The Victorian Age

The Victorian AgeCultural History of BritainLecture 10Queen Victoria(1837-1901)

TimelineQueen Victoria 1837-1901 1832 : Reform Bill the beginning of he historical period1838- : Chartist Movement1845-48: Great Famine (Ireland, emmigration)1851: Great Exhibition (London)1854-56: Crimean War (Florence Nightingale)1876: Queen Victoria crowned as the Empress of India (Jewel in the Crown) cf. Paul Scott, Raj Quartet1870s-: Irish Home Rule Movement (aim: autonomy separate parliament)

Social Backgroundthe fight of the middle classes for economic, political and cultural power (Habib, History 469)middle-class values: strict morality, diligence, economy, stability, Christianity, conservatismmiddle classesreading audience (Habib, History 469) (railway yellowbacks, journals instalments, Victorian three/triple-decker)revolutions, nationalism (Habib, History 469)Imperialism (Habib, History 469) (white mans burden, orientalism, the exotic colonial subject as Europes other) one fourth of the earths land areaIndustrial Revolution (Habib, History 469) workshop of the worldRailway as a means of mass transport (seaside resorts)urbanisation and pauperisation (Habib, History 469)development of communication and transportation (Habib, History 469)rise of the working classes (e.g. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South; Charles Dickens, Hard Times) (Habib, History 469)

Intellectual Background: Sciences and PhilosophyDarwin, The Origin of Species (1859) (Bantock, Intellectual Background 13-56)scientific, mechanical worldview (McFarlane, Mind of Modernism 75)positivism (Bantock, Intellectual Background 13-56) Auguste Comte, mile Durkheim, Herbert Spencer (Habib, History 470)reaction against Hegel (Habib, History 470)rejection of metaphysical inquiry (Habib, History 470)nature, experience, observation and empirical verifiability (Habib, History 470)conservative (Habib, History 470)sociology, psychology (Freud), social thought (Habib, History 471)literary expression: realism and naturalism (Habib, History 471)

Disintegration of a Unified World-Viewrelativity in philosophy and morality (Nietzsche) (McFarlane, Mind of Modernism 79)reaction against a mechanical, materialistic society (McFarlane, Mind of Modernism 79)utilitarianism, positivism, social Darwinism (Habib, History 469)private morality, breakdown of the paternal authoritarian pattern Nietzsches popularity after 1890 (McFarlane, Mind of Modernism 79)Marxism (McFarlane, Mind of Modernism 79)decadence at the turn of the century (Habib, History 489)

EducationElementary and secondary schoolsElementary education for the working classesFactory Act (1833)Foster Act (1870)Mundella Act (1880)Public schoolsExcept for Winchester, Eton, Bedford, Rugby and Harrow the majority of public schools established in the 19th centuryEducation and personality development with equal weight (sports, corporeal punishment)factories of gentlemen provides administrators for the colonies, the British EmpireHigher educationUntil 1831 only two universities in EnglandFrom the 1850s: mushrooming of redbrick universitiesManchester (1851)Newcastle (1852)Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Belfast, Bristol (turn of the century)Private tutors and governesses (the governess novel)Women in Victorian SocietyStereotypes (Virgin Mary vs. femme fatale) cf. the Angel in the House, Coventry Patmore and Virginia WoolfSexual double standardProstitutionPruderyHypocrisyVictorian educated middle-class gentlemen double life (cf. Robert Stevenson, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde)Architecture and Fine Arts in GeneralArchitectureNo distinctive new style characteristic for the 19th centuryRivalry of Neo-Classicism and Neo-GothicFine artsQuality sculpture disappeared (kitsch)Conversation pieces (animals) in painting (kitsch)Caricature as a new and innovative genre Punch (1841-1992, 1996-2002)

Paintinga) Academism (e.g. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1836-1912)

The Finding of Moses (1904)b) The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848)Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82)

Ecce Ancilla Domini (1850)

Proserpine (1874)Ford Madox Brown (1821-93)

The Last of England 1859William Holman Hunt (1827-1910)The Light of the World (1853-4)

William Holman Hunt

Isabella and the Pot of Basil (1868)The Lady of Shalott (1890-1905)John Everett Millais (1829-96)

Ophelia (1851-2)Edward Burne-Jones (1833-98)The Golden Stairs (1880)

Arts and Crafts: William Morris (1834-96)

Red House, Morriss home (1862-5) designed by himArts and Crafts stained-glass windowThe Modern Pre-Raphaelite: John William Waterhouse (1849-1917)

The Lady of Shalott (1888)Theoretising Pre-Raphaelite Art: John RuskinJohn Ruskin (1819-1900) Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoodreassessment of Romanticism rejection of metaphor; also rejection of realismModern Painters pathetic fallacy; truthfulness in the representation of natureroots of later naturalismarchitecture: Gothic revival (Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau)

Aestheticism and Art Nouveau Gustav Klimt, The Kiss (1908-9)

Vrubel, Demon Seated (1890)

Glasgow, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928)

Orientalism: Anglo-Japanese Art (Japonism)

Aubrey Beardsley (1872-98)The Peacock Skirt (1893)

