Romanticism in English literature

Romanticism in English literature

Goals:

- To inform students about the period of Romanticism in England

- To inform students about the main literary forms which were popular during this period of time

- To inform students about the literary works of R. Burns, P.B. Shelly and.G.G. Byron

Key wards:

- revolution, poetry, political changes,

Questions:

1. Great Britain and technological revolution

2. Robert Burns. Historical outline and biography

3. Percy Bysshe Shelley

4. G.G. Byron

1. In the 18^th century England, Scotland and Wales were united and become Great Britain. The technological revolution was a new breakthrough in the economic and social development of Great Britain. James Watt invented the steam engine in 1769. In 1764 a spinning machine was invented and the main channels of England were linked, roads were improved and service of post coaches was started in 1784. At the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 Nelson destroyed the French –Spanish Fleet, but was killed by a sniper. He became one of the Britain’s national hero. His words to the English fleet before the Battle of Trafalgar were: “England expects that every man will do this duty are preserved in the memory of the nation as a historic example of patriotic duty in the time of danger”.

The social and political changes in the world involved a revolution in the arts. A brilliant galaxy of writers and poets looked for inspiration to nature, emotions and to the spirit of freedom: Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Percy Shelly, George Gordon Byron.

2. Robert Burns (1759-1796)

In the second half of the 18^th century the life of small farmers in England as well in Scotland was hard. The industrial revolution ruined them. Many of them would leave their farms for towns. But some of them would not leave the land on which they were born, but went on ploughing their fields in struggle against the rising forces of capitalism. One of such was the father of Robert Burns.

The great poet of the Scotch people was born on the 25^th of January, 1759 in a small clay-built cottage at Alloway. Robert’s father a poor farmer. In this house he had a shelf of books and the first traces of education Robert gained from his father. Robert was lucky to have a good teacher at school, who taught him good English, folk ballads, works by Milton and Shakespeare. Though Robert was the eldest son and had to help his father in the fields from the age of 13 but he managed to make some acquaintances among fellows of his age from aristocratic society in the town of Ayr which he would visit on holidays. They were his first teachers of good manners. When he was 15 years old Burns fell in love for the first time in his life and it was then that he created his first poem. In one of his day books he wrote: “there is a certain connection between love, music and poetry. I never dreamed of becoming a poet until I fell in love”.

In 1786, with the help of his friends Burns managed to publish his poems. A total 600 copies of the book disappeared in several days. His name became known in London and Burns found his way to the upper classes. Aristocrats were surprised to see the farmer which moved with dignity, spoke refined English.

Burns had many attachments among women. But his life-long love was Jean Armour, his wife, whom he married against the will of her parents.

On 21^st of July, 1796, being 37 years old, Burns died.

The main trends in his work

Song-writer, satirist, celebrator of friendship, of love and of hate. He was a brilliant speaker. Robert Burns is a Scotland’s national bard. He stood for liberty and attacked social inequality. His sympathy lay with the poor. He greeted the French revolution with the poem “A free Liberty” calling to poor people of Britain to arms.

Burnes spent many years collecting folk songs of his own he used folk tunes, expressions, words, melody. He loved his native land and his people. Scotland occupies a prominent place in his creative work.

Read and discuss poems My heart’s in the Highlands, A Red, Red rise

3. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)

Shelley’s entire life and art were devoted to struggle against oppressions and tyranny. He was the first in English literature to portray the people as a force capable of breaking the existing order of life and establishing a new system.

At Eton College he was disliked by teachers for his independent thinking, later he was expelled from Oxford University for the pamphlet “The necessity of Atheism”. Shelley’s masterpiece is the lyric drama “Prometheus Unbound” (Greek myth. Prometheus stole fire and gave it to the people. He was punished by Zeus who chained him to a rock.), but Shelley gives the myth his own interpretation. The sharp conflict between Prometheus and Zeus, the tyrant, is supported by many forces. Mother Earth herself gives him of strength.

Shelley is also known as the author of many lyric poems devoted to nature and love. Unexpected death out short Shelley’s life. While he was sailing across the Gulf of Spezia a sudden tempest struck the boat and he was drowned. His body was cremated and his ashes were buried in Rome.

