CONTEXT - UNSEEN POETRY

Description

TO PRINT
Bethany Fieldhouse
Mind Map by Bethany Fieldhouse, updated more than 1 year ago
Bethany Fieldhouse
Created by Bethany Fieldhouse about 8 years ago
92
1

Resource summary

CONTEXT - UNSEEN POETRY
  1. RESTORATION PERIOD 1660-1785
    1. Charles II restored to the throne following an 11 year Commonwealth period, when England was governered by Parliament directed by Puritan Oliver Cromwell
      1. Resulted in changes in literature, science, culture
        1. Premium placed on the importance of human reason - an unchanging, uniquely human characteristic.
          1. AGE OF REASON or AGE OF ENGLIGHTENMENT
            1. Observation of human nature and nature itself
              1. Unchanging and constant
      2. Also known as the NEOCLASSICAL PERIOD
        1. Emphasis put on classical Greek and Roman literature
        2. Literature considered a tool for the advancement of knowledge
          1. Writers often observed nature in attempts to express their beliefs
            1. AGE OF SATIRE
              1. Most popular literary tool utilised by writers of the time - with the help of satire, writers were better able to educate the public through literature -
                1. FUNCTION: to acknowledge a problem in society and attempt to reform the problem in a comical manner while still educating the public
            2. POETS OF THE PERIOD
              1. Alexander Pope, Thomas Gray, John Dryden
            3. RENAISSANCE PERIOD 1550-1660
              1. Return of classical thought
                1. Rise of HUMANISM
                  1. Asserted the value of man, his dignity, his lack of limitations
                    1. Shift in emphasis from contemplative life of the Medieval man to INVOLVED LIFE OF RENAISSANCE MAN: well rounded, active, involved in the world around him
                    2. Provided society with a pervasive and overarching sense of humanity
                  2. Mimicked change in culture - turning away from religious thinking, placing importance on classical thought
                    1. Created new philosophies from the teachings of PLATO and ARISTOTLE
                      1. Some NEOPLATONISTS believed in a link between attaining knowledge of science, and a relationship between God or the divine
                      2. Sexual love seen as the presence of spiritual bonds, arising from new found knowledge of Platonic love
                      3. New World view - similar to that of the Middle Ages e.g belief in the Chain of Being
                        1. JUXTAPOSES HUMANISM
                          1. "Man's lack of limitations" - complicates his place within the chain of being
                        2. THE REFORMATION
                          1. Systematic corruption in the church - Protestants desired reformation. Europe was no longer united.
                            1. Placed importance on the role of the INDIVIDUAL - religious guidance was now found in the Bible rather than in the instituition of the church
                              1. Led to greater biblical influence in modern literature - Biblical allusions and symbols used by Donne, John Milton, Andrew Marvell
                          2. Gutenburg's Printing Press
                            1. Increased literacy and made the majority of literature more accessible
                            2. POETS OF THE PERIOD
                              1. Shakespeare, Donne, George Herbert, Christopher Marlowe, Andrew Marvell
                            3. ROMANTICISM 1785-1832
                              1. Western Europe - INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
                                1. Moved away frm the emphasis on the importance of an empirical, material worldview and looked to nature and the imagination as sources of insight
                                  1. Writers expressed a great reverence for nature and believed that intuition, emotion, and imagine were more instructive than reason
                                  2. ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT AND PERSONAL FEELING
                                    1. Poet seen as an individual distinguised from him fellows by the intensity of his perceptions
                                    2. Romantic definitions of poetry
                                      1. Wordsworth: "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling"
                                        1. Best poetry = most intense
                                        2. Placed great emphasis on the workings of the unconscious mind, dreams and reveries, the supernatural, the childlike and primitive view of the world - clarity and intensity had not be restricted by civilised "reason".
                                          1. POETS OF THE PERIOD
                                            1. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron
                                          2. VICTORIAN PERIOD 1836-1901
                                            1. Britain emerged from war with France as the world's predominant power - a period of great wealth, vitality and self-confidence - growth of British empire. At home - rapid social change and fierce intellectual controversy
                                              1. Period characterised by juxtaposition between new industrial wealth and new urban poverty
                                                1. Religion: clash between climax of Evangelical revival and a severe set of challenges to faith
                                                2. Romantic idealism challenged by the growing prestige of empirical science
                                                  1. REALISM - one of the great artistic movements of the era.
                                                  2. Expanding horizons of education and literacy, combined with greater questioning of religion and politics
                                                    1. The Communist Manifesto, The Origin of Species - catalysts for political and religious controversies
                                                      1. Economic growth, technological discovery, industrialisation
                                                        1. Increased literacy rates = reading had become a pastime
                                                          1. Standard literacy more or less universal by the end of the 19th century due to compulsory education and technological advancement in printing
