Romantic Period in Great Britain Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from lecture notes on the Romantic Period in Great Britain.

Romantic Movement

A cultural and aesthetic movement that emerged in response to the Industrial Revolution, rejecting rationalism and celebrating emotion, imagination, and the natural world.

Political Upheaval in the Late 18th Century

A period marked by the American Revolution (1776) and the French Revolution (1789), which questioned existing power structures and called for individual freedom and equality.

Mary Wollstonecraft

An advocate for women's rights who wrote about the unequal treatment of women, exemplified by her work 'Vindication of the Rights of Woman'.

Gothic Novel

A sub-genre characterized by mystery, horror, supernatural elements, and dark and gloomy settings. 'The Castle of Otranto' by Horace Walpole is considered the first Gothic novel.

Ann Radcliffe

An important writer of Gothic stories of “terror” - a feeling of intense fear or dread. Her most famous work is 'The Mysteries of Udolpho' (1794).

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

A Gothic novel that explores the consequences of scientific ambition and the dangers of playing God.

Novel of Manners

A type of novel focusing on the social behavior and customs of a particular class or society, often emphasizing superficiality and hypocrisy, exemplified by the works of Jane Austen.

Jane Austen

An English novelist known for her wit, social commentary, and exploration of the lives of women in 19th-century England, with works including 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'Pride and Prejudice'.

Historical Novel

A genre that explores the past and its impact on the present, emphasizing the emotional and imaginative aspects of history, as seen in the works of Sir Walter Scott.

Sir Walter Scott

A Scottish novelist and poet whose historical novels, such as 'Ivanhoe,' combined historical accuracy with romanticism and adventure, influencing the development of Scottish and British national identity.

Lyrical Ballads

A joint publication by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge that launched the Romantic Age in English literature, celebrating individualism, emotion, and the beauty of nature.

William Blake (1757 - 1827)

A self-taught English poet, artist, and printmaker considered the first major figure of English Romanticism. His poetry is known for its complex symbolism, religious themes, and its criticism of social and political injustice. He saw the world as inherently harboring opposites and contradictions, as he expresses in his collection of poems Songs of Innocence and Experience (1789) through vivid imagery and symbolism.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834)

An English poet, literary critic, and philosopher. He is best known for his poetry, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, which are celebrated for their vivid imagery and imaginative use of language.

William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)

An England’s laureate poet. He is best known for his poetry, particularly his collection Lyrical Ballads that he co-authored with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. While Wordsworth was considered the poet of nature, Coleridge was the poet of imagination.

John Keats (1795 to 1821)

An English poet known for his poetry, including his odes, sonnets, and narrative poems, which are celebrated for their beauty, sensuousness, and vivid imagery.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

An English poet devoted to the search of personal love and social justice. He wrote several poems like To Mary Godwin, Prometheus Unbound, Alastor, The Spirit of Solitude or Ode to the West Wing.

Lord Byron

An English poet and satirist. He travelled extensively across Europe and he joined the Greek war of independence, where he died and became a national hero in Greece. He was very popular and famous in his time after publishing Childe Horolde’s Pilgrimage, about his own personal life. He also wrote Don Juan