Lake Geneva and Frankenstein

In May 1816, Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, and their son traveled to Geneva with Claire Clairmont. They planned to spend the summer with the poet Lord Byron, he joined them on 25 May, and rented the Villa Diodati, close to Lake Geneva Percy Shelley rented a smaller building called Maison Chapuis on the waterfront nearby. They spent their time writing, boating on the lake, and talking late into the night.

"It proved a wet, ungenial summer", Mary Shelley remembered in 1831, "and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house". Amongst other subjects, the conversation turned to the experiments of the 18th-century natural philosopher and poet Erasmus Darwin, who was said to have animated dead matter, and to galvanism and the feasibility of returning a corpse or assembled body parts to life. Sitting around a log fire at Byron's villa, the company also amused themselves by reading German ghost stories, prompting Byron to suggest they each write their own supernatural tale. Shortly afterwards, in a waking dream, Mary Godwin conceived the idea for Frankenstein:

She began writing what she assumed would be a short story. With Percy Shelley's encouragement, she expanded this tale into her first novel, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818.

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Among Byron's best-known works are the brief poems She Walks in Beauty, When We Two Parted, and So, we'll go no more a roving, in addition to the narrative poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential.

Byron was celebrated in life for aristocratic excesses including huge debts, numerous love affairs, rumors of a scandalous incestuous liaison with his half-sister, and self-imposed exile. He traveled to fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died at 36 years old from a fever while he was in Greece.

Byron wrote prolifically. In 1832 his publisher, John Murray, released the complete works in 14 duodecimo volumes, including a life by Thomas Moore. Subsequent editions were released in 17 volumes, first published a year later, in 1833.

Byron's adult height was about 1.80 m, his weight fluctuating between 60 kg and 89 kg. He was renowned for his personal beauty, which he enhanced by wearing curl-papers in his hair at night. He was athletic, being a competent boxer and horse-rider and an excellent swimmer.

Byron and other writers, such as his friend Hobhouse, described his eating habits in detail. At the time he entered Cambridge, he went on a strict diet to control his weight. He also exercised a great deal, and at that time wore a great number of clothes to cause himself to perspire. For most of his life he was a vegetarian, and often lived for days on dry biscuits and white wine. Occasionally he would eat large helpings of meat and desserts, after which he would purge himself. Although he is described by Galt and others as having a predilection for "violent" exercise, Hobhouse makes the excuse that the pain in his deformed foot made physical activity difficult, and his weight problem was the result.

Don Juan

Byron's magnum opus, Don Juan, a poem spanning 17 cantos, ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England since John Milton’s Paradise Lost. The masterpiece, often called the epic of its time.

Byron published the first two cantos anonymously in 1819 after disputes with his regular publisher over the shocking nature of the poetry; by this time, he had been a famous poet for seven years, and when he self-published the beginning cantos, they were well received in some quarters. It was then released volume by volume through his regular publishing house. By 1822, cautious acceptance by the public had turned to outrage, and Byron's publisher refused to continue to publish the works. In Canto III of Don Juan, Byron expresses his detestation for poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Byron is considered to be the first modern-style celebrity. His image as the personification of the Byronic hero fascinated the public, and his wife Annabella coined the term "Byromania" to refer to the commotion surrounding him. His self-awareness and personal promotion are seen as a beginning to what would become the modern rock star; he would instruct artists painting portraits of him not to paint him with pen or book in hand, but as a "man of action."

Questions:

1. Say some words about historical events of this period?

2. Who were the main representatives of Romanticism in England?

3. What can you say about the most popular genres of the period? How do you think why?

4. Why poems of R. Burns were so popular?

5. What can you say about the history of creation of the book Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus?

Рекомендуемая литература

1.Катенин С.Б. Хрестоматия по английской и американской литературе. -2 – е. изд., доп. – СПб.: КОРОНА – Век, 2008. – 544 с.: ил.

2.Жюссеран Жан Адриан Антуан Жюль История английского народа в его литературе: пер. с фр. \ Предисл. С.Г. Тер – Минасовой. Изд. 2 – е, доп. – М.: Книжный дом «ЛИБРОКОМ», 2009. – 416 С. (История языков народов Европы)

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