18th century – Age of Restoration

- more reasonable approach to literature and text

- new topics and themes;
- society-oriented: the reading public expended dramatically
- decline of sonnet and the lyric

Medieval literature (Middle ages V – XV wiek): religion, allegory, spirit

Renaissance (XIV – XVII): less religion; more people-oriented themes)

Baroque (XVII – 1740s): religious themes

Age of Restoration (XVIII)

- new group of writers

o Jonathan Swift
o Matthew Prior
o Richard Steele and Joseph Addison
 periodical essays (they created it)
o Alexander Pope
- a great age of satire
- examples:
o Gentlemen’s Magazine
o periodical essays – cultural, social affairs but presented in an entertaining sort of way
o sentimental comedy – more fun, tear jerkers; less serious than the old comedy of manners
o fiction developed
- Bunyan (17th century – proto writer of fiction)
o The Pilgrims Progress – morality tale, allegorical characters (that represent f.ex. virtues); protagonist
– Christian – represents the collective of people): goes on a journey, his objective: salvation of the
soul;
 allegory and dream vision
 new: it is written as fiction (easier to write and read)
- Daniel Defoe
o 17-18th
o Robinson Crusoe – written for middle class people; (a businessman, real-life problems, realistically
described problems; struggles, building a life)
- Samuel Richardson
o Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded
 epistolary novel
 a guide for young girls
 problem: no thoughts, difficult to create action, are the letters sincere?
- Jonathan Swift
o satires (on corruption in religion and learning)
o master of prose (proper words in proper places)
o mocked inspiration, romantic love
o Gulliver’s Travels
 criticism of the British (unnecessary wars, grand egos)
o A Modest Proposal
 satire
 a proposition to solve the problems of poverty in Ireland – eat children
 this is the only solution that is easy, quick and effective
 by the absurdity of this solution he wants to show that we ought to choose one that is
available, although not perfect
  his arguments:
 the marital relationship would improve
 infant meat is in season throughout the year
 would solve poverty
 he made necessary calculations
 other goods (gloves, boots)
 good investment
 lessens the number of Papists
- Alexander Pope
o The Rape of the Lock
 satire and play with a convention
 hero comical epic
 describing something not heroic in a heroic way
 long text
 describes big, important events (war, love)
 high, epic style (language serious in style but not in message)
 heroic couplets
 normal events but epic description
 divine machinery , deities, supernatural beings – here: fairies, spirits that help
Belinda (on the condition that she rejects all men)
 invocation to the muse (a friend who gave him the idea for the epic)
 preparations of heroes (when Belinda prepares herself in front of a mirror)
 great duels, battles (the card game, the cutting of the lock)
 it ticks all the boxes of an epic but the things that happen aren’t so epic
 elements mocked:
 machinery
 great conflict/great romance
 elevated language
 arming of a hero