                                                          2. THEMES: crisis of faith, urbanisation, morality, social class and the economy, the plight of the working class, the domestic life of women, the rise of prostitution
                                                            1. Transformation of nature from inspirational and benevolent to malignant and competitive
                                                              1. POETS OF THE PERIOD
                                                                1. Elizabeth Browning, Tennyson, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy
                                                              2. MODERNIST PERIOD 1901-1945
                                                                1. Characterised by the systematic rejection of social and literary norms
                                                                  1. Oppose all major ideals and conventions with unrelenting pessimism, directly contradicting the optimistic Victorians
                                                                    1. Claim that past movements are disconnected from the realities of the human condition
                                                                      1. Attempt to convey the complexities of a world apparently on the brink of destruction though experimentation
                                                                        1. Risk literary incoherence to express the fragmentation of the modern world
                                                                        2. Emergence of a hectic city life coupled with the sense of human decay drove modernists to seek a unifying philosophy
                                                                        3. FEATURES IN LITERATURE: Open form, free verse, discontinuous narrative, intertextuality, classical allusions, fragmentation, parallax, unconventional use of metaphor, borrowings from cultures and languages
                                                                          1. THEMES: Breakdown of social norms and cultural sureties, Freudian dissection of human consciousness, dislocation of meaning and sense from its normal context, disillusionment, products of the metropolis, stream of consciousness, overwhelming technological changes of the 20th century, loss of faith in democracy and freedom
                                                                            1. POETS OF THE PERIOD
                                                                              1. Ezra Pound, TS Eliot, James Joyce, WB Yeats
                                                                            2. POST-MODERN PERIOD 1945-PRESENT
                                                                              1. Spans from the end of modernism to modern day
                                                                                1. Refer to work as "containing postmodern thought" rather than being "part of postmodernism"
                                                                                  1. Came after Second World War
                                                                                    1. Tend to treat their subject ironically or satirically through parody and pastiche
                                                                                      1. Often inverts traditional narration
                                                                                        1. Commonly discards one-dimensional paradigms and insists that no way of seeing things is the correct way
                                                                                          1. Laws of nature, science, religion and politics are often deconstructed to reveal the flaws and contradictions of civilisation
                                                                                        2. Retained modernism's pessimism and avent-garde predilection
                                                                                        Show full summary Hide full summary

                                                                                        Similar

                                                                                        The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team
                                                                                        Summer Pearce
                                                                                        John Montague
                                                                                        Tara Matthews
                                                                                        Futility Flashcards
                                                                                        louisaodell
                                                                                        Love through the ages
                                                                                        acasilva001
                                                                                        Blake Quotes
                                                                                        soozi fullstop
                                                                                        Hardy's Key Themes
                                                                                        lucysands1
                                                                                        An Inspector Calls Revision Notes
                                                                                        Noor Sohail
                                                                                        Answering Unseen Poetry questions
                                                                                        mcglynnsiobhan
                                                                                        Subh Milis le Seamus O Neill
                                                                                        l.watters97
                                                                                        Hamlet - Character Analysis
                                                                                        Jess Watts