LiteratureGenresthe age of the novel:William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63)Charlotte Bront (1816-55)Emily Bront (1818-48)Anne Bront (1820-49)Charles Dickens (1812-70)George Eliot (1819-80)George Meredith (1828-1900)Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Victorian poetry ivory tower, escapismElizabeth Browning (1806-61)Robert Browning (1812-89)Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-92)Matthew ArnoldGerald Manley Hopkins (1844-89)

The Emergence of the Woman Writer vs. the Madwoman in the AtticWith the exception of Jane Austen no significant female writer prior to the Victorian EraMale pseudonamesAngel and monster - Madwoman in the attic (Gilbert and Gubar)Anxiety of authorshipThe Romantic concept of nature (Margaret Homans)b) StylesRomanticismRealism: truthful, accurate and objective representation of the real world (Habib, History 471) with various devices (Habib, History 471):descriptive and evocative detailsavoiding the fantastical, the imaginary and the mythologicalprinciples of probabilitycharacters (types) from all social layersprivileging the present and contemporary issues over the nostalgic representation of the pastemphasising the social over the individualcolloquial and everyday registers of the languagedirectness and simplicity of expressionNaturalism: extreme form of realism, mile Zola (Habib, History 471-2)extremely detailed methods of descriptiondeterministiccharacters: hereditary psychological componentsscientific experimentation with charactersrefusal of metaphysical or spiritual perspectivesb) StylesSymbolism: against realism and naturalism, Charles Baudelaire (1821-67) (Habib, History 489)mental states and ideal worlds, subjectivityantagonism toward urban life and modern industryanti-bourgeois dispositionforerunners: Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Edgar Allen Poe, art for arts sake parnassismCharles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine , Arthur Rimbaud, Stphane Mallarmlanguage creates reality, material reality of language, poetic form (Habib, History 490)Platonic philosophy dualistic, idealistic (Habib, History 490)refusal of the material world as the real world (Habib, History 491)suggestive, symbolic, allusive language, rejection of discursive language (Habib, History 490)music as the closest analogy to literatureArthus Symons, The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899)fragmentation and plurality search for a lost unity (totality) in art (Habib, History 491)literature as religion totalising tendencies (Habib, History 491)Aestheticism: art exists only for its own sake, or for the sake of beauty (Habib, History 491)opposed to the bourgeois world (Habib, History 491)roots: Kant, the Romantics, Pre-Raphaelites, Symbolism, decadence, Schopenhauer, Nietzscherepresentatives: Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde

Theoretising Culture:Matthew Arnolds Culture and Anarchy (1869)redefinition of culture[culture is] a study of perfection. It moves by the force, not merely or primarily of the scientific passion for pure knowledge, but also of the moral and social passion for doing good (quoted at Habib, History 524)aims of culture are those of religion (Habib, History 524)questions the bourgeois concept of reality (outwardnessinwardness) (Habib, History 524-5)examines the condition of England present: anarchycentral question: who shall inherit England? three groups: the Barbarians (aristocracy)the Philistines (middle classes)the Populace (working classes)crucial role of literature: moral development and spiritual renewal through reading literature (Leitch, Norton Anthology 804)personality and moral qualities of the critic against political enthusiasm and fanaticism, balanced, reflective, liberal individuals; perfection (Leitch, Norton Anthology 804)not much textual analysis (Leitch, Norton Anthology 804-5)careful, deliberate reformer (Leitch, Norton Anthology 805)

Theoretising Aestheticism:Walter Pater (1839-94) and his Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873)collection of essays on writers and Italian paintersinfluence: Oscar Wildeloose definition of Renaissance: an outbreak of the human spirit from the limits which the religious system of the middle ages imposed on the heart and the imagination (Leitch, Norton Anthology 834)makes a religion of art modern aestheticist rapture and impressionist criticism (Leitch, Norton Anthology 834)pleasure and self-gratificationautonomy of art (Habib, History 499)mixed reception, severe criticism (Leitch, Norton Anthology 834)concerned with death, without solace in God (Leitch, Norton Anthology 834)no concern with social or political change (Leitch, Norton Anthology 835)

Neo- or Post-Victorian Culture (1960s-)Complex cultural phenomenon sharing the features of postmodernism Nostalgia Deconstructive tendenciesIntertextuality (adaptations rewrites, film adaptations, theme parks, games)Its definition of Victorian is broader than the historical Victorian periodIncludes Jane Austen and the Modernist, eminently Virginia WoolfLiteratureFirst major work: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)Rewrites (prequel, paralelquel, sequel)Fictitious biographiesHighbrow, middle-brow, low-brow (pulp)Film special focus in heritage filmSubculture: steampunk

Works CitedArnold, Matthew. The Function of Criticism at the Present Time. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York, London: W. W. Norton, 2001: 806-25.---. Culture and Anarchy. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York, London: W. W. Norton, 2001: 825-32.Bantock, G. H. The Social and Intellectual Background. The Pelican Guide to English Literature. Vol. 7. From James to Eliot. Ed. Boris Ford. London: Penguin Books, 1983, 13-60.Blamires, Harry. A History of Literary Criticism. London: Macmillan, 1991.Habib, M. A. R. A History of Literary Criticism and Theory from Plato to the Present. London: Blackwell, 2008.Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York, London: W. W. Norton, 2001.McFarlane, James. The Mind of Modernism. Modernism A Guide to European Literature 1890-1930. Ed. Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane. London: Penguin Books, 1991: 71-94.