Encyclopedic Study Guide to Romanticism and Victorian Literature

Romanticism is defined by an immense focus on human subjectivity.
Nature is evaluated and viewed as a vast repository of symbols.
There is a dedicated focus on childhood and spontaneity.
Primitive forms of society are held in high regard.
Human passion and emotion are central themes.
The figure of the poet is significantly emphasized.
The sublime is defined as a feeling of mixed fear and pleasure that arises from confronting something far greater than the self.
Imagination is regarded as a faculty that is more inclusive and comprehensive than reason.
The movement demonstrates an ability to accommodate conflicting perspectives of the world.

The canon is defined as an ‘authoritative’ list of the history's greatest and most influential works.
Works within the canon are categorized based on five essential criteria: - Beautiful - Wise - Original - Complex - Influential
Blank verse: This refers to poetry written in iambic pentameter that does not utilize a rhyme scheme.
Enjambment: A technique in poetry where a phrase or sentence continues past the line break without a natural pause or punctuation.
Pastoral poetry: A genre of poetry that celebrates and idealizes rural life, emphasizing the relationships between nature and humans as a direct contrast to the urban world.
Lyric: A poem featuring a $1 ext{st}$ -person speaker who explains a process of feeling or thought; it is associated with the expression of the self and sincerity.
Ballad: An oral poem or folk song told in the $3 ext{rd}$ person. It tells popular stories, often legends or local tales, typically tragic with a direct narrative style.
Ode: A lyric poem that praises or is dedicated to an inspirational person or thing.
The In Memoriam stanza: A stanza consisting of $4$ lines with an ABBA rhyme scheme, written in iambic pentameter. While not invented by him, it is associated with Tennyson due to his obsessive use of it in ‘In Memoriam AHH.’

Wordsworth's approach to literature is defined by two primary characteristics: - $1$ . The use of a more open form, specifically blank verse. - $2$ . The focus is on the poet himself.
Lyrical Ballads: This contains Wordsworth’s theory of poetry, which specifies: - Subject: Real, normal, and rural life. - Style: Uses ‘the real language of men.’
Core themes identified by Wordsworth include: - Modern life has a spoiling effect on us. - We must revere nature. - Memory and poetry serve as the means to achieve empathy.

Epistemology: The theory of knowledge itself, concerned with what it is possible for human beings to know and how we determine when we have achieved knowledge.
Negative capability: A term invented by Keats describing a willingness to embrace mystery and doubt, and to accept the inherent limits of human knowledge and perception.
The uncanny: Refers to that which is almost entirely familiar but just strange enough to unsettle a person's sense of what is known, real, and possible.
Intertextuality: A literary technique that involves referring to or including other texts within a text, thereby creating a relationship between the inside of the work and the outside world.

Homosociality: Intimate but non-sexual same-sex relationships. During the Victorian period, these bonds among men were considered a form of ‘social glue.’
Separate spheres: A theory positing that men and women properly inhabit different societal roles based on inherent, natural, and biological differences. Men occupy the public world, while women occupy the domestic world.
The Fallen Woman: A Victorian term for a woman who engaged in sex outside of marriage. These women were considered to have fallen out of innocence and into sin, resulting in their being cast out of the social sphere and society.
Institutions: Repeated patterns of social organization that impose order on individual behavior. These can be formal (enforced by authority) or informal (developed through custom).
Interpellation: The act of being ‘hailed’ or spoken to by a larger force, such as a text or a police officer, which brings the individual into an involved relationship with that larger force.
Discipline: A system of self-regulation to align with the ‘norm’ and the internalization of hierarchies and norms as natural; it is described as inescapable.
Utilitarianism: A philosophy of social organization where the correct action is the one that maximizes pleasure for the most people, often summarized as ‘The greatest happiness of the greatest number.’
Bootstrapping: The philosophy that a person can be completely self-made, achieving success without any support or aid from others or the government.

Dramatic monologue: A poem written in the $1 ext{st}$ person where the speaker is a character (distinct from the poet) speaking to or in the presence of another character (distinct from the reader) who stays silent.
Irony (Two types): - Situational Irony: When something occurs against expectations. - Verbal Irony: Tension between two competing perspectives in a single utterance: one knowledgeable (aware/knowing) and the other naive. Sarcasm is provided as an example.
Pre-Raphaelite art: A Victorian movement in poetry and painting interested in intense detail, lushness, sensuality, and emotion. The movement rebelled against artistic norms believed to be false or too mannered.
Fin de siècle: Literally meaning ‘end of the century,’ it refers specifically to the end of the $19 ext{th}$ century during the $1880 ext{'s}$ and $1890 ext{'s}$ . It is associated with decadence, pessimism, the collapse of elite culture, and degeneration.
Aestheticism: A late $19 ext{th}$ -century artistic movement that valued pleasure and beauty over sociopolitical meaning or use, defined by the motto ‘Art for art’s sake.’
The Dandy: A man extremely devoted to leisure, fashion, and pleasure. He possessed the ability to blend in with aristocrats without being one himself.

Types of Colonialism include: - Settler colonialism - Administrative colonialism - Informal empire
Civilizing mission: A justification for colonial practice that promises progress to colonized people, often associated with ideas like the ‘white man’s burden.’
Scientific racism: The claim that certain races are hierarchically superior due to supposedly ‘scientific’ differences in evolution, biology, etc. This ideology pretends that race is a scientific reality rather than a social construct.