English Studies
Literary Movements (S5)
Pr. El Majdoubi
ROMANTICISM (1798 – 1837)
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• Romanticism was an intellectual, literary, cultural,
and artistic movement in the late 18th century
and early 19th century in Western Europe.
• Unlike the Enlightenment, which focused mainly
on intellect, Romanticism focused on the
individual and his inner world (emotions, feelings,
instincts, imagination, intuition, inspiration, and
idealism).
• It was a response to the scientific rationalism and
classicism of the Age of Enlightenment.
• Romanticism fixated on Nature as a pure source
of infinite beauty and spiritual renewal.
• Romantic writers rejected the Enlightenment
thinkers’ assertion, according to which human
reason can rationalize Nature.
• Turning Nature into science made no sense to
Romantic writers.
• Romantic writers mystically looked at Nature as
something to be experienced rather than
something to be dissected.
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• The period of Romanticism witnessed
tremendous social and political changes.
• Romanticism was a reaction to the aristocratic
ideas of the Age of Enlightenment and the
Industrial Revolution.
• The French and American revolutions
fueled the Romantic movement in a more
pronounced way.
• Romanticism celebrated the common man and valued
the individual experience.
• Pioneers of the Romantic period sought to break away
from the Enlightenment conventions and make way for
experimentation.
• Romantic poets idealized women and embraced
delicate melancholia.
• The emphasis on emotions and rhythm also extended
to the composition of the music of the time and is
perceptible in some iconic works by Weber, Beethoven,
Schumann, and others.
Ludwig van Beethoven is the emblematic musical figure in the transitional period
between the Classical and Romantic eras. (Image via [Link])
• Amongst the most illustrious figures of
Romanticism were John Keats, William
Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary
Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William
Blake, and Lord Byron.
• William Wordsworth defined poetry as
“the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings; it takes its origin from emotion
recollected in tranquility.”
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• “Lyrical Ballads,” a collection of poems by William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge first
published in 1798, ushered forth the Romantic period.
• Romanticism often used autobiographical material to
inform literary works.
• Stylistically, Romantic poets emphasized the following
literary devices:
- Pathetic Fallacy: the projection of human
emotions onto Nature.
- Personification: the attribution of human
characteristics to something non-human.
• Besides the exotic, Romantic writers investigated the
supernatural and the occult in their work (magic, spells,
and superstition).
• Women such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, and
Mary Shelley signed the most illustrious Romantic novels.
These literary works originally bore male pen names.
Jane Austen: [Link] Charlotte Brontë: [Link]
• The Romantics were interested in the supernatural and
included it in their work. Gothic fiction thus emerged
as a subset of Romanticism.
• Many Romantic novels depicted a character who lived
at the edge of normal society.
• Romanticism saw the universe as organic while
Enlightenment thinkers viewed it from a systematic, or
mechanical, perspective.
• An author qualified Romanticism as “the profoundest
cultural transformation in human history since the
invention of the city.” (Compton’s Interactive
Encyclopedia)
Follow the link to watch the educational video on
Romanticism and answer the questions below:
[Link]
1. What are the fundamental principles of Romanticism
according to the speaker?
2. What did Romantic writers mean by “Untamed Nature”?
English Studies
Literary Movements (S5)
Pr. El Majdoubi
Realism and Naturalism in
Nineteenth-Century Literature
[Link]
• Realism is an artistic and literary movement that began in
France in the mid-19th century.
• It rejected the false idealism and exaggerated sentimentality
of Romanticism.
• It sought to portray life as it is.
• It contained no fantasy or supernatural elements.
• It accurately depicted Nature, the human condition, and the
common man.
• Social, economic, and political reforms fueled Realism.
• In the 19th century, three revolutions took place: the
Industrial Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, and
the Moral Revolution.
• Amongst the key figures that shaped Realism:
-Charles Darwin: Initiator of the evolutionary theory of
natural selection.
-Karl Marx: Founder of Communism. He advocated an
equal distribution of wealth.
-Auguste Comte: Designer of Positivism, a theory of
“fact-oriented science,” according to William Keylor.
• With Darwin, Marx, and Comte, European societies
challenged religious, political, and economic beliefs.
• Scientific principles informed the study of humans.
• Naturalism developed from Realism. It maintained that
all actions find their explanation in Nature.
• From a Naturalistic perspective, characters have free will;
larger forces such as heredity and the social environment
condition their behavior.
• Determinism and survival are some of the most cherished
themes of Naturalist writers.
• Amongst the most illustrious Realist writers were:
- Henrik Ibsen (Norway)
- Anton Chekhov (Russia)
- George Eliot (England)
- Honoré de Balzac (France)
- William Dean Howells (America)
• In Realistic fiction, the characters are ordinary
people leading ordinary lives. Subject-matters
are bold and social values are challenged.
• In Realistic fiction,
- the characters are engaging;
- the dialogue is credible;
- the setting is commonplace;
- the writer’s tone is not preachy.
• The humor of language, characters, and situations is often used
to break the tension.
• Thematic concerns included adultery, prostitution, racial
prejudice, child abuse, drugs, sexual and psychological disorders,
etc.
The Victorian Age (1832 - 1901)
• As a form of English Realism, Victorianism covers the period
between the passage of the first Reform Bill in 1832 and
Queen Victoria’s death in 1901.
• It is known for its strict conservatism as well as its profound
social reforms.
• It fascinates scholars by its multiple facets, complexity, and
paradoxes.