Romanticism 1785-1830
- prized originality
o no need to follow the rules of neoclassical texts (first pick a genre, then tick all the boxes)
- response to neoclassical age of Pope, Johnson and others
- love for neture
- reverence to imagination
- poest:
o Wordsworth
o Coleridge
o Byron
o Percy Shelley
o Keats
o Blake
- influenced by France Revolution and by the endustrial revolution
o from agricultural to manufacturing economy
o population divided into large owners and wageworkers
o child labor (government’s non interference policy
- definition of new poetry;
o not ‘romantics’ but ‘schools’ of poetry
 Lake School
 Wordsworth and Coleridge
 Cockney School
 Londoners (Keats)
 The Satanic school
 Byron and Shelley
o ‘spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings’ – Wordsworth
o source in the individual poet; inner feelings, external objects
o exhibition of emotion
 lyric poems written in 1st person
 ‘I’ has traits of the poet
o free form rules; comes naturally; unconscious
o describe natural phenomena in a very sensuous way (allows to experience nature, contemplate it;
feeling it with emotions)
o the ordinary and the outcasts as subjects of poetry
o usage of old forms of a ballad and romance; tell events that violate our sense of realism and natural
order
 interest in:
 dreams, nightmares
 mesmerism
 disorted perception
o radical individualism and nonconformity
o refusal to submit to limitations: the desire of the moth for a star – Shelley
o ‘glory of imperfect’
o variety of forms
- William Blake
o was dissatisfied with ruling poetic traditions (he was from late 18 th)
o created paintings and engravings
o Songs of Innocence and Experience
 The Lamb
 describes the world as seen by an innocent individual
 the child asks who is God?
 God is called by my name (a child) and thy name (a lamb)
 The Tyger
 also who is God?
 He created a predator – images of furnace, hammer, brute force
 a creature created through aggression, brutality
 was he satisfied with his creation?
 o “Jerusalem”
 apocrypha about Jesus traveling the world and sees Satanic Mills (industrial revolution
- William Wordsworth
o observes an object, it triggers a feeling; the remembrance of the objects triggers the return of the
feelings and he writes It down
 Poet of the remembrance of the things past
o beauty through simplicity; feeling of joy, emotions; here and now
o Lyrical Ballads
- S.T. Coleridge
o dreamt, enthusiastic schoolboy
o sympathised with republican thought
o Rime of the Ancient Mariner
 loose, short ballad stanzas
 poem of mystery and demonism
 a ghost poem
 a mariner decided to shoot an albatross (a sign of hope – religious symbolism) and he
received his punishment
 everybody died; ghost ship; the urge to tell his story
 it has side notes
 originally, in scientific texts – a commentary or analysis
 but here the side notes don’t give anything important
o a commentary on the world that can’t be explained by science
- Percy Shelley
o eccentric; fought the injustice and oppression
o considered himself an outcast
o because of his action (marriage, affairs etc) – considered and atheist, and great immoralist
o violent, depressive poetry
o Ode to the West Wind
 an invocation to a natural phenomenon
 in Canterbury Tales the spring wind symbolises the rebirth of the sould
 here It moves things that are dead (leaves); destroyer and preserver
 the illusion of being alive
 he doesn’t want to be gifted a new life, he wants his ideas and his thoughts to be moved and
maybe start different ideas and dreams
- Keats
o his aim: love and worship beauty (not to reform the world)
o Ode to a Grecian Urn
 decorated with three pictures but the urn doesn’t speak so he has to decode the meaning
 1. a group of men chasing a group of women – festivities or aggressive?
 2. a young man under a tree playing a pipe to a girl
 unheard melodies are sweeter because you imagine them
 a moment caught in time = he will be playing it forever
 he will never kiss the girl but what is good is that she cannot fade
 3. sacrifice of an animal, outside of a city
 theoretically they are to come back, but since it’s a picture the town will be empty
forever = ultimate image of isolation and eternal loneliness
 the urn: the only constant; unchanged – always the same message
- George Byron
o a genius and he knows it; arrogant; larger than life; controversial
o highly educated
o a terrible husband (numerous affairs, didn’t appreciate his wife’s knowledge because it was math
and sciences)
 o an affair with his cousin – a horrible scandal (had to leave England)
o they admired Satan for being an ultimate rebel (a rebellion against the Omipotent, no chance of
winning – like a moth dreaming for a star); flaws in character
o Byronic/satanic hero
 egotistical character
 rebellious
 flawed
o Don Juan
 he’s a bit like Byron + his life is like Byron’s + the narrator is Byron
 16 cantos
 repetitive (meets a girl; falls in love; a problem (a father/protector); he runs away leaving the
woman to suffer the consequences)
 he’s not the seducer, he is being seduced = homme fatal – brings bad fortune to women
 you don’t read Don Juan for the Don Juan himself, but for the narrator (commentary,
satirical poem on 19th c. morality)
 ABABABCC rhyme scheme (couplet – a summary, conclusion for the previous 6 lines)
 “mock heroic epic” – conquering smn’s bedchamber; serious and not serious moods mixed
together)
 the narrator gives his opinions on: law, politics, man, woman, marriage
 Don Juan - description

Gothic and medieval revival

Medieval revival

- started with people wanting some gothic/medieval aspects in decorations

- Walpole’s transformation of Strawberry Hill into a Gothic castle
- gothic is psychological (psychical problems, terrors, anxiety) [what is fearful in Dracula is that it shows a
father that never dies]
- Castle of Otranto – Walpole (1765)
o proto-gothic romance: all elements of gothic fiction
o a text “found” in 16th c. in Italy
o typical elements: a big, claustrophobic castle with narrow corridors, secret passages; secrets;
atmosphere of the unknown [when Isabela runs the castle is like a maze]
 slamming doors, blasts of wind
o ancient prophecy: when the owner becomes too big for the castle, sth awful will happen (a huge
helmet falls from the sky and kills Manfred’s son; a huge leg in a corridor
o omens, visions, supernatural things, ghost of Alfonso
o unexplainable things
o high emotions

Victorian age, Victorian literature

Queen vicotira (1830-1901)

Victorian Age

- period of technological advancement + growth in railroads; telegraph

- literacy increased
- England: factory of the worlds
- huge division in society – the poor and the rich
- child labor (“The Cry of the Children” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Early Victorian

- financial crash; times of trouble

- unregulated working conditions, accidents, child labour

Mid-Victorian period

- expansion of the British imperialism (moral responsibility to protect the poor natives and advance
civilization; “The White Man’s burden” by Kipling)
- evolutionary science by Darwin
- Victoria and Albert = model of middle-class domesticity

Late Victorian period

- the height of British imperialism

o serenity, security, consumerism
 BUT rebellions and massacres
- “Representation of the People Act”
- labour political movements (Marx)
- Increased criticism (Joseph Conrad – opposed the idea) (Kipling – didn’t like how it was implemented)
- Victorian model standards were collapsing

Novel

- usual theme: developing social relationships in middle-class society

- main concern: define protagonist’s place in society
o also: horror, mystery, science fiction, detective stories

Poetry

- very descriptive (you imagine it while reading)

- telling stories but in verse
- psychological: poetry of mood and character
- pictorial: artists illustrated poems & poems presented paitings
- rhytmical: use of sound, alliteration, vowel sounds.
- use the heroic material of the past; represent their age; or build upon sense of belated Romanticism
- since poets didn’t want to teach, non-fiction writers were expected to do it

