaissance, age of diversity.

Colonies : Ireland, India, Canada, New Zealand, Africa, Caribbean.

Science & tech : solution to everything thanks to progress BUT tensions on the questioning of Christianity and its revival. Progress in hygiene, education, alimentation.

Litt & Arts : role in society concerning social concerns.

Politics : changes, questioned democracy, feminism, workers union, Marxism, socialism, Darwin.

Changes in society (population, social classes)

1841 : 21 million → 1901 : 41 million.

Urban society by 1851 → in 1901 ¾ lived in cities (London, North, West) → due to Indus Rev.

Steam machines, electricity, manufacturing, printing & publishing → wealth + pollution + difficult working conditions (Dickens Hard Times).

Division of Britian btwn rich (lived leisurely) & poor (slums) → Sibyl Disraeli.

Can you tell me about the Poor Laws of 1834 ?

Before → help from the parishes in their homes. New → poors should be helped to support themselves; children educated BUT → anybody in need of help → go to workhouse or stay at home unless very old/sick. In workhouses → terrible conditions to deter people from applying : Less Eligibility (Oliver Twist, hated bc comes from workhouse).

Can you tell me about the Corn Laws of 1815 ?

No foreign corn imported in Britian until domestic corn reached a precise level → lack of, prices went up → consequence on the poorest, profitable for the landowners. Wasn’t repealed until 1846 bc the landowners were voters and acted to keep this law.

Can you tell me about the Representation of the People Act 1832 ?

rotten/pocket borough : very small election districts (Old Sarum → 7 voters sent 2 MPs to Parliament). MPs controlled by the locals : few electors and candidates or bc of bribery and threats from the owner of the borough. Abolished in 1832 and redistributed representation in Parliament to new major cities.

Guaranteed voting rights to men whose house was worth at least 10£ → 217 000 voters added, 1 man in 5 had the right to vote. 1867 → 1 million voters added, 2x. 1884 → almost all male agricultural workers had right to vote. 1918 End of WW1 → all men & women over 21 enfranchised.

How did these changes happen ?

Reformist mov the Chartists → 1838-48 more than 10y.

Wanted Parliament to accept charter in 6 points. Seen as extremists and asked voting for all men, equal electoral districts, abolition of requirement for voters to be property members, payments for MPs, annual general election and secret ballots. 1839 : charter rejected in HoC → arrests + demonstrations, troops fired. 1842 → rejected a 2nd time.

Created unrest, ppl thought this could lead to a revolution, their demands should be taken seriously → new political changes, dev of socialist mov, conditions of life + work in large cities, factory acts to regulate work conditions (1851, London labour and London poor Henry Mayhew + 1848 Karl Marx The Communist Manifesto : bourgeoisie vs proletariat).

What were the nobility & gentry’s views on work ? What about the middle class ?

Degrading activities, however → interested in the money produced, young men encouraged by their families to “marry into money” => marry the daughter of rich industrialist.

In middle classes, work was important and fidelity, sobriety, marriage, honesty and truthfulness became dominant values in society.

What is the concept of the gentleman ?

Appeared w/ the self-made man. industrial elite wanted to be gentlemen.

Clergy, army officers and MPs → gentlemen, but other professions weren’t. Birth + moral component → revival of chivalric moral codes from MA and feudal casts (Walter Scott’s novels). S. Smiles’ Self-Help → gentleman not born a blacksmith.

Dickens → humble origins, wanted to be seen as gentleman → Great Expectation, debate on what makes a gentleman Mr. Havisham and the hero. Compeyson : wicked yet considered gentleman. Gentleman at heart ≠ in manner.

Vic agreed that if s.o educated in elite public schools (Eton) → recognized as a gentleman.

Who were the different religious groups of the Vic Era ?

Methodists : pushing for social reforms.

Evangelicals : campained against slavery.

Oxford scholars or Tractarians : return to high church theology and liturgy, led by John Keble & John Henry Newman. Believed Church of England → part of larger Catho Church and wanted return to sacraments + rituals of Catho Church. Newman → convert to Catholicism + became cardinal. Influential on poets + writers like John Hopkins.

