Welcome to Britt's Lit.
Get it? Pun on Britt... Because that's my nickname. Okay, so I'm being cute-sy and lame. Bear with me! It'll get more educational I promise!
If you follow the tabs under the 'Britt's Lit' banner you can get to the Literary Eras. That will be helpful because it'll be loads easier to navigate. I chose this platform for a website because it's easy to navigate, I already knew how to work this website, and it's free for all involved.
The Enlightenment Page mostly just has some background information on what it was and some significance to it.
The rest of the literary era pages have a brief description on what it was and if you follow down there are lists of elements and blue links to follow. Those links will take you to specific sections and information on what's listed around my site - in other words it will take you to the "blog" entries. Within the individual blog entries you might find some interesting photos, information, and some other links to outside websites.
I hope you enjoy the website and learn something about the wonders of British Literature and their respective Literary Eras! Thanks for visiting!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Romantic Period
Debate amongst the beginning of the period of Romanticism has been occuring throughout history. Romanticism takes the language of poetry and changes it to that of the common man. No longer is poetry to be for only fellow intellectuals. With this era poetry is shifted into the coloring of imagination and doesn't have to be pure visual truth. This took the place of the Age of Reason because their poetry was that of a painting - static, reflective, and tangible. Whereas Romantic poetry takes the form of music - dynamic, fluid, ever-changing, and deeply emotional. The focus isn't so much on the real, permanent, or visual but what feels emotionally real. What individuals feels and what touches them on emotional levels brings the truth through the raw emotions of people and their personal experiences. It's what the artist brings to the table in Romanticism, not just what is reflected back into reality that counts.
The Romantic Period begins in either the 1700s or later around 1798. The first option in 1700 was due to the writers of the time. Within the realm of the 1700s, Robert Burns' poems, William Blakes' "Songs of Innocence", and Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" were published. These works have been said to demonstrate the shift of prose and poetry away from the Enlightenment towards that of the Romantic Era. These were the works that show the first shifts of political thought and new literary expressions. The shift of the soley realism theme of poetry had already died out and the changes were already beginning to turn in writer's minds. Especially considering the works mentioned above were written by those considered to be the 'first generation' Romantics and the works to come later (Those of Lord Byron, Shelley, Keats, Mary Shelley, etc.) were considered to be the 'second generation' Romantics.
However, some still state that that's not enough to give credit to the shifting of the ages - and that in fact, it began in 1798. 1798 is the date that The Lyrical Ballads was published by Wordsworth and Coleridge. This is significant because this publication defined a significant change in poetry, that while it existed before this publication, it was argued that it was not yet accepted until this publication was made. Wordsworth and Coleridge took poetry and really made it into their own by adapting free-verse and paving the way for future poets. The templates that had to be followed before this publication no longer applied - common people could write poetry. Yet, even better it was adapted to allow all kinds of readers. Poetry became a more accepted activity - the reading and writing of it because of Coleridge and Wordsworth's desire to change the genre of poetry - to be pioners of their genre and make a difference.
Regardless of which was the truth beginning of Romanticism, it reminds true that this was a very influential era of literary exploration. Romanticism paved the way for all kinds of changes and beginnings of ideas. Romanticism allows people to be able to express themselves both using realism and emotional truth, it brought literature and poetry to the common man, and gave people a chance to write that might not have written otherwise. Or at the very least, might not have published work otherwise. People are going to choose which beginning they like better, which beginning means more to them, and what does that truly matter in the long run? The Romantic Period was all about paving your own way and breaking down the chains of restriction. The beginning is of less importance to the era than the substantial workings that went on during the time period.
The Romantic Period begins in either the 1700s or later around 1798. The first option in 1700 was due to the writers of the time. Within the realm of the 1700s, Robert Burns' poems, William Blakes' "Songs of Innocence", and Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" were published. These works have been said to demonstrate the shift of prose and poetry away from the Enlightenment towards that of the Romantic Era. These were the works that show the first shifts of political thought and new literary expressions. The shift of the soley realism theme of poetry had already died out and the changes were already beginning to turn in writer's minds. Especially considering the works mentioned above were written by those considered to be the 'first generation' Romantics and the works to come later (Those of Lord Byron, Shelley, Keats, Mary Shelley, etc.) were considered to be the 'second generation' Romantics.
However, some still state that that's not enough to give credit to the shifting of the ages - and that in fact, it began in 1798. 1798 is the date that The Lyrical Ballads was published by Wordsworth and Coleridge. This is significant because this publication defined a significant change in poetry, that while it existed before this publication, it was argued that it was not yet accepted until this publication was made. Wordsworth and Coleridge took poetry and really made it into their own by adapting free-verse and paving the way for future poets. The templates that had to be followed before this publication no longer applied - common people could write poetry. Yet, even better it was adapted to allow all kinds of readers. Poetry became a more accepted activity - the reading and writing of it because of Coleridge and Wordsworth's desire to change the genre of poetry - to be pioners of their genre and make a difference.