Tennyson

- “The Poet of the People”

- Poet Laurete: a wide man who represented the national voice in poetry
- The Charge of the Light Brigade
o a newspaper poem (inspired by a newspaper or written for a newspaper)
o has rhythmicity – the rhythm is like a galop of horses
o commemorates the heroism of a brigade of British soldiers in the Crimean War
o 600 troops followed ambiguous orders though they knew they had little chance of survival
o emotive poem: praises and laments the action of the battle
- The Lady of Shalott
o rhyme scheme: aaaa b ccc b
o a girl living in a tower on a lake; she’s cursed – can’t leave, can’t look at the world; she weaves what
she sees in the mirror; she gets distracted by Lancelot and she looks (and starts dying)
o pictorial: 1st stanza – the description of where the Camelot is placed; description of the tower
o she sees and weaves people, weddings, funerals (metaphor of artistic perception)
o they find the body; Lancelot looks at her and is like “that’s a shame, such a beauty
 = a warning for the artists – a poet should look at the world from afar
 if they get to close, people will look only at what they see – the creativity dies and the poet
dies with it

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 - involved in social aspects of English society
- one of the greatest poets of her time
- one of the odd woman (decided to marry for love)
- interesting love poetry
- How do I love Thee?
o “let me count the ways”
o quiet, everyday, real marital love
o love with a child’s passion, in this innocent way; I love you with all by life
o “If you were to love me, love me for love’s sake only

Robert Browning

- “Mrs. Browning’s husband”

- only after his wife died, did he gain a recognition (teacher on poetry, religion, and a philosopher)
- popularised the dramatic monologue // monologues have an audience, soliloquies don’t
- dramatic monologue
o every single word of the poem is delivered by the person
o no description or narration ^^=psychological puzzle
o My last Duchess
 15/16th Italy
 Duke of Ferrara (absolute power in the city)
 the painting of his wife behind a curtain
 she’s blushing – but not only for her husband – “spots of joy”
 everything made her blush = she was equally nice to others and to the Duke
 and the Duke ought to be special; but he would never stoop so low as to tell his wife that he
doesn’t like it
 he describes it to a messenger of a guy whose daughter he wants to marry
 it’s a warning: this is a picture of my late wife who didn’t treat me how I wanted, and now
she’s no longer with us
 a wife behind a curtain = a control freak
 why last not late: last out of a series;
 a very jealous man with power

Christina Rossetti

- one of the 19th century England’s greatest ‘Odd Women’ (she never married)
- from an Italian artistic family
- inspiration from folk tales and narrative ballads (Goblin Market – religious themes of temptation and sin)
- pleasant, coy and playful, witty, entertaining poetry; poems of extraordinal lyric beauty
- sardonic wit = humorous but critical
- Winter: My secret
o you tell someone that you have a secret, but you don’t want to tell what the secret is because than
you lose the attention
o play with words:
 I don’t want to tell you my secret in winter – I don’t want to unwrap
 spring is not reliable
 maybe in summer if the weather is perfect
o sounds, metaphors about opening, closing, releasing secrets

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

- first a painter then a poet

- appreciation of beauty (of colour, texture, women’s faces)
- art for art’s sake
 o he was against printing and publishing his poems; against hanging his paintings in galleries -> the
painting/poem is for someone not for everyone, it has to be special
- founder and leader of the pre-Raphaelites – return to the style of painting before Raphael = they wanted to
stay away from the neo-classical idea of painting (follow rules, do what is expected)
- The Sonnet (from The House of Life)
o epitome to art for art’s sake
o for his mother; but the original buried with his wife
o 8 lines stanza + 6 lines stanza
o it’s basically a definition of a sonnet
o a moment turned into eternity; purpose – describe elements of life
o the soul’s creative moment (the moment is dead but the effect is deathless)
o carve it – do it with your own hands (not mechanical production)
o a coin – one side is the value and the other is to whom it belongs
o purpose – describe life, elements of life

William Morris

- detailed and peculiar career (poet, writer, painter, designer of furniture, business man, leader of a socialist
movement)
- protest towards the industrial revolution (he produced handmade furniture, wallpaper, stained glass and
carpets, inspired by medieval element = restoring the creativity, individualism)
- The Defence of Guenevere
o partially dramatic monologue
o right after Lancelot’s escape
o she presents herself as a victim (wet hair – no time to wash it; touches her cheek – maybe smn hit
her)
o talks about human nature’s inability to stop the passions (a victim of falling in love)
o I know I shouldn’t have, but how could I control such a passion
o addresses the problems of Victorian morality -> yes, infidelity is bad, but should people be killed for
it?