How was religious faith challenged ?

By scientific discoveries (geology, biology, plants, fossils)→ crisis in faith.

1859 : Darwin’s The Origins of Species, questioning the accuracy of 1rst chapters of Genesis. When published → most scientist were prepared for it. How can his theory be reconciled with Genesis saying that the world was created in 6 days ? + bible dated creation of the world to 4004 years before Christ.

What were the scientific reactions to Darwin’s publication ?

Lamarck : slow evolution, Lyell : Principles of Geology, not one unique creation of the world), Wallace : didn’t want to publish it , bc he thought it would be like murder, sent a letter to Darwin telling him he understands = joint presentation).

No one in the Linnean Society said it was crazy, the biblical text could be harmonized w/ these scientific discoveries → seeing the days of creation as each diff geological eras. But very rapidly obvious → these explanations weren’t compatible.

What were the main points of Darwin’s Origins of Species ?

Evolution : Biological species exist in a permanent state of change or flux.

Struggle for life : All biological lives takes the form of a struggle to exist and also to produce a greater number of offspring.

Natural selection : Gets rid of the organism less adapted.

Long periods of time : all this occurs on long periods → we cannot experience/notice them.

Random variations : increases in survival abilities are random, not called by God.

What were the reactions and critics from the Church ?

No God describing all these changes → confrontations btwn religion and science, contradicted the Bible & degraded man to a beast.

Controversy 1860 Oxford : a Bishop asked one of Darwin’s most ardent followers if he descended from a monkey through his grandfather or grandmother → follower answered he wasn’t ashamed of having a monkey as his ancestor, but would be ashamed to have an ancestor who use his eloquence to mislead people.

Reactions in literature & art

Shows change, age of transition/doubt, nothing is assured.

Man is but a Worm 1882 : degrading evolution, make fun of Darwin’s theory.

Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam 1850 : What we see in nature doesn’t agree with what’s in the bible. The individual may die but there’s the idea of preservation of the human race. “I falter where I firmly trod” → unsure of the presence of God, doubt bc of his friend’s death and scientific discoveries.

Dickens Bleak House 1852 : “if the waters … earth” = ref to Noah in Genesis.

What was the relation of the Empire with the colonies ?

Raw materials and potential market. Lost the American colonies at end of 18th c but discovered Australia (penal colony), India and South Africa. End of 19th c, position unchallenged, lead in industrialization (commercial, financial et naval port).

Disraeli’s gov → racist + paternalistic inspired by Social Darwinism. The white man’s burden Rudyard Kipling → colonize for their own good, education, food, medecine. “half devil half child” → parental.

4 dates linked to the colonies

1807 : abolition of slavery.

1833 : freeing of slaves in the Empire.

1851 : Great Exhib (Crystal Palace, Joseph Paxton) : symbolize the colonial, military, economic superiority of Britain → 6 million visitors.

1876 : Queen Victoria crowned empress of India.

Who were the 4 most influencial thinkers of the early Vic Era (1840-1870) ?

Thomas Carlyle (Past & Present, 1843), John Stuart Mill (Subjection of Women, 1869), John Ruskin (Modern Painters, 1843), Matthew Arnold (poet, essayist, leading critic atm, European outlook ≠ EN’s superiority).

What can you tell me about Thomas Carlyle ?

Thomas Carlyle (Past and Present, 1843) : worried w/ the decline of the time, considered medieval past better. Coined the phrase "Condition-of-England question”. Social prophet, influenced Dickens, considered one of those who foreshadowed fascism.

Sartor Resartus (1838) : sympathy on the industrial poor, started the novel of social consciousness (Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South).

What can you tell me about John Stuart Mill ?

John Stuart Mill : empiricist + utilitarian ideas of Jeremy Bentham, was his disciple. Bentham → idea of “happiness calculus” (measure of right and wrong). Social reformer and concentrated on problems of post-industrial England. Feminist, women’s votes => The Subjection of Women (1869).

