THE ROMANTIC AGE

1760 – 1837

William Blake

William Wordsworth

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 WHAT IS ROMANTIC?
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
1818

Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows

1831
 HISTORICAL CONTEXT.
A Ti m e O f S o c i a l A n d P o l i t i c a l S t a b i l i t y

1760 - King George III

ascended to the throne

He ruled Britain for about 50

years

Controversial figure: between

popularity and unpopularity

Officially declared insane in

1811 : his son became regent
until his father’s death - 1820
 WINDS OF CHANGE…

 1775 – 1783 American War of Independence

 1789 – 1791 The French
Revolution
Fascination and Fear

«Liberty, equality
and fraternity»
1776 American colonies
declare their
independence and Intellectual circles
George Washington Blake, Coleridge
becomes the firts and Wordsworth
President of the United
States
 1760 - 1850
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
 Coal and steam as sources of The Great Exhibition –
power 1851
 Steam-powered machines
 Mass production
 Enclosures Acts:
common lands were closed and
assigned to landowners

 People moving from the

country to the city
 Exploitation of workers >> Triumph of scientific, technological
Luddite Riots 1811-12 and industrial progress
 Critical living conditions in
cities
 BRITISH POLITICS
Domestic Affairs

• 1783 – 1801 + 1804 – Financial ability

1806 moral integrity
• William Pitt the Younger
Prime Minister Loyalist
Propaganda
• Reformism and Nationalism
Conservativism (esp. against France
after the French Peterloo
Revolution) Massacre 1819
@St Peter’s
• Repression of protests Fields
Manchester
• 1801 Act of Union
 BRITISH POLITICS
Foreign Affairs
1814-15
Failure of the
Congress of
French
1804 Vienna
Revolution
Napoleon Austria –
Bonaparte England –
Emperor of France Prussia – Russia
Many «traitors to the revolution»
executed
Violence and Terror
1805
1800 – 1815 Napoleon 1815
Napoleonic Wars defeated @ Battle of
@ Waterloo
Trafalgar
 AFTER GEORGE III
Some important facts and
achievements
 1811 – 1820 : George IV (Prince Regent > King)
 Trade Unions legalised
 Reform of the prison system
 1830 : King William IV
 Whig majority in Parliament > Reformism
 1832: first Reform Act > vote for middle-class men
 1833 : Abolition of Slavery
 ROMANTIC LITERATURE
Age
of
A reaction
Revolution
to the
Poetr s
«tyranny»
of Reason
y
Intensity
Affirmation
of
individual
subjective
Imagination
dimension
 POETRY OF CONTRAST

Innocence Wanderin Experienc

gs of the e
Youth Soul
Age
Country Solitude
City
Man
Sehnsucht Nature
Language Desire for
sthg distant Expressio
unattainable n