Hopkins

- converted to Catholicism (and burned all the poetry that he had written before joining the Church (becoming
a priest)
- religious poetry
- believed in dynamic ‘inscape’
o every entity has a certain identifiable element that expresses, recognizes God’s creation in it;
celebrates the divine (seeing the world as celebration of God)
- sprung rhythm
o irregular system of prosody
o lines have given number of stressed syllables

Pre-Raphaelites

- the models for them were called Stunners

- characteristics:

Edward Lear

- Book of Nonsense
- limericks
o often a funny poem with a strong beat
o rhyme cheme AABBA (A – 7-10 syllables; B – 5-7 syllables)
- he wrote for fun, what he wrote was often nonsensical
John Ruskin

- leading Victorian critic of art and society

- wrote a description of Turner’s painting Slave Ship

George Gilbert Scott

- plan for the new St Mary Abbots

Emily Brontë

- fiction in Victorian times was supposed to describe society

- Wuthering Height 1847
o society, income, hierarchy, social norms, marriage
o Lockwood – current events; expected a normal Victorian household, encounters a conflict that
divided families
o Nelly – flashbacks
o Parts
 Romantic and symbolic relationship of Catherine and Heathcliff (symbolism: they are from
different social classes, but they together form a rebellion against the society)
 Catherine’s betrayal of this relationship (criticises various things in Heathcliff, tries to change
him) (leaving Heathcliff, marrying Linton)
 Revenge enacted by Heathcliff
 The change in Heathcliff
o standard: on the deathbed you forgive each other
here: just the truth; he tells her she’s been cruel, that she broke both of their hearts; gives her peace
by making her understand her actions (moral, brutal truth) -> but he doesn’t do it for pleasure, he’s
devastated
o revenge: uses money, debt, property deals, marriage; Making Earnshaw’s son work his father’s land
o Heathcliff realises that he is the one who betrays (when he chokes young Cathy and Hareton
intervenes) = he is Hindley; he can finally die and reunite with Cathy
o the fight doesn’t end; Hareton and Cathy continue the fight

Puritans America
until 19th century there was not a lot of literature because of Puritans

- Puritans believed in will power, faith and self-discipline; hard work = necessary ingredient of happiness
- in America they wanted to build everything anew (+ they weren’t wanted in England)
- little room for enjoyment, humour
- there were more important things to do than writing
- literature only for practical purposes
- beauty in itself matter very little
- poets:
o Anne Bradstreet (17th c.)
o Edward Taylor (17-18th c.)

Anne Bradstreet

- true, pure poetic talent

- poetry published both in England and America
- wrote about two realms that surrounded her life:
o reality; the world of the Bible
- inspired by little things surrounding her
o a poet of a daily life; chores, being a housewife
- no metaphysical quality; plain style, unadorned
- Verses upon Burning of our house
 o a poem inspired by her house burning down
o God gives and takes, she thanks him
o “my house is ash, I’ll also be ash”
o there is a house for me in heaven; it’s made by God, it’ll never burn down
o I don’t need wealth. I’ll be happy enough in heaven

Edward Taylor

- least known poet; (sermons discovered in 1937) = no influence on the development American literature
- the last important representative of the metaphysical school (full of conceit)
- known for his sermons; part of the Great Awakening.
o Puritans realised that people don’t listen to sermons – how to grab their attention? scare them
o he made people scared of hell by making them realise that they can die at any moment
- Huswifery
o a metaphysical poem (surprising since he was a Puritan)
o huswifery – the activities performed by a wife in the house and the land
o describes the process of turning raw wool into a piece of clothing
 conceit for: a word of God delivered to the people by the pastor
o full conceit: Puritans dressed in simple colours; this clothing was pink; he is the bride of God

19th century literature

Washington Irving (18th-19th c.)

- helped shape the American folklore – had rare talent for creating and describing fairy-like qualities in his
writing
- at this time people read mostly things from Brittan, he wanted to change that
- A history of New York
o collection of short texts
o he “found it”
- Sleepy Hollow
o contrast between a hearsay, a legend, a rationale = in the story there is no encounter with the
headless horseman. It shows how legends are created (people know people who know people that
supposedly saw something)
o contrast between the city (belief in rationale) and the villagers (belief in ghost stories)
- Rip Van Winkle
o made-up story of a legend of a made-up place
o he “found it”
o a good person, eager to help; goes to the mountains to hunt squirrels
o meets a man with a keg of alcohol, helps him; passes out at a party
o he wakes up in the same place but something about his town seems different
o his clothes and his rifle change (for older ones)
o instead of King George’s face on the sign of a tavern there is some other man (Washington)
o people asking him whether he’s a federal or a democrat (he doesn’t know this words)
o he thinks: “when in doubt just declare your loyalty to the King”
 and he does; people start calling him a spy
o he asks people whether they know his friend = “nah, he’s been dead for 18 years”
o he asks for himself = “oh, we know him; he’s standing over there”; when he sees him, he does see
himself; he collapses mentally (oh, shit. I’m somebody else)
o then he sees a girl and he sees something familiar in her; she tells him her father’s name (Rip Van
Winkle) but she say that it’s been years since she saw him (20 years)
o he asks for her mother – she has died. so he doesn’t have to worry that she’d be angry at him. He
says “I am your father.”
 o his family took him in and now he can do what he always wanted – he’s an old man and he can do
nothing
o there’s also his son and his grandson who will continue being the Rip Van Winkle of the village
o theme: smn removed from his place and moved forward; we see changes form a perspective of a
man who didn’t move with it (from being a colony to being a democracy); new heroes; new
priorities; BUT even though things change – every society needs elements of stability (Rip Van
Winkle is this element)

satire – text that highlights certain problems, exaggerates them and shows through that deep criticism; 18 th century,
Swift