What can you tell me about John Ruskin ?

Art critic and artist. Friend of the Pre-Raphaelites and supporter of Turner (painter). 5 volumes of Modern Painters (1843-53). Against the obsession w/ science, advocated a return to heroic and Christian past. To him → artist is a prophet. Main goal : defend + promote Turner’s work, presented as the most beautiful creation of English past.

What can you tell me about poetry & Lord Alfred Tennyson (poet) ?

Suffering, melancholy, loneliness, social changes, new discoveries, man’s place in universe.

In Memorium : poet laureate, crisis of faith, conveys the feeling that nature is no longer a source of conflict contrary to what the romantics thought. He was a source of inspiration for the pre-Raphaelite.

What can you tell me about The Lady of Shallot by Lord Alfred Tennyson ?

Lady living in tower on island of Shalott, near Camelot. Under a curse → can’t look at reality directly, watches it through a mirror, threat that something awful is going to happen = like Plato’s theory of the cave. One day sees Lancelot coming by in the mirror and says, “I am half sick of shadows”, the mirror cracks → has to leave the tower on boat, found dead later.

Interpretations : dilemma of artists having to choose btwn life and work → impossible choice. Feminist readings : character forced to remain in tower → Victorian women locked away at home; “the angel in the house” = status and place of women in society.

Inspo for many artists like the Pre-Raphaelite : W. Holman Hunt. Tennyson → not happy w/ these representations.

What can you tell me about Robert Browning (poet) ?

Dramatic monologues → poems delivered by imagined person speaking to s.o, the characters slowly reveal themselves, the reader is a silent listener, as if the author is talking to us. Speaker uses an argumentative tone, colloquial language, rhythms and some things aren’t told → have to be guessed. Often described passion.

The Ring and the Book 1868-69 : based on murder case of a man murdering his wife, succession of monologues from diff characters speaking in turn, diff povs → truth gradually emerges.

What can you tell me about the Pre-Raphaelites ?

Poets and artists. Created as a brotherhood in 1849 including W. Holman Hunt, Rossetti, and Millais. Avant-garde artists associated initially w/ Ruskin who wanted to react w/ the ugliness of the time bc of Indus + artist prophet theory. Wanted to counteract effects of Indus, rejected conventions created by Royal Academy → bright colors + M-A as source of inspo, come back to a time before Raphael (renaissance artist). Sensuous descriptions and psychological states. Encouraged each other to work in both media, like Rossetti.

Christ in the house of his parents, John Everett Millais : controversy + scandal, not trad representation of Christ, characters not beautified, humble place, Joseph is a carpenter.

What can you tell me about the Arts and Crafts movement ?

Succeeded and grew out of the Pre-Raphaelite, developed modern functional design in order to fight the ugliness of indus products. “Have nothing in your house which you do not believe to be beautiful or know to be useful”. William Morris was a member.

How did the english novel appear ?

2 genres out of which it grew : Epic (long narrative poem w/ quest of hero) + Romance (love and death).

More realistic, refusing the mystical heroes. Early 19th many movements → gothic novel, Jane Austen (social critic), Walter Scott (back to MA period). New large readership, even to working classes. Most were serialized in magazines, appeared in weekly instalments. 3 small volumes : “triple deckers”.

What were the 5 popular genres of the novel ?

“Silver fork” fiction : fantasies of high society and luxury.

“Newgate novels” : prison, criminals, threat of the gallows.

Gothic : influence of the Brontës or Sheridan LeFanu (In a Glass Darkly), end of century but still important in Victorian litt.

Suspense novels : W. Collins (The Moonstone, The Lady in White), rising atm, plots based on laws of the time and their gaps, like inheritance for instance. Found in many Victorian novels.

Political novels : Benjamin Disraeli’s Sybil, Elizabeth Gasket’s Mary Barton (1848) or North and South (1855), Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies, 1863. Condition of England as main theme.

Who were the 5 major novelists of the Vic Era ?

