British Literature

January 26, 2015

INTRODUCTION TO THE ROMANTIC

PERIOD

CLASS ENTRANCE TO-DO LIST• Turn in the following: • Hamlet Literary Elements• Hamlet Character Chart (extra credit)

• Pick up the following: • Wuthering Heights Reading Schedule & Annotation

Expectations Bookmark • Hang up your Hamlet Irony Assignment somewhere in the room

with your name in a visible place ON THE CLOCK WALL using tape.

• Sign up for your Poetry Research project.

HAMLET IRONY ASSIGNMENT GALLERY WALK

• Go around the room to admire your classmates’ work. As you walk around the room, you must post three sticky notes: • Comment on your classmates’ ideas, artistry,

or quotes. You may also ask questions of your classmates’ poster. • You only have 5-7 minutes to complete this

gallery walk.

• English conservatives worry that revolutionary fever will cross the Channel to England.

• Because the French king has been overthrown by a democratic mob, the French Revolution is radical and frightening to English ruling classes.

History of the Times

• Until the violence and terror escalate, English liberals support the French Revolution’s ideals of “liberty, fraternity, equality.”

Influence of the Revolution

Literature of the Times

• In reaction to the ugliness and turmoil of the times, writers turn to nature, the past, and a dream world of imagination.

Revolution Spreads

• Romantic period begins in 1798 as a response to the Industrial Revolution.

Literature of the Times

The Romantic poets

• were dedicated to political and social change

• believed in the power of literature

• thought imagination—not reason—was the best response to forces of change

• created private, spontaneous lyric poetry

ROMANTIC POETRY

Literature of the Times

• Romantic literature was dominated by poetry.

• Romantics thought poets were extraordinary people, necessary to humanity and society.

• Keats called poets “physicians,” Blake called them teachers, and Shelley thought they were the “unacknowledged legislators of the world.”

THE ROMANTIC PERIOD

• The novel also thrived, however. Key novelists included Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, and Sir Walter Scott.

History of the Times

• Swelling urban populations create desperate living conditions.

• England is the first nation to experience the effects of the Industrial Revolution.

• The era’s misery and poverty are justified by an economic policy called laissez faire (business independent from government).

INDUSTRIALIZATION

THEMES OF ROMANTIC POETRY

• Spread of democratic ideals through the American and French Revolutions and disillusionment after failure of French Revolution

• Reactions against harsh living and working conditions created for urban poor by the Industrial Revolution

• Fascination with nature and country life, which seemed a blissful retreat from city slums

Influences on Romantic Poetry

THEMES OF ROMANTIC POETRY

• Invited readers to feel power and passion

A New Focus in Poetry

Romantic PeriodRestoration Era

• Order had just been restored.

• Society needed social change.

• Poets celebrated order, hierarchy, and enlightened rule.

• Poets wrote about personal feelings, individual rights, and used everyday language.

• Tried to capture personal experience

THEMES OF ROMANTIC POETRY

The Romantics saw imagination as the link between mind and nature. • To them, imaginative experi-ences were especially moving, perhaps superior to human reasoning.

• The mysterious forces of Nature inspired them.

Imagination: The Inspired Guide

THEMES OF ROMANTIC POETRY

The Romantics’ interest in natural images and themes was reflected in Gothic literature.

Eerie settings

Supernatural events

Questions about humans’ ability to manipulate nature

Novels such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein appealed to the imagination through

Nature: The Wise Teacher

THEMES OF ROMANTIC POETRY

Romantic poets favored idealized rural settings.

Experience: The Worthy Subject

However, some celebrated the people who lived in crowded cities.

They promoted rights to

Healthful living conditionsRelief from political or economic oppression

Self-expression

THEMES OF ROMANTIC POETRY

Some Romantics dreamed that poetry could offer an example of model behavior to improve horrific social conditions:

Undemocratic governments

Dangerous factories

Child labor

Laissez-faire economic policies that left businesses unregulated Child workers in coal mine

Experience: The Worthy Subject

TP-CASTT METHOD

Happy Mechanics Monday!

When you read a poem closely, try this method:

T is for TITLE•Analyze the title first. •What do you predict this poem or work will be about?•Write down your predictions.•We will reflect on the title again after we have read the poem.•The next step is often omitted, but it is the most important!

• Paraphrasing is putting something in your own words.

• After reading the poem, rewrite it in your own words.

• This may be three sentences or a page, depending on the particular poem.

P is for PARAPHRASE

•Analyze the figures of speech and sound effects of the poem.•Look at the connotations of words (connections and associations)•Examine any literary elements

C is for CONNOTATION

Tone is the attitude of the speaker toward the subject of the poem.

A is for ATTITUDE

• Tone is the author's or the poet's attitude

towards his or her subject. • Mood is how the poem makes a

reader feel.• Therefore, the tone in the Psalm

would be David’s attitude in the text.

Don’t Confuse Tone & Mood!

•If there is a change in…–Time–Tone–Mood–SpeakerThis should always be noted as this will also affect the meaning.

S is for SHIFT

•At this time, you should reconsider the title.

•Were you right in your predictions?

•What other meanings might the title have in light of your analysis?

T is for TITLE (again)

•As you already know, theme is the general insight into life conveyed by the author through his/her work.

•It merely states something that is true to life and the human condition.

•Write a thematic statement: – STEP ONE: Choose an important topic in the poem. – STEP TWO: Write what the work conveys or says

about that topic.

T is for THEME

•Look at the other parts of TPCASTT.•What insight are all of these working together to convey?•What is the poet trying to say about life?

How do I find the THEME?

ROMANTIC POETRYRESEARCH, ANALYSIS, AND PRESENTATION

• For this project, you will be assigned a poem from the Romantic period of British Literature.

• You will research the poet and the poem. • You will closely read and engage the poem using several

strategies, specifically the TP-CASTT method. Complete the TP-CASTT chart on the back of the assignment sheet.

• Then, you will prepare a presentation to the class to discuss your poem.

PROJECT EVALUATION