Regardless of which was the truth beginning of Romanticism, it reminds true that this was a very influential era of literary exploration. Romanticism paved the way for all kinds of changes and beginnings of ideas. Romanticism allows people to be able to express themselves both using realism and emotional truth, it brought literature and poetry to the common man, and gave people a chance to write that might not have written otherwise. Or at the very least, might not have published work otherwise. People are going to choose which beginning they like better, which beginning means more to them, and what does that truly matter in the long run? The Romantic Period was all about paving your own way and breaking down the chains of restriction. The beginning is of less importance to the era than the substantial workings that went on during the time period.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Lyrical Ballads
In 1798 The Lyrical Ballads was first published by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It was republished in 1800 with the preface of the lyrical ballads which gave a kind of format of poetry. There was a switch from the Age of Enlightenment to the Romantic period, and some attest that shift to the publication of this particular work.
Elements:
- Subject low and rustic
- Uses the language of the common man
- Coloring of the imagination
- The language is the same
- Purpose - flowing emotion
- No particular meter - in general all lines
- Imaginative language - it shows with words but brings it to reality
- The translation - the poet tells what it is he sees, but why it is touching as well.
The opposite of poetry is science. However, poetry and prose are the same kinds of things. Music is the equivalent of the romantic's poetry. There is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings - good poetry.
"The Mirror and the Lamp"
- No longer merely reflecting.
- The lamp is poetic imagination
- Poetry isn't just mirroring what the poet sees.
- Orientation turns toward the artist
Poet
- Passionate and full of knowledge
- The translator of nature
- The philosopher
- A man speaking to men
- Know more, greater knowledge, passion/emotional, affected by the world more
Elements:
- Subject low and rustic
- Uses the language of the common man
- Coloring of the imagination
- The language is the same
- Purpose - flowing emotion
- No particular meter - in general all lines
- Imaginative language - it shows with words but brings it to reality
- The translation - the poet tells what it is he sees, but why it is touching as well.
The opposite of poetry is science. However, poetry and prose are the same kinds of things. Music is the equivalent of the romantic's poetry. There is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings - good poetry.
"The Mirror and the Lamp"
- No longer merely reflecting.
- The lamp is poetic imagination
- Poetry isn't just mirroring what the poet sees.
- Orientation turns toward the artist
Poet
- Passionate and full of knowledge
- The translator of nature
- The philosopher
- A man speaking to men
- Know more, greater knowledge, passion/emotional, affected by the world more
Monday, April 25, 2011
Tintern Abbey
Tintern Abbey
- How theory gets inacted - if it does
- A famous place due to the "Lines from Tintern Abbey" and all the photos and paintings done of the location
- Uses iambic pentameter - though written in blank verse
- How theory gets inacted - if it does
- A famous place due to the "Lines from Tintern Abbey" and all the photos and paintings done of the location- Uses iambic pentameter - though written in blank verse
- The Poet is more sensitive
- Solitude
- Tintern Abbey was already in ruins by the time wordsworth wrote of it
- I becomes "eye"
- Solitude
- Tintern Abbey was already in ruins by the time wordsworth wrote of it
- Wordsworth was with his sister Dorothy when visiting the Abbey
- The abbey inspires emotion
- A tranquil environment - Wordsworth was grounded in the present moment
- Time suspended
- Recalls past (passion)
- A contemplative shift happens towards the end of the poem - future ponderings
- Human development
- I becomes "eye"- Poetry helps us survive the dreary intercourse of day
Wordsworth gains a knowledge of the world and of nature. He gets to rediscover times of thoughtless youth before the "lamp" - the naivety of his thought and of society along with human development. He gains a sort of pleasure in being one with nature. Along with a sense of self discovery and spirituality in nature.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
French Revolution
1788
- They are looking for a solution
The Fall of the Bastile
- Political prison that was well-known
- Symbol of Government oppression
- A few people were broken out and that began the revolution
1790
- Burke
- Against revolution from the beginning
1793
- Louie and Antoinette executed.
- Robespie're takes control and begins the Reign of Terror
- A few thousand people were then executed during the Reign of Terror
1793-4
- Wordsworth
- Modern prospective of
1794
- Robespie're is executed
1804
- Napoleon is Emperor of France
- He gains more power than a mere King
- England goes to war against France
1815
- Waterloo, England defeats France
1830, 1848
- More revolutions
- Peasants become more and more aware of the goings on
- There is more pamphlet writing and underground newspaper
- Focus on philosophy and science
- Using human reason and disrupts ancient feudal systems
-The people are hungry and growing angry
- They are looking for a solution- Revolution is close at hand
The French Revolution
Began in 1789
The American Revolution was a bit before.