19th century – American renaissance

- the need to create their own identity (not an identity made up of other identities)
- subjects: American society, themes, people, problems, ideas = what does it mean to be an American
- Tackled political and social problems
o War and Black slavery
o Materialism and conformity
o Immigrants changing the population
- Individualism
o Focus on individual experience

Ralph Waldo Emerson

- Promoted individualism
- Concept of self-trust = trust what you feel and believe in
- Self-Reliance
o The most important thing is to look deep into ourselves (our oversoul) and see what we really
believe is the best for us and other people (not anarchy)
o People are moulded by their own experiences
o Self-reliance is important and it is good for the individual and for the society (3 parts)
o Do not what you feel like doing but what you feel is the best for everyone
o Be a non-conformist
 Like children = infancy conforms to nobody (older people conform)
 Work against society when it tries to trample on your beliefs
 The law shouldn’t be above my inner feelings
o Step out of your comfort zone
o You can’t value people based on their wealth
o Take risks but even if you succeed remember that you can always fail – only thing that matters is the
triumph of principles

Transcendentalism
- Three currents that contributed to it
o Neo-Platonism (intellectual thinking over material reality)
o British romanticism (individual over the community – I decide what I think and do)
o Writings of Swedenborg (personal responsibility for salvation)
- Intuition – privileged form of knowledge – to become a moral, idealistic individual
- Emphasize transcendence (reaching beyond what can be expressed in words, new understanding og the
world by the heightened awareness) + pantheistic philosophy (nature is the expression of God’s nature
[hurricane = God’s wrath])
- Brook Farm – lived together, bankrupted – no one felt like working
- Influenced various movements in 19th and 20th (abolitionist and civil-rights movement)
- Fiction
o Symbolism
 o There’s reality beyond what is visible

Nathaniel Hawthorne

- short stories concerned with relationships between people (its dark side; character’s struggle with pride and
egotism; isolation, loneliness; conflict between the intellect and emotions)
- Sin = a state of separation (from God, ourselves, other people). We are always sinful but we have to work on
ourselves)
- evil exists and all people carry part of it withing themselves
- Scarlet Letter
o Hester Prynne – banned from society for sleeping with a man
o But the punishment turned out to be sth good for her
 She is sought out for advice from woman
 She has more freedom (A – adultery => A – able); no oppressive society
 Natives respect her (they think she’s the village shaman)
o Hester is a non-conformist (although we don’t know if she wanted that)
o society doesn’t allow you to be who you are – people do what they want only in a forest or at night
o you can’t trust society with moral judgement
 sth considered bad (adultery) gives sth good (a child)
 sth considered good (return of the husband) is bad (he tries to kill smn)

Emily Dickson

- poet of inwardness – looks inward to perceive the truth

- style: charming, simple, fresh language
o aphoristic style – talks about obvious things
- very gothic poet – anguish, despair, fear, loss, death (pain = central truth of people’s lives)
- embodiment of 19th c. American individualism
o what she says is the result of her self-reliance, independent judgement
- Misconceptions about her: she was not a secluded person; she was a local artist, had friends; she followed
general rules of poetry but had original thoughts
- Success is counted sweetest
o The moment of desiring sth is when you enjoy it the most (when you get it you’re disappointed)
- I heard a fly buzz
o The pivotal moment of death is destroyed by a buzzing fly
o Death fantasy
o Promotes the idea: perceiving the world with fresh eyes – see sth that others miss

Walt Whitman

- Expresses identity as an individual, an American

- Sees himself as a representative democratic person with poetry
- Free of formality and poetic limits of the past – the first “free verse”
- Leaves of Grass (poetry collection)
o Edited and published 10 times; 2nd edition with a private letter form Emerson
o Presents the individualism that Emerson talked about – new, unique poetry
 Strange composition, no rules, metre or rhyme
o It is hugged – like America
o Simple, direct and lack of formality
o Whitman travelled, took part in the Civil War; it made him se the horrors of war; heard about the
assassination of Lincoln = he witnessed how America came to be
o Song of Myself
 What is grass: he gives a lot of descriptions – tries to figure out the meaning of poetry –
sensual poetry (a handkerchief of the Lord? A symbol of equality)
Mark Twain

- Experiences with language (colloquial speech)

- Inspired by ‘tall tales’ – colourful elements of folklore (like story of Tormund – ridiculous, fictional but
entertaining and enjoyable)
- Foreign sketches – popular because people didn’t know places worth visiting
- Innocents Abroad
o Looks at Europe like a total ignorant would – shows various ridiculous/horrendous elements of
Europe’s society
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
o A childhood that every child should have
- A colorist – described America in minute details to preserve it (industrial revolution = small folklore villages
were disappearing)
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
o Described the after-the-war South (rouges, wicked people; good but stupid)
- Adam and Eve’s diary
o Cohabitation comedy – what happens when smn else appears and changes/destroys the known
world (‘keep of the grass’ using the words ‘we’ ‘mine’)