• During this era, England went from being an agricultural
country to an industrialized one.
• Watch the following video:
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• Compare the previous video with this one:
[Link]
• The two videos made us discover American
Realism. Let us now consider British Realism and
its specificities.
English Studies
Literary Movements (S5)
Pr. El Majdoubi
MODERNISM: FROM LATE 19th TO
MID-20th CENTURY
Image Credit: [Link]
• Modernism started around the early 1900s and
continued until the early 1940s.
• A series of global conflicts that ruined Europe, mainly
the First World War (1914-1918) and the Second
World War (1939-1945), paved the way for
Modernism.
• As literature mirrors society, fragmentation made its
way both conceptually and stylistically in literature
and arts.
• Unlike Realism, Modernism was more focused on
aesthetics than on societal issues.
• Free verse characterized the style of Modernist poets.
• Other writing styles such as “stream-of-
consciousness” and “multiplicity of perspectives”
flourished.
• Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman had a
tremendous influence on early Modernist writers.
• Many American Modernist writers made their way to Paris.
• Experimentation was encouraged by
Modernist writers who tried new literary forms
and styles.
• Some Modernist writers became famous for
their experimental works. Amongst them were
the authors Virginia Woolf and James Joyce,
and the poets Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot.
• Like Realism, Modernism has sometimes been
interpreted as retaliation against the dual
standards of Victorian morality.
• Amongst the other factors that led to the emergence of
Modernism was industrialization and its
accompanying individualism, nihilism, and absurdism.
• Modernist literature is mainly characterized by memories
and non-linear (non-chronological) narratives.
Image Credit: [Link]
• Modernists relied heavily on the findings of rational
thinkers such as Charles Darwin (theory of evolution
and natural selection), Sigmund Freud (theory of
human mind), Karl Marx (theories of class
inequality), and Friedrich Nietzsche (theory of
epistemic perspectivism).
• Amongst the predominant themes were the
interference of past and present, the pursuit of
happiness, decadence, disillusionment, and insanity.
• Stylistically, flashbacks, multiple perspectives,
symbolism, and so forth characterized Modernist
literature.
• Modernists refuted established religious,
political, and social views.
• Consciousness and self-reflexivity were at the
heart of Modernist writers’ preoccupations, as
their focus was on the inner self.
• By using non-omniscient and unreliable
narrators, Modernists led readers to question
their assumptions.
• Modernists considered that diverse
perspectives are necessary to apprehend
the subtleties of the world.
• Modernists believed that literature is not
organically structured. Instead, they viewed it
as a composition of a variety of materials.
• Modernist writers created a collage of
styles by mixing images from the past with
modern linguistic and thematic elements.
• Modernists used urban environments as
backdrops for their stories. Urbanity as a way of
life shaped the discourse of much of Modernist
literature.
• Modernism gave voice to marginalized writers
who celebrated black identity as much as
female identity. Similarly, the postcolonial
literary movement was born with activist figures
such as Chinua Achebe.
• Listen to the podcast below, then answer the
questions:
[Link]
• What did you learn from the podcast? What were the
defining features of Modernist literature?
English Studies
Literary Movements (S5)
Pr. El Majdoubi
Post-Modernism: 1965 - Present
[Link]
• Postmodernism is an intellectual stance
towards art, culture, and society.
• It represents a quest to surpass Modernism.
• Its skeptical attitude challenges Modernists’
epistemic and ideological assumptions about
knowledge and reality.
• It emphasizes impressionism and subjectivity.
• It leans towards self-awareness and reflexivity.
• Postmodernism takes a clear-cut stance against
claims of fixity and universality.
• It dismantles the objectivity of truth, the stability of
language, and the coherence of reality.
• It privileges hands-on experience over abstract
principles.
• It revisits essentialist categories such as class, race,
and gender. These categories are considered social
constructs rather than a biological reality.
• Deconstruction, a central concern of
Postmodernism, can be viewed as a critical
analysis developed by Jacques Derrida.
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• Postmodern literature uses pastiche, which is a parody of
past styles.
• Postmodernism is a mode of discourse, a free playing
discursive space, while Modernism is more related to the
Enlightenment ideas. In other words, the context of
Postmodernism is discursive-textual, and that of
Modernism is ideational.
• Anti-narrative, anti-form, anarchy, and immanence in
Postmodernism are alternatives to narrative, form, hierarchy,
and transcendence in Modernism.
• Modernism and Postmodernism are not two distinct
movements, but two poles of an experience.
• Postmodern works revolt against the universal norms of
the Enlightenment and Modernist approaches to
literature.
• Postmodernism operates in a highly competitive
consumer-driven and technology-based context (mass-
mediated industries or cultures).
• Postmodernism resists the idea of boundaries between
“high” and “low” culture.
• It breaks with the elitism of high Modernism and the
trauma of WWII.
• The American linguist Noam Chomsky
emphasized the irrelevance of Postmodernism
for analysis or empirical knowledge.
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• At the heart of Postmodern literature lies a sense
of fragmentation.
• Literary Postmodernism relies heavily on dubious
narrators, nonlinear plots, and multilayered
characters.
• Postmodern authors, unlike Modernists, are not
concerned with the search for meaning in a
chaotic world.
• Postmodern works are open to interpretation;
readers should read between the lines within a
cultural perspective.
Watch and summarize the instructional video below: https
://[Link]/watch?v=we6cwmzhbBE
Compare and contrast Modernism and Postmodernism
based on the following video lecture:
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