The Fall of the Bastile
- Political prison that was well-known
- Symbol of Government oppression
- A few people were broken out and that began the revolution
1790
- Burke
- Against revolution from the beginning
1793
- Louie and Antoinette executed.
- Robespie're takes control and begins the Reign of Terror
- A few thousand people were then executed during the Reign of Terror
1793-4
- Wordsworth
- Modern prospective of
1794
- Robespie're is executed
1804
- Napoleon is Emperor of France
- He gains more power than a mere King
- England goes to war against France
1815
- Waterloo, England defeats France
1830, 1848
- More revolutions
- Peasants become more and more aware of the goings on
- There is more pamphlet writing and underground newspaper
- Focus on philosophy and science
- Using human reason and disrupts ancient feudal systems
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
- Against the revolution from the start
- Gov't follows nature (which is right)?
- England's Monarchy worked
- The known past that worked well is better than an unknown of the future
- Conservative approach to past
Feudal System
- People who owned land had more right to participate in government
- Chivalry system is an idea to go back to
- Said this was a good system to use and continue to use it
- "Natural" to follow the past examples, however Burke based this upon illusions which is unnatural
- Individual people don't matter, but the roles they play do matter.
- The system matters
- Men have rights to what they put into society but not all
- "You deserve your stuff" because you inherited it or you bought it
- Entailed inheritance - oldest son got all, he'd get the estate but can't sell or break it up. You become the steward of land. You run it, not really yours
- The first son got the estate
- The second son would go into priesthood
- The third son would be in the military
Americans are just inherently for Revolution and shouldn't be looked upon for example. We come from Revolution and therefore would be all for it.
Responses to Burke
"A Vindication of the Rights of Men" - Wollstonecraft's response
- 1st published response to Burke
Argument
- his rhetoric - emotional and manipulative
- Burke's argument serves those currently in power, while ignoring the vast majority
- Birthrights - not enslavement
- Religious, liberty, and civil
- God/Nature/Reason
- Current system is all about property
- warps nobility
- manners vs morals
Rhetoric
- Righteousness
- It's a Robin Hood-esque ideal
- Compassionate
- False humility
- Slavery happened in the past and must therefore continue?
Paine- "The Rights of Man" - this was the most famous response to Burke.
Argument
- No divine right, equality of persons
- Revolution is against the system, not the monarch (Can you separate the two?)
- authority of knowledge vs authority of power to do something
- The person, corruptions, and systems are one and the same?
- No dead hand - each generation is free to organize its own ways
- "Dead Hand of the past" forcing things to go a certain way
- France was equivalent to liberty during this time period
-However, England decided to join a fight against Liberty
- Against the revolution from the start
- Gov't follows nature (which is right)?
- England's Monarchy worked
- The known past that worked well is better than an unknown of the future
- Conservative approach to past
Feudal System
- People who owned land had more right to participate in government
- Chivalry system is an idea to go back to
- Said this was a good system to use and continue to use it
- "Natural" to follow the past examples, however Burke based this upon illusions which is unnatural
- Individual people don't matter, but the roles they play do matter.
- The system matters
- Men have rights to what they put into society but not all
- "You deserve your stuff" because you inherited it or you bought it
- Entailed inheritance - oldest son got all, he'd get the estate but can't sell or break it up. You become the steward of land. You run it, not really yours
- The first son got the estate
- The second son would go into priesthood
- The third son would be in the military
Americans are just inherently for Revolution and shouldn't be looked upon for example. We come from Revolution and therefore would be all for it.
Responses to Burke
"A Vindication of the Rights of Men" - Wollstonecraft's response
- 1st published response to Burke
Argument
- his rhetoric - emotional and manipulative
- Burke's argument serves those currently in power, while ignoring the vast majority
- Birthrights - not enslavement
- Religious, liberty, and civil
- God/Nature/Reason
- Current system is all about property
- warps nobility
- manners vs morals
Rhetoric
- Righteousness
- It's a Robin Hood-esque ideal
- Compassionate
- False humility
- Slavery happened in the past and must therefore continue?
Paine- "The Rights of Man" - this was the most famous response to Burke.
Argument
- No divine right, equality of persons
- Revolution is against the system, not the monarch (Can you separate the two?)
- authority of knowledge vs authority of power to do something
- The person, corruptions, and systems are one and the same?
- No dead hand - each generation is free to organize its own ways
- "Dead Hand of the past" forcing things to go a certain way
- France was equivalent to liberty during this time period
-However, England decided to join a fight against Liberty
Friday, April 22, 2011
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
She was one of the first women to try to write for a living. Though originally the family had money, her father squandered it away on alcoholism. Her life was one that was very non-conventionl. Mary had started to fail school, attempted suicide, had a child out of wedlock, and had two affairs. Mary became a publisher.