William Thackeray (Barry Lindon, 1844, Vanity Fair, 1847, The Book of Snobs).

Anthony Trollope (Barchester Towers, “Palliser” novels, 1864).

C. Dickens (Bleak House, Oliver Twist, Hard Times, The Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations, David Copperfield).

The Brontes (Agnes Grey, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights).

George Eliot (Middlemarch, Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss).

What can you tell me about William Thackeray ?

1811-1863, Barry Lindon (1844), Vanity Fair (1847-48, contrasts 2 characters Amelie Sedley and Becky Sharp). Started his career as a journalist + writed satirical sketches for magazine → The Book of Snobs (ridicules English obsession w/ class). Denounced corruption, the importance of money and appearances.

What can you tell me about Anthony Trollope ?

1815-1882, the Barsetshire novels and the “Palliser” novels (1864-68). Famous for creating the novel sequence; set of novels where we follow the same character, exploring changes and progress in Victorian society through the study of local communities and the members’ reactions to political, social and religious influences → Bildungsroman and picaresque, satirical.

What can you tell me about C. Dickens ?

1812-1870, illustrations by Tenniel, Bleak House, Oliver Twist, Hard Times. Father imprisoned for debts when 10yo → hard life, his heroes are ill-treated children. Became a journalist in parliamentary debates, wrote The Pickwick Papers (1837-38), 1rst published in magazines. Travelled a lot, 10 children, affair w/ his sister-in-law.

Readers influenced the plot → Great Expectations 2 endings. Melodrama, caricatures, refs to photography → scientific progress. Story begins in churchyard → gothic, theatrical. Novel → instrument of social reforms to him : poor living condition of the proletariat, effects of indus revolution., not realistic, poetic.

David Copperfield (1849-50) → autobiographical.

What can you tell me about the Brontë sisters ?

Anne (1820-1849) : Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell hall.

Charlotte (1816-1855) : Jane Eyre (1847 → 1968 Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Ryhs) → success, love + passion from pov of Jane; poor orphan working as governor for a man who she falls in love w/, discovers he’s married & locked his wife away. Novel of apprenticeship + symbol of women independence.

Emily (1818-48) : Wuthering Heights (1848) → scandal, passion btwn 2 characters, revenge of Heathcliff. Died later of tuberculosis. Mentions the laws of inheritance → central in Vic Society.

Wrote early in life, invented imaginary kingdoms; Gondal & Angria, Lowood, Branwell. Published novels under pennames; Ellis, Acton & Currer Bell.

What can you tell me about George Eliot ?

Real name Mary Ann Evans, (1819-1880). Excellent education, studied history, philosophy and foreign languages. Vision of life : positivism + determinism, Social Darwinism, free will. Moralist whose novels studied the dev of characters in rural places w/ realistic settings. Translated D. F. Strauss The Life of Jesus, Feuerback’s Essence of Christianity.

Middlemarch, Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner.

What can you tell me about the general context of the late Vic Era ? (1870-1901)

Social and political unrest, breakdown of patriarchy and old-fashioned norms → women’s rights and against poverty movement started and developed → creation of the labour party. Atmosphere of doubt, anxiety, scepticism about the findings of reason, disenchantment.

Colonialism at its speak → appropriation of the entire world by Europeans → economic motivations + theory of the white man’s burden. “half devil, half child” → parent and children, food + education → image for propaganda : just wanted raw materials to make economic profit.

Which social changes happened during the late Vic Era ? (1870-1901)

early 19th c : man’s life was a fight btwn reason and passion. End of 19th c : changed, idea of a fight in individuals btwn internal repressed desires and requirements of the social order → influenced arts + literature → ex of the doppelganger.

Scepticism concerning reason, disenchantment, decline of humanism and Christianity → Naturalism (Gissing, Butler) and Aestheticism (art for art’s sake : a reaction against the social dimension literature and decadence). Novel → no longer seen as the representation of realistic life, it was more sophisticated.

What can you tell me about the Aesthetic movement ?

