Late Victorian Literature and Artistic Movements

This set of flashcards covers key movements and figures of the late Victorian era, including the Pre-Raphaelites, literary realism, Aestheticism, and authors such as Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Hardy, and Oscar Wilde.

Pre-Raphaelite Movement

A movement founded in the United Kingdom in $1848$ by artists like Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt who aimed to return to the authentic, detailed, and nature-focused style of art produced prior to Raffaello.

Victorian compromise

The set of moral and social values of the first half of the century which late Victorian novelists openly criticised and rejected in favor of a new realism.

Social Darwinism

A theory that influenced late Victorian realism, mirroring a society linked to a growing crisis in both moral and religious fields during the second half of the $19$th century.

Nonsensical world

The chaotic and illogical world created by Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland which questioned Victorian certainties, conventions, and prejudices.

Bohemian

An unconventional lifestyle adopted by Robert Louis Stevenson, characterized by wearing his hair long, having eccentric manners, and rejecting the kind of life expected of him.

Duality

The central theme of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, representing the two contrasting sides of good and evil that are in perpetual struggle within every human being and within Victorian society.

Determinism

Thomas Hardy's philosophical view of a universe controlled by 'insensible chance', indifferent nature, and hostile fate, where human life is a tragic process over which man has no power.

Wessex

The name of the old Saxon kingdom used by Thomas Hardy for the semi-fictional area in the south-west of England where he set most of his stories to create the impression of a mythical region.

Aestheticism

An artistic and literary movement stating that art had nothing to do with morality or didactic aims, focusing instead on the elevation of taste and the pursuit of beauty.

Art for Art's Sake

The motto of Aestheticism which praised the sensual qualities of art and the pleasure it creates, opposing the Victorian belief that art should provide ethical rules.

Dandy

A figure, exemplified by Oscar Wilde, who lacked noble blood but lived extravagantly, was known for extraordinary wit and extravagant dress, and treated his life as a work of art.

Faustian pact

The symbolic deal made by Dorian Gray in which his portrait reflects the signs of age, vice, and soul degradation while his physical body remains young and beautiful.

C.3-3

The prisoner identification number used by Oscar Wilde to publish The Ballad of Reading Gaol, representing the third cell on the third floor of Block C.