Edgar Allan Poe

- Great literary critic

- Poetry = rhythmical creation of beauty (he loves sounds)
- The topic: melancholy
- The Raven
o A gothic poem (December, time of death, bleak, rotting, no light)
o Internal rhymes
o Psychological poem: analyses feelings of a person who experiences loss
o Atmosphere: middle of the night (things are mysterious, forgotten)
o A poem about a person who lost smn – he distracts himself by reading a book
o He hears tapping; it’s a Raven; he speaks to it and it answer ‘Nevermore’
o He asks various questions (Will I ever forget her?), the Raven always gives the same answer; he
knows he’s never going to her a different answer than ‘Nevermore’ but he keeps asking questions
that make him suffer – he wants to suffer
o Shouts at the Raven to leave; the Raven says that him (=the suffering) will never leave him
- Fiction
o The only American writer so far who invented a new genre (prototype of a detective story) – The
murders in the Rue Morgue
o Idea of ‘unity of effect’ = every single element of a short story has to be important (unlike in a novel);
the entire composition of the story leads to one thing
o Fall of the House of Usher
 Gothic setting (dark, autumn, clouds)
 Fall of the house or of the family? – ambiguous
 The building is personified (vacant, eye like windows – eyes of the souls; empty = dead?). We
look at the house through the reflection of the wated – as it moves. The house moves =
undead house == the description is supposed to make you feel uneasy
 The people in the house – peculiar individuals (artists, musicians – emotional people);
unnerving element? – emotions are often irrational
 Gothic is about the skeletons in the closet (incest and its consequences – madness)
 A dead woman entombed in the dungeons – Roderic Usher starts to feel worse, his
condition deteriorates steadily; there are sounds around the house = he realised he had
buried her alive; she jumps on him, crying – they both die; the narrator runs away
  Rodrick and Madeleine are twins (represent one person divided in two); if she really had
died, he would’ve died too; when she jumps on him she represents the physical part of the
twins – he represents the mind
 As the narrator runs away, he sees a fissure in the house – it collapses into the water – the
passage to the beyond sucks the house in

Ambrose “Bitter” Bierce

- greatest insult artist

- The Devil's Dictionary – the cynic dictionary (apologize: to lay foundation for a future offence)
- known for stories of macabre, grotesque and horrors
- An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
o Peyton Farquhar, a spy, was sentenced to dead but the rope broke. He struggles to get back home
(terrified, exhausted). When he arrives and sees his family, his neck brakes and he dies.
- My favourite murder
o macabre and grotesque - man accused of murdering his mother;
o his lawyer says 'I know he killed his mother; but if we compare it to how he murdered his uncle, it
wasn't that bad' (the author hated the justice system)
o grotesque because of the language, macabre because of what happened;

Howard Lovecraft

- a racist; terrified of seafood

- Author of fantastic and macabre short novels and stories
- cosmic horror:
o the monster is scary because it is completely unknown to us (unlike Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula
– dead and live, blood and teeth are known to us)
o Cthulu is unknown to us; we can't see it we don't know it (color out of space);
o cosmic horror utilizes the fact that we can’t comprehend what is unknown to us = what we can’t
comprehend is scary
o insignificance of humanity; those huge cosmic entities don't even notice us
- In psychological horror: Lovecraft utilizes other aspects of our psychology - strach ewolucyjny;
- The Beast in the Cave
o a man goes spelunking, gets lost. He's in a complete darkness, he hears noises - gets scared.
o Macabre twist - he kills the monster with a brick, when he comes back later it turns out it was a man

Stephen Crane (1872-1900)

● First naturalist and realist in America (present an objective picture of reality)

● Realistic fiction:
○ Literature is imitating literature/ So the realism is in showing the reality of the character = realistic
changes of character; changes dictated by the realities of the world (change through experience)
● Realism vs naturalism: Naturalism makes as realise that world is not a pleasant place (nastiness,
horribleness, rotting)
● Maggie (1894)
○ Describes life in NY slums; based on observation (living in the slums for several months) colloquial
speech, slang;
○ The book wasn’t successful – no one wants to read about abusive husbands, drinking mothers,
beaten children and underage prostitutes = unpopular although realistic
○ Symbolic elements
○ Laconic school – doesn’t use too many words; easy words
○ Problem with Maggie: it was his first book; there are certain unrealistic aspects in the text (the child
is beaten so many times that you wonder how he even is alive; family is poor but when they're
fighting, they're wrecking the furniture)
 ● The Red Badge of Courage (1895)
○ first American novel presenting war realistically
○ no moral absolutes – individual psychology
○ realistic: the protagonist is a boy who was just a soldier = different pov; he thinks about surviving,
not winning the battle = new: individual psychology of the soldier
○ Henry Fleming (18yo) is often described as 'the youth'; joins the army because he wants to be a hero
(to be revered, the ladies); his image of the conflict is romanticised
○ His mother gave him advice, spoiling the grand moment (warm socks, stay away from bad company,
don't be the first) – this is not heroic, this is life (but Henry wanted to leave home in the aura of
upcoming glory)
○ he comes to the camp and the first thing he does is ask where the fight is; the veterans are silent,
they are doing what is important (eating, sleeping, resting before the fight)
○ psychological development: from a wild, inexperienced young man to a stoic, practical soldier at the
end
■ death of the romantic idea of a hero
■ he was a coward, he run away (“preserving” the important asset of the army – a life of a
soldier; when he later encountered a corpse in the woods, he realises he is not important,
he is replaceable
■ Red Badge of Courage (wounds) – symbol of ignorance and lack of knowledge of what the
war is (thinking of a man who never fought)
■ the corpse is symbolic – laying there for some time; no one cared; can’t even distinguish
which side he was on = doesn’t matter
■ he becomes a hero without realising it – he just does his job (taking the fallen standard – he
did it not because he wanted to be heroic but because he was the closest)
■ at the end the battle was won, and it turned out that he had led the charge (without
realising)
■ after all traumatic experiences he realises what he is there to do and forgets about heroism
and glory

End of the Victorian Era

- Criticism of the notion of Imperialism

Kipling

- a British born in India (lived with British people); celebrated British imperialism
- satirist with a keen sense of irony
- believed in moral superiority of BE; believed that imperialism can be beneficial to India but only if BE
remains with its moral higher ground
- there are benefits to be a part of the empire (railroads, telegraph, school, medicine)
- he says it was good on paper but executed badly; benefits became ways of exploitation (railroads –
exporting goods from India; school – teaching English)
- 'The Man Who Would Be King'
o they see that the colonisation went wrong so they begin anew but make the exact same mistakes
o they bring arms – they want to unite the nations not in form of integration
o a contract they signed among themselves: they want to do it as partners but they don’t take into
account the natives
 rule 1: we are going there to rule, not to help
 rule 2: we avoid distractions/conflicts (women, alcohol) – this point suggests no integration;
the problem of British in England – they didn't mingle with the locals
 rule 3: we support ourselves, not anybody else
o shows what shouldn’t be done; how future colonists should behave in their colonies = they should
respect the natives/the locals

Joseph Conrad
 - absolute critique of imperialism = worst evil ever created
- most known for his maritime fiction (20 years of marital experience)
- Masterful teller of colourful stories of the sea
o Able to express the fascination with the individual when faced with malevolence or inner battle with
good and evil
- Situation in Africa was worse than in India and China because it was less civilized = in Congo he saw how
awful was the treatment of the African people
- 'Heart of Darkness'
o imperialism causes two things:
 hypocrisy (you say one thing but do another; spread civilization = spread death and
exploitation)
 madness (+ insanity and evil) – isolation (in the society you have to follow rules; far from
society there are no rules – madness)
o nobody cared about the natives in Africa
o Kurt's - humanitarian, an artist turns into a genocidal maniac (why - he's far away from the social
control of his peers)
o Marlow - travels up the river to meet Kurt; the further he goes the madder people are
o the hypocrisy: the benefit of imperialism: they thought them how to keep their clothes clean - sth
that they didn't even have to do
o One General – doesn’t die from malaria; outlives a lot of other people; he makes people uneasy –
when they come in to complain they forget about their complaint;
o The reaction of British: 'oh, the Belgians are horrible' (while the book was a criticism of imperialism
and Britain was the biggest empire)
o unwillingness to learn anything about the people

George Bernard Shaw

- obsessed with the inequalities of society

- Irish
- read Marx’s Capital – thought it the best thing for the world at the moment (the alternative – raging
capitalism);
- he argued that capitalism divides societies in two groups (poor people with great needs and rich people with
no needs)
- created drama of ideas
o in the play characters argued different social problems
o he attacked the conventional moralism of his audience
o the spectator is the person of the drama – he made people actively live through the problems on
stage – and realise them in the reality
o witty, sarcastic, cynical; knew how to stick a knife
- plays about social problems (in the play he discussed ideas)
- take this standard gentleman and make him realise that the world isn't black and white (there are reasons
why things happen (like prostitution))
- Mrs. Warren's profession
o play about prostitution = he contrasted the general narrative (prostitution = the result of evil ways of
fallen women) with the real problem (= pov of the women - what makes them choose this
profession)
o illustrates the importance of:
 Circumstance; economic necessity; knowledge
o claimed that
 “prostitution is caused [...] by underpaying, and overworking women so shamefully that the
poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together.”
 “starvation, overwork, dirt and disease are as anti-social as prostitution.”
o main protagonists: Mrs Warren and her daughter (the woman of latevictorian times; new woman)
  The mother became a prostitute earlier in life when she realised it was the only way to make
good living (alternative, “honest” work – in a factory, die of lead poisoning; marry smn (but
he can turn bad))
 The daughter, Vivie, was raised with money and education and she doesn’t understand the
struggles her mother went through – she argues that ‘there was always a way to save money
and invest’ but it’s easy for her to say when she was born into better life = standard, late-
Victorian morality
 Shawn never condones prostitution. He is not showing this as a legitimate career. But
women should not be blamed (the government, lack of choices, society)

