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to mirror
to be haunted by
to mourn
to provide with
burial-place
to enslave
to be spoiled
to keep an eye on all political events
the Lake poets
to be of honorable birth
strong will
mercilessly
criticism in verse
immorality
confirm
anonymously
medieval England
to be focused on
a precursor of the critical realism
profound knowledge
refer to
to interfere with
Crusades
to usurp
archers
subdue
Questions
1. What is the difference between the progressive and regressive trends
of Romanticism?
2. Why are some romanticists called the poets of the “Lake School”?
3. What Lakists and what works by them do you know?
4. When was the first collection of poems by Byron published?
5. Is “Childe Harold” an autobiographical character?
6. Why do we consider Shelley to be a real fighter for freedom?
7. Who was the first great writer of historical novels in English literature?
8. What novels by Scott do you know?
9. What is the main conflict of the novel “Ivanhoe”?
10. What social problems did Scott try to solve in his novels?
11. What does “Ivanhoe” deal with?
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Theme 6: Critical Realism.
Plan:
1. The basic problems raised by English realists of the 19
th
century in their
works.
2. Charles Dickens – his life and work. His best novels.
3. Problems of childhood and education in his novels.
4. Charles Dickens and America.
5. Other important novels by Charles Dickens.
6. William Thackeray – his life and work.
7. Snobbism according to Thackeray. “Vanity Fair”.
The basic problems raised by English realists of the 19
th
century in
their works
Victoria became queen of Great Britain in 1837. Her reign, the longest in English
history, lasted until 1901. This period is called Victorian Age.
The Victorian Age was characterized by sharp contradictions. In many ways it was
an age of progress. The Victorian era marks the climax of England’s rise to
economic and military supremacy. Nineteenth-century England became the first
modern, industrialized nation. It ruled the most widespread empire in world
history, embracing all of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, and
many smaller countries in Asia, and the Caribbean. But internally England was not
stable. There was too much poverty, too much injustice and fierce exploitation of
man by man.
The workers fought for their rights. Their political demands were ex-pressed in the
People’s Charter in 1833. The Chartist movement was a revolutionary movement
of the English workers, which lasted till 1848. The Chartists introduced their own
literature. The Chartist writers tried their hand at different genres. They wrote
articles, short stories, songs, epigrams, poems. Chartists (for example Ernest Jones
“The Song of the Lower Classes”; Thomas Hood “The Song of the Shirt”)
described the struggle of the workers for their rights, they showed the ruthless
exploitation and the miserable fate of the poor.
The ideas of Chartism attracted the attention of many progressive-minded people
of the time. Many prominent writers became aware of the social injustice around
them and tried to picture them in their works. The greatest novelists of the age
were Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth
Gaskell, George Eliot.
These writers used the novel as a tool to protest against the evils in contemporary
42
social and economic life and to picture the world in a realistic way. They expressed
deep sympathy for the working people; described the unbearable conditions of
their life and work. Criticism in their works was very strong, so some scholars
called them Critical Realists, and the trend to which they belonged - Critical
Realism. “Hard Times” by Charles Dickens and “Mary Barton” by Elizabeth
Gaskell are the bright examples of that literature, in which the Chartist movement
is described. The contribution of the writers belonging to the trend of realism in
world literature is enormous. They created a broad picture of social life, exposed
and attacked the vices of the contemporary society, sided with the common people
in their passionate protest against unbearable exploitation, and expressed their
hopes for a better future.
As for the poetry of that time, English and American critics consider Alfred
Tennyson, and Robert Browning to be the two great pillars on which Victorian
poetry rested. Unlike the poetry of the Romantic Age, their poetry demonstrated
the conservatism, optimism, and self-assurance that marked the poetry of the
Victorian age.
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