- She published her response to Burke six weeks after he got published
- Wollstonecraft wasn't taken very seriously during her life
- Her life overshadowed her ideas and writings
- It made her famous, but also made it so no one took her as a serious person
- She died giving birth to Mary Shelley from an infection she got a couple weeks later
Her husband then published all of her writing, including personal letters. Most of the works were considered trash and did a fairly decent job to dishevel her already tattered reputation. She was the "poison" of perception and quoting her was not something one should do unless they wanted to become a social leper as well.
However, during the second wave of feminism her writings were picked back up and her work began to be taken seriously. Especially in the 1960s-70s.
"A Vindication of the Rights of Women"
1791
- The Revolution came about French assembly
- People needed to be educated
- Education to all - men that is. Wollstonecraft wanted to change this, equality in education should be for all
The Role of Women in 1791
- Gender isn't something that you can choose it's how God made you
- Look pretty and make babies/an ornaments
- Little in way of education - sew, paint/draw, french language, play instruments
- Entertaining partner to future husband
- Attitude of plesantness to men - subserviant
- Beautiful language, no use for that
- Learned behaviors/ learned helplessness
- "God" was mentioned for the sake of audience more than anything
- She was appealing to her audience - speaking to the men
Women's Natural State - Sex (biology)
- Women are equal to men with their virtue
- Physically weaker/inferior
- Same rights they're entitled to
- Procreation/ being a wife is the purpose of women
- She is limited by cultural experiences
- Or is she using her wit?
Virtue
- Women are morally responsible for their sins, women have souls
- Meaning they have capacity to make choices
- Women have the ability to pick right over wrong
- e.g. intellectual capacity
- Or rational capacity
- "Sameness" of type between men and women, not the same degree
- Wollstonecraft wasn't saying women have to be equal to men, but things could be better/improved
- Or should women be equal?
- Equality could be attained within homes only
- Men are responsible for women's rational capacity to improve so women could be more virtuous
- Her goal was to introduce the topic into discussion
Women in Modern Times
- Women outnumber men in undergraduate institutions
- English is feminized
- Gender expectations
- Sexy
- Superwoman - they should be a mom, home-maker, controlled, be in a workforce, etc.
She was one of the first women to try to write for a living. Though originally the family had money, her father squandered it away on alcoholism. Her life was one that was very non-conventionl. Mary had started to fail school, attempted suicide, had a child out of wedlock, and had two affairs. Mary became a publisher.
- She published her response to Burke six weeks after he got published
- Wollstonecraft wasn't taken very seriously during her life
- Her life overshadowed her ideas and writings
- It made her famous, but also made it so no one took her as a serious person
- She died giving birth to Mary Shelley from an infection she got a couple weeks later
Her husband then published all of her writing, including personal letters. Most of the works were considered trash and did a fairly decent job to dishevel her already tattered reputation. She was the "poison" of perception and quoting her was not something one should do unless they wanted to become a social leper as well.
However, during the second wave of feminism her writings were picked back up and her work began to be taken seriously. Especially in the 1960s-70s.
"A Vindication of the Rights of Women"
1791
- The Revolution came about French assembly
- People needed to be educated
- Education to all - men that is. Wollstonecraft wanted to change this, equality in education should be for all
The Role of Women in 1791
- Gender isn't something that you can choose it's how God made you
- Look pretty and make babies/an ornaments
- Little in way of education - sew, paint/draw, french language, play instruments
- Entertaining partner to future husband
- Attitude of plesantness to men - subserviant
- Beautiful language, no use for that
- Learned behaviors/ learned helplessness
- "God" was mentioned for the sake of audience more than anything
- She was appealing to her audience - speaking to the men
Women's Natural State - Sex (biology)
- Women are equal to men with their virtue
- Physically weaker/inferior
- Same rights they're entitled to
- Procreation/ being a wife is the purpose of women
- She is limited by cultural experiences
- Or is she using her wit?
Virtue
- Women are morally responsible for their sins, women have souls
- Meaning they have capacity to make choices
- Women have the ability to pick right over wrong
- e.g. intellectual capacity
- Or rational capacity
- "Sameness" of type between men and women, not the same degree
- Wollstonecraft wasn't saying women have to be equal to men, but things could be better/improved
- Or should women be equal?
- Equality could be attained within homes only
- Men are responsible for women's rational capacity to improve so women could be more virtuous
- Her goal was to introduce the topic into discussion
Women in Modern Times
- Women outnumber men in undergraduate institutions
- English is feminized
- Gender expectations
- Sexy
- Superwoman - they should be a mom, home-maker, controlled, be in a workforce, etc.
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