Oscar Wilde

- famous for his criticisms

- unusual way of dressing (flamboyant, flashy colours) - he loved getting attention
- he realised he can't write poetry typical for him, so he quit
- popular comedies:
 The Importance of Being Earnest
o A story about being dishonest – the hypocrisies of the Victoria society’s morality
o The people focus on outward appearance of morality but forget about the insides (morals,
motivation for marriage)
o highly exaggerated characters (farce)
o critical humour
o ridiculous situations (I can't marry you because you're not named Earnest)
o plot twists that don't make sense
o certain ideas of the upper class are turned on its head
o Bunbury - a place where Algernon can run away to rest from people
o Jack and Gwendolyn are engaged, Lady Bracknell makes an interview; it's good that you smoke (it's
important to do anything ; education (let's not tamper with ignorance - if people learn sth they
become a nuisance); (opinions don't matter

Arthur Conan Doyle

- he modelled Sherlock Holmes on his professor

- detective stories (in general):
 seemingly perfect crime; we find out clues at the same time as the detective; author
tries to turn as in different directions (red herrings)
 clumsy police, wrongly accuses suspect
 observation and mind of a detective
 unexpected ending; and a 'showdown'

20th century
Georgian poetry
- after Queen Victoria died, Eduard ruled for a while but then came King George V
- focus on sentimentality, romanticism, patriotism; hedonism (natural, good one)
- simple and easily understood
- calm before the storm
- traditional verse about inward feeling

Walter James Turner

- Magic
o Admiring the nature
o Every stanza is another description of nature that he sees
o Inoffensive, to fall asleep
The Great War

- People thought it would finish quickly; war of the educated

- Georgian poets either died during the war or changed their views (with expections)

Rupert Brook

- Georgian poet – joined the Royal Navy so didn’t really fight – he stayed a Georgian; died during war –
malaria
- Idealistic, nationalistic, patriotic poetry of war
- The Soldier
o If I die in this place, it will turn into England – my body will make the ground richer, greater – the
ground will be enriched with all my Englishness

Siegfried Sassoon

- started a Georgian but quickly his poetry turned far more realistic
- No sentimentality, realistic;
- satirised people of authority (generals, politics, churchmen) + criticism for their incompetence (generals)
and blind support for the war
- They
o depicted weariness of British soldiers
o violence, graphic detail
o some said he over exagerated
o some say that people who come back will be heroes, great people; Sassoon says that they will come
back changed (less limbs, sick, blind)
- The Hero
o To be a war hero you have to die first
o The hero is created not with the way he died by with his memory (stories)
o in the poem a fellow soldier of Jack brings a letter from the officer; the officer lies about how her son
died so that she'd have some consolation
o in reality: he panicked and tried to run and died being blown to pieces

Alan Seeger

- American poet; a bit insane

- retained romantic views of the war
- fatalistic attitude; had a death-wish
- joined French foreign legion and send to fight in France; killed while leading a charge
- his poetry can be considered romantic; very aesthetic
- wasn't disillusioned when it comes to war (wrote letters with details on); but it seemed like he liked it
- "I have a Rendezvous with Death"
o jumping from one mood to another
o there are elements of war but they're not overwhelming – everything else is so lovely romantic: a
romantic feeling: 'quench my breath' - with a kiss
o Death is like a lover; this poem is like an erotic poem
o it's spring - season of life

Jessie Pope

- a lady; hated by Seeger and Owen

- "The Call"
o who wants to be a hero, join the parade of Victors, to fight for their Empire; and who is a coward?

Wilfred Owen

- shocking way of describing war but very true to reality

 - Jessie Pope infuriated him
- "Dulce et Decorum Est"
o a response to a collection of Pope
o she doesn't mention the ugly part of war
o fighting a war means being dead-tired, walking through mud, sleeping while walking
o suddenly smn shouts “Gas”: they fumble to look for their gasmasks
o 'green sea' drowning; you see a person dying in a green smoke
o describes in great detail how a person dies by gas
o so like 'you say its cowardice to not go to war' go and see a gas attack

When the I WW was over another changed occurred

- most young men were shell-shocked

- the entire world of literature suffered PTSD – if sth so horrible can occur then sth is seriously wrong with the
world and it is beyond saving = people start doubting that there is sth worth living for;

Modernism
- desperate literature (lack of permanence, insecurity)
- visible in theme, form, structure - no more organised things (why bother creating sth elaborate structures of
poetry – be specific)
- imagism
o naming the thing (describe the thing with as few words as possible; make those words count - use all
their meaning);
o focus on the ordinary man's mind/identity and write for this ordinary man
 (introduction of the internal monologue, stream of consciousness type of writing)
- disjointed structure of poetry: why? To represent the fact that structure doesn’t make sense if the world is
decaying then why wouldn’t poetry
- vorticism – imagism but with movement; direct, straight; Vorticist poetry focuses on locating the movement
and stillness within the image.

Ezra Pound

- 'In a Station of the Metro' (imagism)

- when the train moves you see a blur not faces; when there is rain - everyone is wet; so every coat seems
dark - - people next to each other: there are petals of faces with black bough' – a branch with human faces –
visible for only a moment
- the structure resembles a haiku: przemijanie (ludzie, twarze, życie, płatki)

'Buffalo Bill's' by Cummings – defunct (if he is dead then his shows are no longer); the disjointed structure supposed
to show the dysfunction and deterioration of society and the world, as well as mimic dynamic aspects of life