Appeared as a reaction against Vic values + the idea that art should have a social purpose. Originated in FR w/ writer like Baudelaire, Théophile Gauthier. In EN → associated w/the Pre-Raphaelites, Ruskin and Walter Pater → declared that the only way to face despair was hedonism → enjoyment of life ≠ commitment to duties, teachings. Ex of hedonism or aestheticism : preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray + Walter Pater + The Importance of Being Earnest + The Yellow book w/ illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley.

Influenced artist like Virginia Woolf, called the movement of “Decadence” or “Fin de Siècle”. Insisted on contrast btwn art and nature; art should emphasize the grotesque and unnatural. Also famous for magazines.

Influenced by the Empire : exoticism, adventure, action. Kipling → accused of jingoism (extreme type of nationalism, judging one's own country as superior) and being the voice of imperialism, but wrote books offering a rich picture of Indian life andrelations btwn the British and Indians (The Jungle Book, Kim).

What can you tell me about Nonsense litterature ?

Edward Lear : A Book of Nonsense (1845).

Lewis Caroll : most famous representative, Alice in Wonderland (1865) → written for a young girl named Alice Liddell; filled w/ puns, porte-manteau words and logical games.

What can you tell me about Naturalistic literature ?

George Gissing : New Grub Street; world of journalists and newspapers, penniless writers, portraits of the poor and women.

Samuel Butler : The Way of All Flesh (1903); attack on Victorian’s hypocrisy, narrow-mindedness.

2 other important authors of the late Vic Era

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island, The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886).

George Meredith (1828-1909) : The Egoist; more interested in social satire, characters confronted by metaphysical problems.

What were the turning points of the transition from Victorianism (19th c) to Modernism (20th c) ?

“Epistemological break”. Modern methods of publications, 1870 Education Act : better access to education, hetero reading public.

New scientific discoveries : William James Principles of Psychology 1890 → no objective reality, always subjective of one particular consciousness; our perception of reality depends on us.

Sigmund Freud The Interpretation of Dreams 1899 : our conscience → prey to desire which our will cannot master.

Einstein’s theory of relativity 1905 : questions the classic physic and causality, notion of chance and uncertainty.

Nietzsche : God was dead, absolute scepticism towards all inherited concepts.

= contributed to loss of the world’s solidity, reality was no longer independent of the observers position, nothing was certain, no absolute truth → relativity of povs in novels + the hero became a person to whom things happen rather than someone imposing their will on reality/life.

Who were the 3 transition novelists of the early 20th c ?

Thomas Hardy (Far From the Madding Crow, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Woodlanders), Henry James (The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors), Joseph Conrad (The Nigger of Narcissus, Heart of Darkness).

What can you tell me about Thomas Hardy ?

1840-1928 : poet, influenced by Darwinism, tragic vision of life; all his novels set in imaginary place called Wessex, steeped in legends and Greek tragedies, heroes fighting against social and economic changes, fighting a fate they cannot control.

Far From the Madding Crow (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887).

What can you tell me about Henry James ?

Born in NY, cosmopolitan education, brother of William James, settled in England in 1875, attracted to the cultural background of the old word ≠ vulgarity and materialism of America’s Gilded Age. His characters struggled to adapt to materialism, social conventions of the new world. Influenced by Flaubert and is considered a master of form. All events are filtered through the mind of a protagonist → enables him to analyse perception, moral decisions, hesitations of the characters.

The Portrait of a Lady (1881) = Americans confronted w/ the old word, Isabel becomes the victim of a fortune hunter, The Wings of the Dove (1902) = dying rich heroine.

What can you tell me about Joseph Conrad ?

Polish origins, son of a nationalist poet who was exiled in Russia, both his parents died when he was 11yo, came to FR where he joined the Merchant Navy, adventurous life. Characters discover their true selves, fidelity, honesty, honour. Criticized the violence of colonialism. Experimented w/ forms, modern ideas such as multiple povs, delayed decoding (= delayed understanding), time dislocation.

The Nigger of Narcissus (1897), Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim.