2 Scotia.

 Jamaica was conquered in 1655, and the Hudson’s Bay Company established itself in what became
northwestern Canada from the 1670s on. - The East India Company began establishing commercial posts in
India in 1600. - The first permanent British settlement on the African continent was made at James Island
on the Gambia River in 1661. The British slave trade: - Captain John Hawkins made the first known English
slaving voyage to Africa, during the reign of Elizabeth I. Hawkins made three such journeys over a period of
six years. He captured over 1200 Africans and sold them as goods in the Spanish colonies in the Americas.  -
To start with, British traders supplied slaves for the Spanish and Portuguese colonists in America. However,
as British settlements in the Caribbean and North America grew, often through wars with European
countries such as Holland, Spain and France, British slave traders increasingly supplied British colonies. -
The establishment of the Royal African Company in 1672 formalised the Slave Trade under a royal charter
and established the monopoly of the port of London. The ports of Bristol and Liverpool, in particular, fought
to have the charter changed and, in 1698, the monopoly was taken away. - British involvement expanded
rapidly in response to the demand for labour to cultivate sugar in Barbados and other British West Indian
islands. In the 1660s, the number of slaves taken from Africa in British ships averaged 6,700 per year. By the
1760s, Britain was the foremost European country engaged in the Slave Trade. Of the 80,000 Africans
chained and transported across to the Americas each year, 42,000 were carried by British slave ships. THE
CITY OF LONDON: - The two historical events that triggered the inexorable process of change and
redefinition of the city of London which slowly began to take on the appearance of today's capital were
undoubtedly: - The great fire of 1666, which caused the physical destruction of 90% of the English capital; -
The Glorious Revolution of 1668, which marked the end of monarchical absolutism. - While the fire dictated
the material reconstruction of the city, the Glorious Revolution necessitated a new definition of its social,
political and institutional function. - Physical change these two events changed radically the geography of
the city itself -> London was rebuilt from scratch - Symbolical change with the glorious revolution : Ending
of absolutism ◦After the Great Fire of 1666 London is in fact heading towards an unstoppable development
that will lead it to become one of the great capitals of the modern era. The population doubles as the city
becomes the driving force of the Industrial Revolution and the emerging empire. ◦Even from an
architectural and urbanistic point of view, eighteenth-century London will take on increasingly "modern"
connotations: in 1708, in fact, the cathedral of St. Paul's will be officially completed, rebuilt following the
great fire. New neighbourhoods will see the light, such as the central and rich area of Mayfair; the opening
of new bridges - Westminster Bridge will be inaugurated in 1750 - accelerating the expansion of the south
of the city. ◦Albeit in a different way, the fire and the Glorious Revolution made a decisive contribution to
the reconfiguration of the urban layout and the relationships between the different parts of what we now
call 'London'. ◦In fact, what we consider a single urban aggregate was perceived for a long time (and
certainly in the period considered here) as divided into at least two very distinct and separate entities: the
City of London and the City of Westminster. The former, which was often 5 simply referred to as the City
(with a capital 'C'), was the headquarters of the Corporation of London and the lively center of commercial
and financial activities, the latter was the prestigious seat of political authority (Court and Parliament). ◦City
and Court were joined by a third area that played an equally important role in the transformation process
of London: this area is usually designated as the Town. ◦The Town (today the West End) was a sort of
intermediate dimension between the City and the Court: although it was located outside the walls of the
former, it did not really belong to the latter either. ◦It was a marginal area with an uncertain legal status
whose function was, to use Daniel Defoe's words, to ensure a "constant communication of business"
between "the gallantry and splendor" of the Court on the one hand, and "the commerce and wealth "of the
City on the other. -> JOHN DRYDEN (1631-1700): • Restoration= The age of Dryden • He is the most
representative writer of this period: poet, translator, dramatist. • His work marks the beginning of the neo-
classical age in literature -> Idea of correction, balance, perfection -> balanced poetry= perfection • He took
Inspiration from Alexander pope and the romans • It was his influence and example that lifted the heroic
couplet (two rhyming iambic pentameters) for many years as the accepted measure of serious English
poetry.  • He was the first Poet Laureate of English history, appointed by Charles II in 1668. Deeply devoted
to the Stuart family, he lost his role in 1688, when James II fled to France. • Major poems: Astrea Redux
(1660), Annus Mirabilis (1667),  Absalom and Achitophel (1681), MacFlecknoe(1682). • He translated
Horace, Juvenal, Ovid, Lucretius, Theocritus, but his major work is undoubtedly the translation of Virgil's
complete work: The Works of Virgil (1697). • Poetical career linked to the royal family, especially with
Charles and James 2 -> Old figure of a poet who lived thanks to the patronage of the king, in this case
Charles 2 • Role to celebrate monarchy and the greatness of kings and queens through his poems -> official
poetry • Figure of Charles 2 is celebrated -> especially in Annus Mirabilis in which he is a sort of god helping
his country RESTORATION DRAMA: - The Restoration comedy is also known as Comedy of Manners. - John
Dryden: Marriage a- la-Mode (1671), All for Love (1677), Don Sebastian (1689), Amphitryon (1690) - William
Wycherley: The Country Wife (1675) - George Etherege, The Man of Mode (1676) - William Congreve, The
Way of the World (1700) - These comedies expressed a reaction against Puritanism and the sexual
repression it had attempted to enforce. - Fashionable intrigues, sex, marriage and adultery were treated
with cynicism, with worldly wit and a sense of the comedy of life. - The characters in the plays no doubt
owed much to the courtiers, the wits, and the men about town as well as to ladies of fashion, citizens,
wives and country girls - Desired by Charles 2 used to the French and Italian way of life - Sentimental
comedy, a comedy that really represented an answer to the sexual repression imposed by the puritans -
Idea of going to the theatre to enjoy yourself and enjoy life The rise of literary criticism: ◦The re-opening of
the theatre and the need to select the plays encouraged the rise of Literary Criticism. 6 ◦A sudden change of
taste seemed to occur around 1660. The change had been long prepared, however, by a trend in European
culture, especially in seventeenth-century France: the desire for an elegant simplicity. Reacting against the
difficulty and occasional extravagance of late Renaissance literature, writers and critics called for a new
formal restraint, clarity, regularity, and good sense. ◦Charles and his followers brought back from exile an
admiration of French literature as well as French fashions, and the aesthetical ideals of such writers as
Pierre Corneille, Renè Rapin, and Nicolas Boileau came into vogue. II. THE AUGUSTAN AGE (1702-1745): the
enlightenment period - The term “Augustan” derived from the name of the Roman emperor Augustus
Caesar, whose reign was considered the height of Roman history and culture. - During the so-called
‘Augustan Age’, England was characterised by a stable government, a growing empire, prosperity and the
flourishing of the arts. - Some critics prefer to limit the English Augustan Age to the period covered by the
reign of Queen Anne (1702–14), but usually the end of the Augustan period is extended to the death of
Alexander Pope (1744) and/or of Jonathan Swift (1745). Succession of the English crown: Queen Anne
(1702-1714) George I (1714-1727) George II (127-1770) - In 1714, George, Elector of Hanover, became king
in accordance with the Act of Settlement, 1701. The act stipulated that, after the death of the childless
Queen Anne (the last legitimate Stuart monarch) the British monarchy should be Protestant and
Hanoverian. -> Queen Anne (1665-1714) Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, based much of her
administration on the advice of her ministers.   Queen Anne reigned from 1702 until 1714. She succeeded
her brother in- law, William III, and her sister Mary. 1707: The Act of Union became official during Queen
Anne’s reign. It abolished the Scottish Parliament and gave the Scots a proportion of seats at Westminster.
She stepped back -> she used her power less and less -> power of monarchy diminished Cohabitation and
relationship between England and Scotland was very tense Important role of the prime minister -> it equals
the role of the king Robert Walpol = first prime minister of England Growth of the state + idea of an
emerging public sphere -> King George I (1714-1727) In 1714, George, Elector of Hanover, and cousin of
Queen Anne, became king in accordance with the Act of Settlement, 1701. The act stipulated that, after the
death of the childless Queen Anne (the last legitimate Stuart monarch) the British monarchy should be
Protestant and Hanoverian. The Act imposed a series of statutory limitations on the monarch, who had to
be a conforming Anglican; it stipulated that parliamentary consent was necessary for foreign wars; and it
freed the judiciary from royal interference. The Act of Settlement was perhaps the most notable of the
constitutional victories achieved over the crown during William's reign. During George I’s reign: 1. the
powers of the monarchy diminished; 2. Ministers met without the King in the cabinet led by the Prime
Minister; 7 THE RISE OF THE NOVEL: •shift from a literary manuscript culture to a literary print culture.
•during the restoration, many literary texts circulated in manuscript or handwritten form. (typical of the
patronage system) •by the eighteenth century, autorship became synonymous with publication, the
product of mechanical processes, rather than of handwriting. eighteenth-century ‘novels’ such as we now
read and study represent part of the ‘prehistory’ of novelistic development; they constitute the early and
truly formative phase of the novel as a genre of prose fiction that has since then come to dominate readers’
sense of what literary narrative should be. (j. richetti, introduction, in the cambridge companion to the
eighteenth- century novel, 1996) the novels of the beginning of the eighteenth century are set in the terra
incognita of colonial locations, the new world that britain was discovering; the protagonists are explorers
like robinson crusoe and lemuel gulliver. •emerging of a large urban burgeoisie and an increasing urban
population of servants and other workers who were at least slightly literate •great advance in the
technology of printing •the revolution of reading and birth of modern publishing industry •publication of
novels in newspapers and journals of the time. •increased number of readers, especially female readers ->
The circulating libraries: the printed books were very expensive, so new spaces were born, the so-called
circulating libraries , In which people could hire books and take them home -> people of the middle class
used to go there, only well-of people managed to buy books (aristocrats and rich bourgeoise) Reading
women: - improvements in women’s education and literacy - New role of the woman within the middle-
class family - Unprecedented number of reading women - Women as a new, expanding reading public and
potential market - Books and periodicals for women The philosophical domain: •the great english
empiricists of the seventeenth century had a strong belief in the capacity of the individual: •thomas hobbes
(1588-1679) based his political and ethical ideas (leviathan, 1651) on the constitutional selfishness of the
individual •john locke (1632-1704) based his political thought (two treatises of government, 1690) on the
predominance of individual rights. •ian watt: «that these thinkers should have been the political and
psychological vanguard of nascent individualism, as well as the pioneers of its theory of knowledge,
suggests how closely linked their reorientations were both in themselves and in relation to the innovations
of the novel». NOVEL VS ROMANCE: • the encounter-clash between romance and novel manifests itself as
a tension between modern and pre-modern. the novel is the modern narrative form by definition and par
excellence: it has characteristics of historicity, credibility, modernity, realism. • the term romance indicates
pre-modern narrative forms, that is, a constellation of characteristics traditionally typical of these forms
that survive in modern works: a tendency towards symbolism and the improbable, preference for remote
settings in time and space. • romance and novel are two abstract and ideal categories that interpenetrate
and overlap in the reality of writing. 10 • the novel tends to describe characters with a complex psychology
placed in a contemporary social context and in a network of interpersonal relationships that are described
in detail. the structure of the plot is linear, based on plausible events, and on recognizable cause-effect
links. • romance characters tend to have stereotypical and symbolic features, and tend to act on ideal
motivations. • the setting can be exotic and indulge in the picturesque. • narrative action can include
improbable events and follow mysterious motivations. attention focuses on the development of the
narrative action and its ideal/allegorical meaning rather than on the description of social reality or
interpersonal relationships. • the eighteenth-century novel distances itself from those forms of writing
dominated by idealized, allegorical characters engaged in fantastic and surprising adventures. • the writer
aims at a realistic representation of the individual in contemporary society. • in terms of social class, the
novel tends to focus on the role of the middle class, its problems and ideals. • medieval precedents: the
medieval romance, represented by books (both in prose narrative) such as le morte darthur (1485) by
thomas malory, or the spanish chivalry romance amadis de gaul (1508).  —> Fathers of the novel: Daniel
Defoe (1660-1731) Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) Henry fielding (1707-1754) •they are the first great
writers of english literature who do not draw inspiration for their plots from mythology, history, epic, or
previous literature. •credibility and probability are essential qualities of these novels •the reality of their
time offers these new authors an inexhaustible repertoire of human experience in its various forms. •focus
on the experience of the individual as subject matter •the characters struggle for survival or social success.
•the new characters in the novels are given common names and surnames to emphasize contact with
reality. •great attention is also given to the setting: the place and time of the action always have a very
specific connotation. -> DANIEL DEFOE (1660-1731): 1685–92: becomes a prosperous businessman dealing
in hosiery ,tobacco, wine, and other goods. 1697–1701: defoe acts as an agent for william iii in england and
scotland. 1692 defoe declared bankruptcy for £17,000 and was imprisoned for debt. 1704–13 defoe acts as
secret agent and political journalist for harley and other ministers, travelling widely in england and
scotland, promoting the union of the two countries. Major works: •robinson crusoe (1719) •captain
singleton (1720) •moll flanders (1722) • colonel jack (1722) •roxana (1724) Robinson Crusoe (1719): •
regarded as the first novel in English • a fictional autobiography narrated in first person • i. watt: “robinson
crusoe is certainly the first novel in the sense that it is the first fictional narrative in which an ordinary
person’s daily activities are the centre of continuous literary attention.” 11 • the novel represents the
embodiment of economic individualism (homo economicus): “with money in the pocket one is at home
everywhere” (moll flanders). • defoe: “crusoe is a strict utilitarian” • Idea of the self made man • the
individual himself becomes responsible in order to determine his political, economic, social and religious
role. • emotional issues and personal relationships play a secondary role in robinson, except when they are
linked to economic matters. • coleridge on r. crusoe: “he is the universal representative , the person, for
whom every reader could substitute himself… nothing is done, thought, suffered, or desired, but what
every man can imagine himself doing, thinking, feeling, or wishing for”. Plot Summary :Crusoe (the family
name corrupted from the German name "Kreutznaer") set sail from Kingston upon Hull on a sea voyage in
August 1651, against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to pursue a career in law. After a
tumultuous journey where his ship is wrecked in a storm, his desire for the sea remains so strong that he
sets out to sea again. This journey, too, ends in disaster, as the ship is taken over by Salé pirates (the Salé
Rovers) and Crusoe is enslaved by a Moor. Two years later, he escapes in a boat with a boy named Xury; a
captain of a Portuguese ship off the west coast of Africa rescues him. The ship is en route to Brazil. Crusoe
sells Xury to the captain. With the captain's help, Crusoe procures a plantation. Years later, Crusoe joins an
expedition to bring slaves from Africa, but he is shipwrecked in a storm about forty miles out to sea on an
island near the Venezuelan coast (which he calls the Island of Despair) near the mouth of the Orinoco river
on 30 September 1659.[1](Chapter 23) He observes the latitude as 9 degrees and 22 minutes north. He
sees penguins and seals on his island. As for his arrival there, only he and three animals, the captain's dog
and two cats, survive the shipwreck. Overcoming his despair, he fetches arms, tools and other supplies
from the ship before it breaks apart and sinks. He builds a fenced-in habitat near a cave which he
excavates. By making marks in a wooden cross, he creates a calendar. By using tools salvaged from the ship,
and some which he makes himself, he hunts, grows barley and rice, dries grapes to make raisins, learns to
make pottery and raises goats. He also adopts a small parrot. He reads the Bible and becomes religious,
thanking God for his fate in which nothing is missing but human society. More years pass and Crusoe
discovers native cannibals, who occasionally visit the island to kill and eat prisoners. At first he plans to kill
them for committing an abomination but later realizes he has no right to do so, as the cannibals do not
knowingly commit a crime. He dreams of obtaining one or two servants by freeing some prisoners; when a
prisoner escapes, Crusoe helps him, naming his new companion "Friday" after the day of the week he
appeared. Crusoe then teaches him English and converts him to Christianity. After more natives arrive to
partake in a cannibal feast, Crusoe and Friday kill most of the natives and save two prisoners. One is
Friday's father and the other is a Spaniard, who informs Crusoe about other Spaniards shipwrecked on the
mainland. A plan is devised wherein the Spaniard would return to the mainland with Friday's father and
bring back the others, build a ship, and sail to a Spanish port. Before the Spaniards return, an English ship
appears; mutineers have commandeered the vessel and intend to maroon their captain on the island.
Crusoe and the ship's captain strike a deal in which Crusoe helps the captain and the loyal sailors retake the
ship. With their ringleader executed by the captain, the mutineers take up Crusoe's offer to be marooned
on the island rather than being returned to England as prisoners to be hanged. Before embarking for
England, Crusoe shows the mutineers how he survived on the island and states that there will be more men
coming. Crusoe leaves the island 19 December 1686 and arrives in England on 11 June 1687. He learns that
his family believed him dead; as a result, he was left nothing in his father's will. Crusoe departs for Lisbon to
reclaim the profits of his estate in Brazil, which has granted him much wealth. In conclusion, he transports
his wealth overland to England from Portugal to avoid traveling by sea. Friday accompanies him and, en
route, they endure one last adventure together as they fight off famished wolves while crossing
the Pyrenees. -> SAMUEL RICHARDSON (1689-1761): •he started his career as a printer and publisher
•during the 1730s his press became known as one of the three best in london •in 1739, richardson was
asked by his friends charles rivington and john osborn to write "a little volume of letters, in a common style,
on such subjects as might be of use to those 12 •the adventures of joseph andrews (1742) •the life of and
death of jonathan wild the great (1743) •tom jones (1749) -> definite masterpiece, considered one of the
greatest novel of the English language •amelia (1751) Comic epic novel: - fielding is the inventor of the so-
called «comic epic novel» (a comic variant of epic) - Complex characters + presence of different social
classes - the plots of his novels are characterized, compared for example to defoe, by a greater structural
complexity and attention to narrative coherence. - while not dwelling on their inner life, fielding presents a
wide range of characters belonging to different social classes, thus offering a somewhat varied image of the
eighteenth century english society. Tom Jones (1749): •set in london: provides a vast and multifaceted
representation of the vibrant life of the metropolis •a bildungsroman= Romanzo di formazione (from his
childhood until his 18 years) •a new version of the picaresque novel •the novel is written in a mock-epic
style in which tom’s adventures are paralleled with those of the heroes of classical mythology: whole
chapters are given up to apparently irrelevant digressions, and the story is frequently underscored with a
spicy humour •centrality of the plot -> priority of plot over character •i. watt: «the fact that fielding’s
characters do not have a convincing inner life means that their possibilities of psychological development
are very limited.» •in tom jones for the first time we find a third person narration. fielding's narrator is an
omniscient one: knows everything, digresses, comments wittily, and describes the actions of his characters.
•fielding's influence can be seen on a number of later writers, most notably the great 19th- century
novelists charles dickens and william makepeace thackeray. -> LAURENCE STERNE (1712-1768): - clergyman
and novelist -> First he was a priest, then a vicar - Political activist -> supporter of Walpol, also by writing
important political articles - popular during his lifetime, sterne became particularly celebrated in the 20th
century, when modernist and postmodernist writers and critics rediscovered his innovative work, both
from a textual and narrative point of view -> he was very innovative - the life and opinions of tristam
shandy (1759-1767) - a sentimental journey through france and italy (1768) -> autobiographical text he left
unfinished, he tells us his journey to France in 1672 , he embarked on his journey in order to cure his
tuberculosis -> it opened the period of the sentimental novel The Grand Tour: Typical activity of the time
that was the grand tour (intellectual journey, men visited the places they studied about, Italy was the core
of this journey, especially rome) inspiration from the travel literature of the time Idea of a young gentleman
travelling through Europe in order to complete his education The life and opinions of Tristam Shandy (1759-
1767): - the most ‘literary’ novel of the 18th century - it became a popular sensation - tristram shandy was
characterised by learned jokes and parodies of other books. these were combined with dirty jokes,
sentimental set pieces and elements of extraordinary narrative experiment. - tristram shandy used a great
deal of autobiographical material, and encouraged readers to identify the author with his fictional narrator.
15 - It is interesting because the form itself is innovative -> pages full of graphic experiments, blank pages -
First experiment of a modernist text -> it moves in time, we don’t have a consequential narration of the
story but it is full of flashback and flash forwards - the narration in the novel bends backwards and forwards
in time, and uses a series of witty visual devices, to tell the story of the eccentric shandy family. - it was
composed and published in nine slim volumes over the course of seven years, it was therefore able to
respond to its own reception -> it was a serialised text, Sterne payed for it (on his own expense)+ he had
the possibility to see how the readers reacted to the coming out to his volumes -> JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-
1745): - Anglo-Irish Most relevant prose satirist in the English language - During the reign of queen Anne he
was one of the central figures in the literary and political life in London - Educated at trinity college in
Dublin - Between 1689 and 1699 he worked as a private secretary to Sir William Temple, a retired diplomat
-> he knew very well the political world of the time - Through temple he learned much about the vice,
hypocrisy, intrigues, deception and corruption of the political world. - He had a critical and satirical eye ->
he contributed writing pages for the taller and the spectator - Then he became an anglican priest Major
works: The battle of the books (1697) A tale of a tub (1704) -> satirises the religious faces of the time, the
anglicans and the catholics represented by being particular supertitious , also the dissenters represented by
being fanatical A Modest Proposal (1729) Gulliver’s Travels (1726) Travels into several remote nations of
the world by Samuel Gulliver (1726): - published anonymously - divided in 4 books - The anonymity
of Gulliver’s Travels allowed it to be a mock-book. -> It parodied examples of voyage literature  that were
popular in the period - These accounts were ‘true’ stories of travels to remote areas of the globe. A New
Voyage Round the World (1697) by William Dampier was particularly influential. - Unreliable first person
narrator - It is the parody of a travel story of Samuel gulliver, a ship’s surgeon, who voyages in different
parts of the world -> Different journeys allowed Gulliver to make comparisons with the English
contemporary society - A mix of Utopian fiction and the novel - a satire of man’s vanities and irrationality, It
is a critique of society and its absurdities describing imaginary worlds in which the defects of the real world
are exaggerated -> Man = selfish, corrupted, ignorant, hungry for power, no virtues only vices - Harsh
representation of the society of the time - Dichotomy of Rationality and animality - Use of scientific
language - Irony and incredible sarcasm - text that could be read by children and adult -> different layers of
interpretation -> WOMEN NOVELISTS: Many of the leading writers of the period were women: Aphra behn
(1640?-1689) 16 Delarivière Manley (1663 -1724) Eliza Haywood (1693-1756) Sarah fielding (1710-1768) ->
CHARLOTTE LENNOX (1730-1804): - Novelist and critic admired by authors like richardson and fielding -
important shakespearean critic: Shakespeare Illustrated (1753-54) -> Analysis of Shakespeare’s sources. Her
text was an aid to Johnson’s Edition…who eclipsed the importance of the female critics… - She was one of
the first who attempted to write a critical essay influencing the emergence of Shakespeare’s fame through
the page…and not through the stage… - She tried to locate Shakespeare’s Plays in their historical context.
Most relevant novels: The Life of Harriot Stuart (1750) The Female Quixote (1752) Henrietta (1758) The
female Quixote or the adventures of Arabella (1752): - A female version of Cervantes’s don Quixote - The
young daughter of a marquis, raised in an isolated castel, Arabella is depicted as a female version of
Cervantes’ don Quixote, and spends her life in the obsessive and voracious reading of seventeenth-century
French romances, believing them to be historically accurate. - Like don Quixote arabella is incapable of
distinguishing real life from the imagination - Her mad reading is represented as an instrument of virtue
and strength that helps her to subvert the submitted role to which women were relegated in society. ->
Subversive representation of her reading - She is commanding over the men of her life, she is bossy, has a
prominent and subversive role in her life, she submits everyone in her power - End: an old and wise man
says to her that she has lived inside her imagination and not in real life, imaginary word that does not
correspond to reality -> she goes back to the submitted role of women in society - It is a way for a female
writer to a find a space in the world of reading -> find a better role where women have a role and they can
do what they want -> LAURENCE STERNE (1712-1768): - clergyman and novelist -> First he was a priest,
then a vicar - Political activist -> supporter of Walpol, also by writing important political articles - popular
during his lifetime, sterne became particularly celebrated in the 20th century, when modernist and
postmodernist writers and critics rediscovered his innovative work, both from a textual and narrative point
of view -> he was very innovative - the life and opinions of tristam shandy (1759-1767) - a sentimental
journey through france and italy (1768) -> autobiographical text he left unfinished, he tells us his journey to
France in 1672 , he embarked on his journey in order to cure his tuberculosis -> it opened the period of the
sentimental novel The Grand Tour: Typical activity of the time that was the grand tour (intellectual journey,
men visited the places they studied about, Italy was the core of this journey, especially rome) inspiration
from the travel literature of the time Idea of a young gentleman travelling through Europe in order to
complete his education The life and opinions of Tristam Shandy (1759-1767): - the most ‘literary’ novel of
the 18th century - it became a popular sensation 17 • One of the most significant achievements of the
original bluestocking hostesses was to encourage, by example and through patronage, women who might
not have considered publishing their work to enter the public literary sphere. • The bluestocking circle may
be compared to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French salons, from which it drew significant
inspiration. However, the British bluestockings were distinct from their French counterparts in insisting
upon sexual and moral virtue and also in offering an arena that was parallel to, but separate from, the royal
court • Bluestocking assemblies were socially mixed, providing the opportunity for a broad range of
politicians, artists, musicians, actors, writers, and thinkers to enjoy intellectual exchange. • Originally used
to identify a specific and intimate circle of friends (who continued to meet into the 1790s), by the late
eighteenth century the term ‘bluestocking’ had achieved a wider currency, evoking independent women
bound together by a common spirit and inspired by the example of others to create their own literary and
social circles, both in London and the provinces. • At a time when women had little access and no right to
education, let alone legal or economic equality with men, the bluestockings achieved remarkable cultural
visibility and even celebrity for the intellectual woman. To sum up… - To allow women to take part where
they could discuss literature and philosophical topics, to help women to produce literature - Attract the
leading minds of the time, inviting both women and men in order to discuss intellectual topics -> create
something for once open to women - Aim: to encourage women to publish theirs stuff + to share ideas -
Idea of female sisterhood - Informal circle where you were not bound to wear white stocking but men were
allowed to wear blue stocking -> FRANCES BURNEY (1752-1840): • Evelina: or, the history of a young lady’s
entrance into the world (published anonymously in 1778) -> published anonymously, story of a young
woman entering society • Cecilia: or, memoirs of an heiress (1782) • Camilla. A picture of youth (1796) •
The wanderer: Or, female difficulties (1814) • Burney’s early success with Evelina was the beginning of a
long writing career. she published three more novels, eight plays and multiple volumes of journals and
letters. • Burney’s writing is characterised by sharply delineated characters, a nuanced understanding of
the dynamics of social class and complex plots that wove together many characters. • Burney’s work was
influenced by earlier novelists such as richardson and foreshadowed later 19th-century
writers including william thackeray and charles dickens, she Influenced also Jane Austen • She was part of
the bluestocking circle • She was educated at home + thanks to her reading -> superficial education ma
thanks to the reading of the books present in her father’s library • She was an incredible observer of society
+ social commentator -> attentive eye • She was the initiator of the Novel of manners: NOVEL OF
MANNERS: - A work of fiction that re-creates a social world, conveying with detailed observation the
customs, values, and mores of a specific society. - The conventions of the society dominate the story, and
characters are differentiated by the degree to which they measure up to the ideal of behaviour or fall
below it. The initiator of the genre was the English writer Frances Burney. - The range of a novel of manners
may be limited, as in the novels of Jane Austen, which deal with the domestic affairs of English country
gentry families of the 19th century and 20 ignore larger social and political determinations. Notable writers
of the novel of manners from the end of the 19th century into the 20th include Henry James, Evelyn
Waugh, Edith Wharton THE GOTHIC NOVEL: • It presents both some features of the novel and some
features of romance • The novel -> tends to describe the complex psychology of the characters placed in a
contemporary social context and in a network of relationships that are described in detail. The structure of
the plot is linear, based on plausible events, and on recognizable cause- effect links. • The romance ->The
characters of romance tend to have stylized and symbolic features, and act on the basis of ideal
motivations. The setting can be exotic and indulge in the picturesque. Narrative action may include events
unlikely or improbable and follows mysterious motivations. The focus is on the plot and its ideal/allegorical 
significance rather than on the description of social reality or interpersonal relationships • The gothic novel
has long occupied a secondary role in literary stories; considered without particular merits, it was
generically linked to the 'black novel' label. •  Tzvetan Todorov (in his famous essay The fantastic, 1970)
provided an influential description of the Gothic novel as one of the main genres of fantastic literature. •
Todorov stressed the central role of the Gothic novel between the eighteenth and the nineteenth century
as a mirror of the anxieties and fears of the rising bourgeoise -> first critic to express the essential role of
the gothic novel as the sub-genres that symbolises the anxieties of the bourgeoisie •
Pseudomedieval fiction that had a predominant atmosphere of mystery and terror. Its highest point was
reached in the 1790s, but it underwent frequent revivals in subsequent centuries. • It was called ‘gothic’
because its imaginative drive was drawn from medieval buildings and ruins. • Gothic novels commonly used
settings such as castles or monasteries provided with dark passages, hidden panels and trapdoors.  • The
gothic novel differs from the realistic novel for its use of the marvelous and the supernatural, both having a
terrifying function,  as means to put into question the stability of a world dominated by rational thought. •
We can interpret this new genre as 1)a fantastic reaction to the social tensions caused by the first industrial
revolution and the development of a capitalistic economy; 2)an aesthetic expression of the ideological and
emotional turmoil caused in England by the French Revolution; 3)a problematic reassessment  of the
relationship between modernity and its past (rational thought vs traditional beliefs). ->Through the use of
the supernatural, magic, and the diabolic, the gothic novel instills doubts on the ideological premises on
which the realistic novel is based. Revival of the gothic and medieval time also in literature: - National pride
demanded new patriotic myths to underwrite Britain’s growing power and prominence around the globe.
One of the first intellectual by-products of this new cultural self-consciousness was a renewed interest in
‘ancient’ British history and the Goths in particular. - It was a paradoxical process indeed: via the enabling
myth of the ancient Goths, the architectural styles of the Middle Ages –  actually a legacy of Britain’s
Catholic and feudal 21 past – came to symbolise a new self-consciously Protestant conception of evolving
British political freedom. - Detached – at least in theory – from any lingering ecclesiastical meanings, Gothic
became to signify “a repertoire of formal elements – pinnacles, tracery, pointed arches – that could be
endlessly recontextualised, never wholly losing their evocative reference to the past, but capable of
semantic adventure’ and ‘of assuming a new range of identities for the present”. In fiction: • The sense of
unresolved mystery that was one aspect of Gothic fiction fitted the way many contemporaries "read" the
Revolution. •  The feeling the reader has in Gothic fiction is of never knowing exactly where he/she stands,
where he/she is going, or what is happening. • The Gothic describes a situation in which no one can
completely understand or fathom anyone else’s motives or actions. • to build in Gothic was not only a way
‘to say something about being British’, but a powerful means of asserting a deeper (if sometimes wishful)
link between past and present. -> HORACE WALPOLE (1717-1791): the patron of medieval revival 1739:
embarkes on a Grand Tour of France and Italy (with Thomas Gray) 1749: he begins the magnificent
refurbishment of his house 1760: Anecdotes of Painting in England, a history of English art. 1764: first
edition of The Castle of Otranto (anonymous) 1765: second edition of The Castle of Otranto 1768, The
Mysterious Mother (a tragedy in 5 acts) - Nobleman - son of the prime minister Walpol, typical example of
the British establishment - he embarked on his grand tour with the poet Thomas Grey (pre-romantic
period) -> the idea was to go to Italy - He devoted most of his life to the creation of a pseudo gothic place
called Strawberry Hill House, near London - Obsession for the medieval time The castle of Otranto (1764): -
The gothic novel is characterised by a specific obsession for the past and in particular medieval past. It was
indeed, from the Renaissance on, that the term “gothic” came to be used (as a derogatory term) to
describe the art and architecture of Medieval times. Eighteenth-century gothic novels are usually set in
ruined castles, cathedrals, and in dark and gloomy cellars. - The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole
(1719-1797), is canonically considered as the first gothic novel, because of its mixture of medieval and
exotic settings, and supernatural and sensational features. - The central theme of Walpole’s book is
Manfred’s usurpation of the throne. Manfred’s blind desire for power is the main drive of the plot; it
motivates the mysterious and supernatural events taking place at the castle. - First published anonymously
-> First supposed to be presented to the readers as a translation from the original Italian ->idea of the
translation of an already existed manuscript, translated from Italian - Only in the second edition he
presented himself as the actual author of the text-> the preface had the aim of giving to the text a sort of
literal dignity - Dichotomy about good and evil -> medieval representation of what is good and what is bad -
Stereotypical characters -> the villain who is trying to seduce a young and innocent heroine -> however the
characters are taken from daily life - He calls Shakespeare into action -> he was his leading inspiration 22 •
Burke saw the French revolution as the violent downfall of a legitimate government. He argued that
civilizations and governments are the result of a social and political agreement that should not be
challenged unless we want anarchy to take place. - Burke was scared by the idea of violence - Idea of
inheritance and inherited privilege of aristocracy -> many people in Europe were sick of these privileges ->
people should be equal and the ancient regime should be abolished - Idea of a typical patriarchal society is
present -> women were supposed to stay home and be defended by their fathers and husband - Marie
Antoinette =embodiment of the ancient regime, of an inherited monarchy and privilege, embodiment of a
specific idea of femininity, embodiment of obedience and of the subordination of the heart Extracts: • «You
will observe that from Magna Charta to the Declaration of Right it has been the uniform policy of our
constitution to claim and assert our liberties as an entailed inheritance derived to us from our forefathers,
and to be transmitted to our posterity — as an estate specially belonging to the people of this kingdom,
without any reference whatever to any other more general or prior right. By this means our constitution
preserves a unity in so great a diversity of its parts. We have an inheritable crown, an inheritable peerage,
and a House of Commons and a people inheriting privileges, franchises, and liberties from a long line of
ancestors. • […] By a constitutional policy, working after the pattern of nature, we receive, we hold, we
transmit our government and our privileges in the same manner in which we enjoy and transmit our
property and our lives. The institutions of policy, the goods of fortune, the gifts of providence are handed
down to us, and from us, in the same course and order. Our political system is placed in a just
correspondence and symmetry with the order of the world and with the mode of existence decreed to a
permanent body composed of transitory parts, wherein, by the disposition of a stupendous wisdom,
moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never
old or middle- aged or young, but, in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied
tenor of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression. Thus, by preserving the method of nature in the
conduct of the state, in what we improve we are never wholly new; in what we retain we are never wholly
obsolete». • «It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then the dauphiness, at
Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision.
I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in, -
in glittering like the morning star, full of life, and splendor, and joy. Oh! What a revolution! and what an
heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall! […] little did I dream that I
should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of
honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge
even a look that threatened her with insult. – But the age of chivalry is gone. – That of sophisters,
oeconomists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever. Never, never
more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified
obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted
freedom.»  Karl Marx: The Capital (1867) - idea of the bourgeois that has become vulgar - His idea on
Edmund burke «The sycophant – who in the pay of the English oligarchy played the romantic laudator
temporis acti against the French Revolution just as, in the pay of the North American colonies at the
beginning of the American troubles, he had played the liberal against the English oligarchy, was an out-and-
out vulgar bourgeois» 25 -> MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT: A vindication of the rights of Man (1790) • She
worked for Joseph Johnson , a very radical thinker -> it was he who convinced • Mary Wollstonecraft’s A
Vindication of the Rights of Man was the first response (published by the radical bookseller and publisher
Joseph Johnson) that opened the pamphlet war originated by Burke’s Reflections. • Providing a close
reading of Burke’s text, she moved from his arguments about the hereditary principle, the constitution and
the law attacking the patriarchal ideal present in his message. • Wollstonecraft’s attack on hierarchy and
rank are at the core of the Vindication, she berates Burke for his contempt for the people, the masses, and
accuses him of supporting the elite, the aristocracy, exemplified by his famous defense of the queen Marie
Antoinette. • As Janet Todd underlines "the vision of society revealed [in] A Vindication of the Rights of
Men was one of talents, where entrepreneurial, unprivileged children could compete on equal terms with
the now wrongly privileged.” • Wollstonecraft emphasizes the importance of hard work, parsimony, and
morality, values she opposed to the "vices of the rich", like "insincerity" and the "want of natural
affections". • In the Rights of Men, Wollstonecraft objects in particular against Burke's rhetoric. • She
redefines the concepts of sublime and beautiful, aesthetic categories he had theorised in his essay Enquiry
into the Sublime and Beautiful (1757). While Burke associates the beautiful with an idea of frailty and
femininity, and the sublime with fortitude and masculinity, Wollstonecraft calls into question Burke's
gendered definitions; convinced that they are damaging. • «You may have convinced [women] that
littleness and weakness are the very essence of beauty; and that the Supreme Being, in giving women
beauty in the most supereminent degree, seemed to command them, by the powerful voice of Nature, not
to cultivate the moral virtues that might chance to excite respect, and interfere with the pleasing
sensations they were created to inspire. Thus confining truth, fortitude, and humanity, within the rigid pale
of manly morals, they might justly argue, that to be loved, woman's high end and great distinction! they
should 'learn to lisp, to totter in their walk, and nick-name God's creatures.' Never, they might repeat after
you, was any man, much less a woman, rendered amiable by the force of those exalted qualities, fortitude,
justice, wisdom, and truth; and thus forewarned of the sacrifice they must make to those austere,
unnatural virtues, they would be authorised to turn all their attention to their persons, systematically
neglecting morals to secure beauty». • According to Wollstonecraft Burke describes womanly virtue as
weakness, thus leaving women no relevant roles in the public sphere and relegating them to superficial and
frivolous roles. Two different figures of woman: 1. Marie Antoinette = embodiment of monarchy and
privileges 2. Women of the middle class in Paris who attached the Bastille -> a very important contribution
in the French Revolution -> THOMAS PAINE: “The rights of man” (part 1:1791, part 2: 1792): - he was a true
believer of the French Revolution - Started outlining the necessity of a wider education to all the
population, that, especially fro Wollstonecraft, should be equal - The political activist and philosopher
Thomas Paine (1737-1809), emigrated to America in 1774, his ground-breaking essay Common
Sense (1776) advocating American independence proved a major intellectual stimulus to the colonies’
secession from Britain. Paine lived in France in the 1790s, and was a strong supporter of the French
Revolution. 26 - The Rights of Man began as a defense of the French Revolution and evolved into an
analysis of the basic reasons for the general discontent in European society of the time - In The Rights of
Man Paine defended the values of the Revolution –  ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité’ – and explored the idea
that government based on true justice should support not only mankind's natural rights (life, liberty, free
speech, freedom of conscience) but also its civil rights (relating to security and protection). - Paine
underlined the fact that only a fraction of the people who paid taxes were entitled to vote. Using detailed
analysis, Paine demonstrated how a tax system, including a form of income tax, could provide social
welfare in support of those civil rights. - Decades ahead of his time, he outlined a plan covering widespread
education, child benefit, pensions for the elderly, poor relief and much more. The book sold tens of
thousands of copies and became one of the most widely read books in the Western world at the time ->
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT: • Writer and advocate of women’s rights, Mary Wollstonecraft came from a
merchant’s family. Her father used to abuse his wife and seven children after heavy drinking sessions.
Mary, who often intervened to protect her mother, later told her husband William Godwin, how much she
had despised him. • Mary went only for a few years to a day school in Beverley, Yorkshire, where she
learned to read and write. All the rest of her impressive learning, including several foreign languages, was
self-acquired, often with great difficulty. The passionate indignation with which Wollstonecraft later
inveighed against the disparity between men and women’s educational opportunities was anger acquired
at first hand. • By the end of the 1770s the Wollstonecraft family was having many economic problems.
Teaching, governessing, needlework, serving as a lady’s companion: these were among the few jobs open
to genteel women of small means, and by the late 1780s Mary Wollstonecraft had done them all. • Literary
work was also open to women, and in 1786, while running a girls’ school in north London, Mary decided to
try her hand. She published her first book, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters which earned her 10
pounds.   • In Wollstonecraft’s case the turn towards professional writing was facilitated by a new circle of
acquaintances: the rational dissenters living around Newington Green in London, where Mary and her
sisters opened their school for girls in 1784. Since most rational dissenters supported women’s equality, in
their company Wollstonecraft found an environment useful to the unfolding of her own intellectual talents.
• It was Joseph Johnson, the official publisher of rational dissent – a large minded man with an appreciation
of ability regardless of sex – who agreed to publish her Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, and after
she lost her last teaching post as governess, employed her to write for his new literary review, The
Analytical Review.  • Joseph Johnson encouraged her to take up her pen in defense of her radical political
ideas. • In 1789 the Bastille fell, and in 1790 Edmund Burke published his famous attack on The French
Revolution (Reflections on the Revolution in France). Johnson encouraged her to write a refutation, which
she did, publishing in 1791 A Vindication of the Rights of Man, an immediate success. • In 1792 she
published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, her famous manifesto for female equality, that became an
immediate bestseller. According to William Godwin, Wollstonecraft, was at that time the most famous
woman in Europe. • Wollstonecraft lived in France from 1793 to 1795, and the direct  experience of
revolution convinced her that, to be truly liberating, political reform needed to be more gradual, but also
more far-reaching, than anything so far achieved by the sanguinary struggles of French factionalism. 27
Periodization: - ´The ‘Romantics’ would not have used the term themselves: the label was applied
retrospectively, from around the middle of the 19th century. - ´Traditionally, the beginning of English
Romanticism dates back to the year 1798, date of the first publication of the Lyrical Ballads, by William
Worsdwoth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge and ends with the death of the writer Walter Scott (1832). -
´Critics do not agree on the exact periodization of the Romantic period and some of them tend to anticipate
the beginning of it by about twenty years, including a large part of what in the past was called Pre-
Romanticism. - ´Stuart Curran: «In the thirty-five years between 1789, the inception of the French
Revolution, and 1824, when Byron died, a generation that may be said to encompass British Romanticism,
some five thousand books of original verse were published in Britain». Characteristics of romanticism: •
During the Romantic period major transitions took place in society, as dissatisfied intellectuals and artists
challenged the Establishment. • In England, the Romantic poets were at the very heart of this movement.
They were inspired by a desire for liberty, and they denounced the oppression of the poor. • There was a
stress on the importance of the individual; a strong belief that people should follow their ideals rather than
imposed precepts. • ´The Romantics rejected the principles of order, harmony, rationality, balance, that
characterised Classicism and late 18th century Neoclassicism, stressing the importance of expressing
authentic personal feelings. • They felt a real sense of responsibility to their fellow men: they felt it was
their duty to use their poetry to inspire others and to change contemporary society. • Poets of both the
first and second generation of the Romantic period, felt that they had been ‘selected’ to guide others
through the turbulent period of change. • ´The early Romantic poets tended to be supporters of the French
Revolution, hoping that it would bring about political change; however, the bloody Reign of Terror shocked
them profoundly and affected their views. In his youth William Wordsworth was a supporter of the
Republican cause in France, until he gradually became disillusioned about the Revolutionaries. Idealisation
of a solitary artist who wonders around the countryside and the sublime landscapes all on his own
Romantic period: Great and fruitful collaborations between Wordsworth, Coleridge, the lake poets
ROMANTIC PERIOD= MOVEMENT OF IDEAS, they started to be created and to circulate - Idea of
nationalism, of women’s rights, of the rights of slaves, of the rights of animals, first idea of vegetarianism,
idea of reverence towards nature (idea that nature should be defend over the threat of the changes that
are taking place, idea of eco-criticism) Revolution that should take place on different levels: - Verse - Topics
discussed - Political idea of novelty Isaiah Berlin, “The roots of Romanticism” (1965): - ´Romanticism was
«the greatest single shift in the consciousness of the West that has occurred» - ´It «embodied a new and
restless spirit, seeking violently to burst through old and cramping forms, a nervous preoccupation with
perpetually changing inner states of consciousness a 30 longing for the unbounded and the indefinable, for
perpetual movement and change, an effort to return to the forgotten sources of life, a passionate effort at
self-assertion both individual and collective, a search after means of expressing an unappeasable yearning
for unaittanable goals». Key-words: • ´Inspiration (poetry that spoke of personal experiences in a simple
unadorned language) • Intuition (Wordsworth will describe poetry as «the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings» • Imagination (healing power of the imagination: it could enable people to transcend
their troubles) • Individuality (Romantic poets celebrated the importance of individual liberty and
subjective experience) THE BIG SIX: -> ´First generation: ´William Blake (1757-1827) ´William Wordsworth
(1770-1850) ´Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) -> ´Second generation: ´John Keats (1795-1821) ´Percy
Bhysse Shelley (1792-1822) ´Lord Byron (1788-1824) Main themes: • ´Nature • The transforming city and
the dangers of the industrial revolution • The sublime • Children and importance of innocence • The
marginalised and oppressed in society • The abolition of the slave trade THE SUBLIME: - ´First published in
1757, Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and
Beautiful exercised a strong influence on the Romantic and Gothic movements - In this work, Burke
discusses the appeal of the grotesque, the terrible and the wild, a sheer contrast to the dominant 18th-
century preferences for the disciplined and balanced.   - Burke proposes that beauty stimulates love, but
that the sublime excites horror. While beauty relaxes, the sublime brings tension. The feeling that
something is sublime is triggered by extremes – vastness, extreme height, difficulty, darkness or excessive
light.   - This work provided an argument for why grotesque or extravagant architecture, Gothic novels and
vast wilderness were so attractive. - A key idea in Romantic poetry is the concept of the sublime. This term
conveys the feelings people experience when they see breathtaking landscapes, or find themselves in
extreme situations (like the crossing of the Alps) which evoke both fear and admiration. - The beautiful, on
the contrary, is based on order,  regularity and conveys a form of pleasure that is balanced and reassuring. -
´Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage(1812-1818) and Percy Bysse Shelley’s Mont Blanc (1816) provide
two particularly significant examples of the romantic sublime. - Both poems reflect their authors’ keen
interest in the aesthetics of the sublime. - (Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 3, stanza 72): I live
not in myself, but I become 31 Portion of that around me; and to me, High mountains are a feeling, but the
hum Of human cities torture: I can see Nothing to loathe in nature, save to be A link reluctant in a fleshly
chain, Class’d among creatures, when the soul can flee, And with the sky, the peak, the heaving plain Of
ocean, or the stars, mingle, and not in vain. -> LYRICAL BALLADS (1798): • ´This collection of poems
published anonymously for the first time in 1798, testified a joint poetical program formulated by
Wordsworth and Coleridge. • It opened with Coleridge’s long poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and
closed with Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey. • The Preface to the second edition published two years later is
generally considered the manifesto of the English Romantic movement. Revolutionary aspects in the Lyrical
Ballads: - Role of the poet - Use of the language - The topic The Preface was written only by Wordsworth
Prolific collaboration between Wordsworth and Coleridge Extracts of the “Preface to the lyrical ballads”: 1.
´The first Volume of these Poems has already been submitted to general perusal. It was published, as an
experiment, which, I hoped, might be of some use to ascertain, how far, by fitting to metrical arrangement
a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation, that sort of pleasure and that quantity
of pleasure may be imparted, which a Poet may rationally endeavour to impart. […] ´The principal object,
then, which I proposed to myself in these Poems was to chuse incidents and situations from common life,
and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible, in a selection of language really used by
men; and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary
things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way; and, further, and above all, to make these
incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of
our nature: chiefly, as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement. Low
and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a
better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more
emphatic language; because in that condition of life our elementary feelings co-exist in a state of greater
simplicity, and, consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated;
because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary feelings; and, from the necessary
character of rural occupations, are more easily comprehended, and are more durable; and lastly, because
in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.
The language, too, of these men is adopted (purified indeed from what appear to be its real  defects, from
all lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust) because such men hourly communicate with the best
objects from which the best part of language is  originally derived; and because, from their rank in society
and the sameness and narrow circle of their intercourse, being less under the influence of social vanity
they  convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions. 32 suspension of disbelief
for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr. Wordsworth on the other hand was to propose to
himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous
to the supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the
loveliness and the wonders of the world before us; an inexhaustible treasure, but for which in consequence
of the film of familiarity and selfish solicitude we have eyes, yet see not, ears that hear not, and hearts that
neither feel nor understand. With this view I wrote the 'Ancient Mariner,' and was preparing among other
poems, the 'Dark Ladie,' and the 'Christabel,' in which I should have more nearly realized my ideal, than I
had done in my first attempt. But Mr. Wordsworth's industry had proved so much more successful, and the
number of his poems so much greater, that my compositions, instead of forming a balance, appeared
rather an interpolation of heterogeneous matter. Mr. Wordsworth added two or three poems written in his
own character, in the impassioned, lofty, and sustained diction, which is characteristic of his genius. In this
form the 'Lyrical Ballads' were published; and were presented by him as an *experiment*, whether
subjects, which from their nature rejected the usual ornaments and extra-colloquial style of poems in
general, might not be so managed in the language of ordinary life as to produce the pleasurable interest,
which it is the peculiar business of poetry to impart. -> Dorothy Wordsworth, “The Grasmere Journal” (15
April 1802) - it tells us a lot about the idea of romantic collaborations and of the role of women in poetry -
Dorothy lived all her life together with her brother, they had a very prolific literary collaboration - She
wrote a diary about her life, especially when they used to like in the lake district - It describes their
everyday life -> Dorothy was a great inspiration to her brother - Feminist critics has seen Wordsworth from
borrowing ideas from Dorothy -> she herself produced some poetry - In this passage she describes the
moment in which Wordsworth puts into poetry his idea of the daffodils - Idea of the daffodils dancing - Idea
of the looking back and of the resting Extract: ´When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park we
saw a few daffodils close to the water side, we fancied that the lake had floated the seed ashore and that
the little colony had so sprung up – But as we went along there were more and yet more and at last under
the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a
country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and
about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed
and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the
Lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There
was here and there a little knot and a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to
disturb the simplicity and unity and life of that one busy highway – We rested again and again. The Bays
were stormy and we heard the waves at different distances and in the middle of the water like the Sea. 35
Daffodils by William Wordsworth I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When
all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and
dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in
never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly
dance. The waves beside them danced, but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not be
but gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed - and gazed - but little thought What wealth the show to me had
brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
Traduzione: io vagavo solo come una nuvola che galleggia alta sopra valli e colline, quando tutto ad un
tratto vidi una schiera, una moltitudine, di giunchiglie dorate. accanto il lago, al di sotto degli alberi,
ondeggianti e danzanti nella brezza. continue come le stelle che splendono e scintillano nella via lattea, si
tendevano in una linea senza fine lungo i margini di una baia: dieci mila ne vidi a colpo d’occhio, che
scuotevano le loro teste in una danza briosa. le onde vicine a loro danzavano; ma loro superavano le onde
spumeggianti in gaiezza; un poeta non poteva che essere gioioso, in tale gioconda compagnia; io fissai – e
fissai – ma poco pensai quale ricchezza lo spettacolo mi portò: perché spesso, quando sul mio divano io
giaccio in maniera oziosa o pensierosa, loro compaiono improvvisamente sulla memoria 36 che è la
beatitudine della solitudine; e quindi il mio cuore si riempie di piacere, e danza con le giunchiglie. Analysis: -
exactly same images, ideas and metaphors present in the passage of his sister’s diary - structure: 4 stanzas
of 6 lines each, rhyming scheme: ABABCC, ending with a rhyming couplet - This poem does not belong to
the lyrical ballads, it was published afterwords - Quintessential representation of nature - The episode
happened in 1802, but the poem was written in 1804 -> idea of the recollection in tranquillity, after two
years the poet is thinking back to it - Amazing field of daffodils which impressed Wordsworth - Inward eye -
> inside the mind where he recorded this episode, it is the symbol of memory - Simple poem with easy and
understandable language - Representation of nature and of memory - Personification in the first two
stanzas -> the speaker is compared to a cloud, the daffodils are compared to human beings (they dance and
they move their heads, idea of calling the daffodils “a crowd”) - By comparing himself to a cloud, he is
underlying his identification with nature -> he becomes one thing with nature - Powerful connection
between the poet and nature through the personification -> “THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER”,
S.T.COLERIDGE: - composed in 1798, it was constantly revised between 1800 and 1834 - The rime is written
in the ballad form: chosen for commercial reasons, ballads were very popular - Ballad= a Song or poem that
tells a story - Frame: this poem has a narrative frame, a tale set within a tale - Many literary references
present in the text: Herodotus, Dante, Chaucer - Supernatural beings appear in the poem as a symbolic or
allegorical figures, representing the forces of nature, life, death and retribution - Themes: power of
imagination, interplay of philosophy, piety and poetry, unintelligibility of the universe - Coleridge
represents a mystical and supernatural world, a world populated by signs and symbols - The albatross has
been interpreted in different, often opposing ways -> some identified the albatross with the poet himself,
other believe that the animal symbolises the connection between the natural and spiritual world. According
to Robert Penn warren the killing of the albatross represents the fall and the original sin - It is also the story
of the romantic archetype, the wanderer, doomed to walk around the earth alone and alienated from
everyone, doomed to tell his sad and supernatural tale - The killing of the albatross: the climax of the poem
- Supernatural landscape where there is no water anymore, the nature is dying, image of water snakes in
the moonlight - Ghostly image of life and life in death playing dice -> the end of the game establishes that
the faith of the mariner is to live a life in death, he cannot die, he is obliged to tell his story again and again
- We understand how important the relation between human beings and nature is and what happens when
human beings threat nature (killing of the albatross and damnation) - Example of negative capability in
“keatsian” term and a moment of literary perfection - Archaic language -> in order to create an archaic
image to the whole poem Synopsis: The poem begins with an old grey-bearded sailor, the Mariner,
stopping a guest at a wedding ceremony to tell him a story of a sailing voyage he took long ago. The
Wedding-Guest is at 37 The ice was all around : It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises
in a swound! 2. - he narrates the journey of the ship but then the ship finds stuck into the ice - Selection of
the words: for example for the choosing of the colours - Green: used obsessively also in “Kubla Kan”, colour
used to describe the world of the unconscious - The ice -> green as emerald -> entering the world of the ice
means to enter the world of invisible that can’t be described with the use of words and reason -
Tempestuous voyage into the unknown and into the subconscious -> something we have to witness and be
part of, but not everything can be understood by the readers - The reader is witnessing the journey through
the mental world of the mariner and his subconscious - Presence of the ice blocking everything = incapacity
of continuing the journey and of claustrophobia - Many repetitions 3. At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came; As if it had been a Christian soul, We hailed it in God's name. It ate the food it
ne'er had eat, And round and round it flew. The ice did split with a thunder-fit; The helmsman steered us
through! […] ´And a good south wind sprung up behind; The Albatross did follow, And every day, for food or
play, Came to the mariner's hollo! ´In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, It perched for vespers nine; Whiles
all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmered the white Moon-shine.’ ´ 'God save thee, ancient
Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus!— Why look'st thou so?'—With my cross-bow I shot the
ALBATROSS. 3. - albatross = christian soul -> symbolic creature and image for Christ himself - Religious and
Godly images - The moment the albatross arrives the eyes start to melt - The Albatros is always there
during the evening prayers -> he comes and sits on the mast of the ship - Albatross= Image of god
defending the crew - The voice of the wedding guest comes in: “God save thee, ancient mariner!” - It is not
understandable of the reason why he shot the albatross - Very essence of the ballad which is telling us a
story employing also the suspense 4. Day after day, day after day, 40 We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As
idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.   Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrick;
Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. […]And every tongue, through utter drought, Was
withered at the root; We could not speak, no more than if We had been chocked with soot.   Ah! well a
day! what evil looks Had I from old and young! Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung.
4. - Part II - All sorts of misfortunes happen to the crew after the albatross has been shot - Graphic
description of the image of a calm ship -> great calmness - Moment of suspense and tension that is
delivered by the narration of the albatross which is hung on the neck of the mariner (instead of the cross) -
> the crew decided to hung it to the mariner’s neck - There is nothing the crew can do -> sense of misery of
the crew and of the mariner who is starting already to regret his cruel action - Frustration of the crew and
of the mariner. 5. ´[…]Since then, at an uncertain hour,  That agony returns;  And till my ghastly tale is told, 
This heart within me burns.  ´I pass, like night, from land to land;  I have strange power of speech;  That
moment that his face I see,  I know the man that must hear me:  To him my tale I teach.  ´  ´What loud
uproar bursts from that door!  The wedding-guests are there:  But in the garden-bower the bride  And
bride-maids singing are:  And hark the little vesper bell,  Which biddeth me to prayer ´O Wedding-Guest!
this soul hath been  Alone on a wide wide sea:  So lonely 'twas, that God himself  Scarce seemed there to
be.  ´ ´O sweeter than the marriage-feast,  ‘Tis sweeter far to me,  To walk together to the kirk   41 With a
goodly company!--  ´To walk together to the kirk,  And all together pray,  While each to his great Father
bends,  Old men, and babes, and loving friends,  And youths and maidens gay!  ´Farewell, farewell! but this I
tell  To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!  He prayeth well, who loveth well  Both man and bird and beast. 5. - one
of the last passage -> the narration has come to an end - Moments of joy of the bride and the guest singing
- Here again there is a religious celebration - The person who will save himself is the one who will pray god
and love everyone - Respect of all human beings but also of nature and of animals -> piece of advice by the
mariner - Religious hope but also human hope - Powerful ending with a great hope -> moment of emotional
release JOHN KEATS (1795-1821): • He lost his father after a riding accident when he was eight, and his
mother to tuberculosis when he was 14. -> He came from a non-typical background and he lived a sad life •
Nevertheless he was the one who really had a clear idea of the classical world -> deep passion for Greece •
In 1815 he began medical training at Guy’s Hospital. Despite qualifying, he never practised medicine,
turning instead to writing poetry. • His first volume of Poems, published in 1817, attracted little interest. In
the same year, Blackwood’s Magazine published a series of reviews denouncing what it called the ‘Cockney
school’: poets and essayists associated with the writer Leigh Hunt, of which Keats was one. • His long and
ambitious long poem,  Endymion was published in 1818 gaining little more critical attention than the 1817
volume. Nevertheless, he was encouraged by appreciative friends including Hunt, William Hazlitt and
Benjamin Haydon, who considered him with Percy Bysshe Shelley as a rising poet. • Between 1818 and
1819, the most fertile period of his life, he fell in love with his neighbour Fanny Brawne, and produced his
six famous odes, and great narrative poems as Isabella, or the Pot of Basil, The Eve of St Agnes, Hyperion,
Lamia, and La Belle Dame Sans Merci. • In 1820, he was, like his mother and brother Tom, fatally stricken
with tuberculosis. He sailed for Italy, hoping to recover, but died in Rome on 23 February 1821. • The
second half of the century brought him fame, praised by Alfred Tennyson, Algernon Charles Swinburne and
the Pre-Raphaelites. Poet of the second generation He is one of the most eclectic artist, he studied less
compared to the other artists He was interested in romance and in medieval literature and gothic elements
He was a classicist He is an artist that will be discovered after his death His poetry: • «Throughout his life
Keats has always believed that true poetry was written for posterity, and that its ‘realms of gold’, whether
created by Homer, Dante, Spenser, Shakespeare or Milton, existed in a sphere independent of the
accidents of history. Keats is the one great English Romantic poet whose prime belief was in Art and
Beauty» (John Barnard, Introduction to Selected Poems, 2007) 42 ma, più felice Amore! fervido e sempre
da godere, e giovane e anelante sempre, tu che di tanto eccedi ogni vivente passione umana, che in cuore
un solitario dolore lascia, e sdegno: amara febbre. Chi son questi venienti al sacrificio? E, misterioso
sacerdote, a quale verde altare conduci questa, che mugghia ai cieli, mite giovenca di ghirlande adorna i bei
fianchi di seta? Qual piccola città, presso del fiume o in riva al mare costruita, o sopra il monte, fra le sue
placide mura, si è vuotata di questa folla festante, in questo pio mattino? Tu, piccola città, quelle tue strade
sempre saranno silenziose e mai non un’anima tornerà che dica perché sei desolata. O pura attica forma!
Leggiadro atteggiamento, cui d’uomini e fanciulle e rami ed erbe calpestate intorno fregio di marmo chiude,
invano invano il pensier nostro ardendo fino a te si consuma, pari all’eternità, fredda, silente,
imperturbabile effige. Quando, dal tempo devastata e vinta, questa or viva progenie anche cadrà, fra
diverso dolore, amica all’uomo, rimarrai tu sola, “Bellezza è Verità” dicendo ancora: “Verità è Bellezza”.
Questo a voi, sopra la terra, di sapere è dato: questo, non altro, a voi, sopra la terra, é bastante sapere. -
obsession for the idea of eternity -> idea of eternal beauty and that art remains unravished despite time -
Structure: 5 stanzas of 10 lines each, precise meter, iambic pentameter, the first six lines meter in the same
way, while the last three meter in different ways - Many personifications of the elements of nature and of
objects - Also punctuation is important 1. - the poet is addressing the urn “thou” - Keats is evoking images
of something unravished (inviolato) because it is eternal - Eternity is already present in the first stanza - He
is evoking the urn that is a silent listener and foster-child of since and slow time - The images depicted on
the urn are captured on a single moment and they are frozen in their beauty -> from the moment they are
captured they can’t move anymore - The poet is addressing them while he is admiring them - Many
rethorical questions - Idea of duality between divine and immortality - Idea of calmness 2. - the description
becomes more precise - He is evoking melodies, that are sweeter because they are unheard -> image that
represents some characters with a pipe - character: a fair youth beneath the trees who is singing a song for
a lover that he will never be able to kiss (since he is frozen) - This melody is sweeter than mortal melody
because it can’t be touched by the effects of the time - however, the character should not grieve because
the beauty of the character will never fade 3. - climatic moment 45 - Very happy moment 4. - Describing a
sacrifice - The tone has completely changed -> because the speaker is thinking about what is left behind -
The people who left someone are frozen in this precise moment of going to the altar - Thoughtful moment
less happy than the third stanza - Idea of gloominess 5. - melancholy should not survive - Underlined by the
use of exclamations mark, the sadness is gone - We have again a change of tone -> idea of great joy that
comes back - Idea of consolation - Circle: the poet is addressing the urn again -> the time will pass but the
urn will always remain - “beauty is truth, truth is beauty” -> maybe the urn itself is actually speaking,
symbolic truth, it is addressing the speaker itself, the only consolation we have is that beauty is truth and
truth is beauty, it is the only important issue we need to know - Clear remark of the negative capability -
Idea of eternity, of perfection, of artistic beauty that we do not need to interrogate but only to appreciate -
> idea of great consolation that infuses calmness to the audience - Keats introduces this aesthetic idea ->
art should not involved in a moral judgement, art for art’s sake AND THE WOMEN? - Female poets also
contributed to the Romantic movement, but their strategies tended to be more elusive and less radical. -
Although Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855) produced journals and travel narratives that certainly provided
inspiration for her brother, her own poems are particularly remarkable for the imaginative power of her
depictions of nature. - Poems like Anna Seward’s(1742-1809) To Colebrooke Dale described how the
industrial revolution was dramatically changing the relationship with the rural world, and others like Mary
Robinson’s (1758-1800) London Summer Morning described the frenetic movements and sounds of the
modern metropolis, or The Birth-Day again by Mary Robinson highlighted the enormous discrepancy
between life of the rich and the poor. - Female poets played a prominent role in the campaign for the
abolition of the slave trade. As women, they themselves felt deprived of civil and economic rights and felt
the need to embrace a cause they truly believed in. Poets like Hannah More (1745-1833), Amelia Opie
(1769-1853), Anne Yearsley (1753-1806), Mary Birkett (1774-1817), wrote some of the best poems on the
topic, trying to raise awareness in the reading public about the necessity to revolt against such an inhuman
practice. GEORGE GORDON BYRON (1788-1824): - He embodies the idea of the romantic wonderer who
abandons his mother land in order to follow his ideas - He embodies the idea of eccentricities and
cosmopolitanism - Scottish on the mother’s side - A lord with whig affiliations, advocate of social reform,
defender of the luddites - 1809-1811: European grand tour with Hobhouse (Spain, Portugal ,Malta, Greece
and Turkey) - Post-Waterloo exile: from 1816 to 1823 in Italy -> it was a more voluntary exile, he left
England because he had a terrible reputation - He travelled to Switzerland where he reunited with the
Shelley family 46 - Then he moved to Italy - Involvement in the Carbonari movement against Austria and in
the greek war of independence against the turks Major works: •Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-1818)
•The Giaour (1813) •The Bride of Abydos (1813) •The Corsair (1814) •The Siege of Corinth (1815) •Manfred
(1817) •The Prophecy of Dante (1819) •Marino Faliero (1820) •The Two Foscari (1821) •Cain (1821) •Don
Juan (1819-1824) Childe Harold’s pilgrimage (1812-1818)—> based on hi journey of the grand tour,
published in cantos, thanks to this work Byron became very popular and famous, biographical text in which
he describes the reflections of a young man who is disillusioned with life and he is looking for distraction
His works: Dramatic pieces written for private reading, so they were not thought for circulating and put on
stage Most of his works are autobiographical MANFRED (1817): - Byron – man of the theatre (Drury Lane
subcommittee in 1815) but sceptical about modern production (especially popular theatre) - «closet»
drama: a drama suited primarily for reading rather than staging. - «dramatic poem»: «a ‘poem in
dialogue’»; psychodrama and ‘dialogue of the mind with itself’. - Byron described Manfred as a
metaphysical drama, meant for the «mental theatre of the reader». - Internal VS. external action: mind
over body – audience’s imagination over sensorial experience. - Climatic text if we think of the byronic hero
- It is part of a hybrid genre - Perfect example for the idea of metaphysical drama -> something created
more to be read and thought about than to be staged - We find some examples of sublime Composition of
Manfred: - Switzerland 1816 - Venice 1817 - Journey through the alps with Hobhouse: from the alp of
Wengen he saw the Jungfrau -> this two writers were writing their journals during this trip - He was
inspired by: Alpine landscape, Goethe’s Faust, supernatural tales heard in lake Geneva (villa Diodati) in
1816 Plot: It is in three acts, but of a very wild, metaphysical and inexplicable kind. Almost all the persons
[…] are spirits of the earth and air, or of the waters; the scene is in the Alps; the hero a kind of magician,
who is tormented by a species of remorse, the cause of which is left half 47 • Absence of a central
authoritative narrator: reader’s active participation in the skeptical debate and hermeneutic process –
postmodern text? • «I do not know what to believe—or what to disbelieve—which is the devil—to have no
religion at all—all sense & senses are against it—but all belief & much evidence is for it» (Byron to
Hobhouse); «All that we know is, nothing can be known» (Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto II) • PERSONAL
DIMENSION (philosophical and metaphysical) OF MANFRED – questions but no answers. ‘Closing’ lines:
«He’s gone—his soul hath tak’en its earthless flight--/ Whither? I dread to think—but he is gone» (III, 4,
152-153, p. 314) • YET: final ‘calm’ vs. initial chaos. «There is a calm upon me—  Inexplicable stillness!
Which till now Did not belong to what I knew of life» (III, 1, 6-8) «’Tis over—my dull eyes can fix thee not;
But all things swim around me, and the earth Heaves as it were beneath me. Fare thee well— Give me thy
hand.» (III, 4, 145-151, p. 314) • Value of human passion vs. abstract knowledge of the solitary hero but
also ‘calm’ suspension of judgement, acceptance of the impossibility of answers and life changeability IV.
SLAVERY, ABOLITION AND THE CULTURE OF RESISTANCE The British slave trade: •Captain John Hawkins
made the first known English slaving voyage to Africa, during the reign of Elizabeth I. Hawkins made three
such journeys over a period of six years. He captured over 1200 Africans and sold them as goods in the
Spanish colonies in the Americas.  •To start with, British traders supplied slaves for the Spanish and
Portuguese colonists in America. However, as British settlements in the Caribbean and North America grew,
often through wars with European countries such as Holland, Spain and France, British slave traders
increasingly supplied British colonies. •The establishment of the Royal African Company in 1672 formalised
the Slave Trade under a royal charter and established the monopoly of the port of London. The ports of
Bristol and Liverpool, in particular, fought to have the charter changed and, in 1698, the monopoly was
taken away. •British involvement expanded rapidly in response to the demand for labour to cultivate sugar
in Barbados and other British West Indian islands. In the 1660s, the number of slaves taken from Africa in
British ships averaged 6,700 per year. By the 1760s, Britain was the foremost European country engaged in
the Slave Trade. Of the 80,000 Africans chained and transported across to the Americas each year, 42,000
were carried by British slave ships. The middle passage: •The Middle Passage refers to the part of the trade
where Africans, densely packed onto ships, were transported across the Atlantic to the West Indies.  The
voyage took three to four months and, during this time, the enslaved people mostly lay chained on the
floor. •The Middle Passage was the crossing from Africa to the Americas, which the ships made carrying
their ‘cargo’ of slaves. It was so-called because it was the middle section of the trade route taken by many
of the ships. •The first section (the ‘Outward Passage’ ) was from Europe to Africa. Then came the Middle
Passage, and the ‘Return Passage’ was the final journey from the Americas to Europe. The Middle Passage
took the enslaved Africans away from their homeland. They were from different countries and different
ethnic (or cultural) groups. They spoke different languages. Many had never seen the sea before, let alone
been on a ship. They had no knowledge of where they were going or what awaited them there. 50 •There
are a very few accounts of the Middle Passage, written by enslaved Africans who had experienced
conditions on a slave ship at first-hand. This was because many Africans who made the crossing would not
have known how to write, or had the chance to learn later in life. The trade triangle: -The transatlantic slave
trade generally followed a triangular route: -Traders set out from European ports towards Africa's west
coast. There they bought people in exchange for goods and loaded them into the ships. -The voyage across
the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage, generally took 6 to 8 weeks. Once in the Americas those
Africans who had survived the journey were off-loaded for sale and put to work as slaves. sThe ships then
returned to Europe with goods such as sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice and later cotton, which had been
produced by slave labour. sThe triangle, involving three continents, was complete. European capital,
African labour and American land and resources combined to supply a European market. European traders
in Africa: • European traders captured some Africans in raids along the coast, but bought most of them
from local African or African-European dealers. These dealers had a sophisticated network of trading
alliances collecting groups of people together for sale. • Most of the Africans who were enslaved were
captured in battles or were kidnapped, though some were sold into slavery for debt or as punishment. The
captives were marched to the coast, often enduring long journeys of weeks or even months, shackled to
one another. At the coast they were imprisoned in large stone forts, built by European trading companies,
or in smaller wooden compounds. • The main European nations involved in slaving were Portugal, Spain,
Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. Britain began large-scale slaving through private
trading companies in the 1640s. The London-based Royal African Company was the most important and
from 1672 had a monopoly of the British trade. Other merchants who wanted to enter this lucrative trade
opposed the monopoly and it was ended in 1698. • In the early 1700s most of Britain's slave merchants
were from London and Bristol. However, Liverpool merchants were increasingly involved and from about
1740 were outstripping their rivals. Although London, Bristol and other ports continued to send ships to
Africa, Liverpool dominated the trade until its abolition in 1807. Indeed Liverpool was the European port
most involved in slaving during the 18th century. • The number of voyages to Africa made between 1695
and 1807 from each of the main European ports that were involved in the slave trade were: • Liverpool:
5,300 • London: 3,100 • Bristol: 2,200 • Other European ports: 450 (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bordeaux,
Cadiz, Lisbon and Nantes) A Historian’s perspective: the plantation complex •“The plantation complex was
an economic and political order centering on slave plantations in the New World tropics. During the century
centered on about 1800, these plantations played an extremely important role in the European-dominated
portion of the world economy. Though the core of the complex was the slave plantations growing tropical
staples, the system had much broader ramifications.” A Global system: •“Political control lay in Europe.
Much of the labor force came from Africa, though some came from American-Indian societies on the South
American mainland. […] At its peak, many of the trade goods to buy African slaves came from India, and
silver to buy these same Indian goods came from mainland South America. Northern America and Europe
were important 51 trading partners, supplying timber and food to the plantations and consuming the sugar,
rum, indigo, coffee, and cotton they produced.” Blood sugar: - “Produced by slaves, consumed and
discussed in diverse ways by the British, sugar is the locus of connections between colonialism and
representation.” - Sugar -> symbolically speaking it was the most important food that was brought to
Europe and to England, sugar was a commodity that the bourgeoisie could take advantage of - Blood sugar
-> raised by the abolitionists, it embodied the atrocity of europeans in the slave trade Two nationwide
petition campaigns: -1788: over 100 petitions attacking the slave trade were presented to the House of
Commons in the space of just three months. -1792: 519 petitions were presented to the Commons, the
largest number ever submitted to the House on a single subject or in a single session. Though Gillray uses
the print primarily to take another shot at the infamous frugality of the King and Queen ("above all,
remember how much expence it will save your poor Papa,“) the context and impetus for the print was
almost certainly the defeat of the hotly debated slave trade bill of 1791 and the subsequent pamphlet and
petition drives in 1791 and early 1792 to bypass Parliament and to boycott sugar and other products
produced by slaves in the West Indies. The best known pamphlet was William Fox's An Address to the
People of Great Britain on the Propriety of Refraining from the Use of West India Sugar and Rum which
argued that the everyday consumers of those commodities from the West Indies were at least partly
responsible for the persistence of the trade. In Gillray's print, the Queen makes the association explicit:
"consider how much work you'll save the poor Blackamoors by leaving off the use of it." According to The
Abolition Project, "by 1792 about 400,000 people in Britain were boycotting slave-grown sugar" and Fox's
pamphlet went through 25 editions in a matter of months. The target audience and major support for these
petitions and pamphlets were women, so it is perhaps not surprising the Gillray puts the argument (such as
it is) in the Queen's mouth, addressing only her daughters. Eighteenth century slave narration: •During the
Restoration and eighteenth century, slavery becomes a topic of English literary texts: •Aphra Behn,
Oroonoko or the Royal Slave (1688) •John Locke, Second Treatise (1690) •Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
(1719) •By the latter part of the 18th century, those who had been enslaved started to write about their
experience. Slaves and former slaves began writing autobiographies, essays, poetry: •Phyllis Wheatley,
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) -> first African American writer to publish his poems
•Ignatius Sancho, The Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho (1782) •Quobna Cugoano, Thoughts and
Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of Slaves and Commerce of the Human Species (1789) -> A Black
British Writer: Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797): -one of the most important figure of the time -one of the first
example that abolitionist used when working on the battle for the abolition of the slave trade 52 2. -
account of the first description of the people who were actually on the cargos - Images of the instruments
used to torture the slaves during the journey Diagram of “the Brookes” slave ship -> This diagram of the
'Brookes' slave ship is probably the most widely copied and powerful image used by the abolitionist
campaigners. It depicts the ship loaded to its full capacity - 454 people crammed into the hold. The
'Brookes' sailed the passage from Liverpool via the Gold Coast in Africa to Jamaica in the West Indies. The
diagram was a very useful piece of propaganda. Thomas Clarkson commented in his History of the Rise,
Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade (1808) that the 'print seemed to
make an instantaneous impression of horror upon all who saw it, and was therefore instrumental, in
consequence of the wide circulation given it, in serving the cause of the injured Africans’. - The Brookes ->
family that became very rich thanks to the trade of the slaves - This diagram was a piece of propaganda
used by abolitionists in order to give a very clear idea of the horror of the salve ships - Visual evidence of
the slave trade -> Samuel T. Coleridge: “On the salve trade” (1795): - commodities used by a specific part of
society -> rich middle class and aristocracy - Poor classes don’t get a benefit for that - The benefit of the
trade belong only to the selected few of the society 55 - part of this discourse will be used though the
abolitionist campaign also in parliament - Idea of common guilt -> we are all guilty - We, as members of a
society that accepts it, are all guilty 56 -> John Newton (1725-1807): - John Newton was a slave trafficker
who played a very active role in the slave trade. He underwent a spiritual conversion after which he
became a prominent supporter of abolitionism. - A strong supporter of Evangelicalism in the Church of
England, in 1779 he became the rector of St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street (London). - Adviser and friend
of well-known figures such as H. More and W. Wilberforce, he convinced the latter to remain in Parliament
and continue the battle for abolition. - Since it was first published in 1779, "Amazing Grace" has become a
global anthem of redemption, and the life of its author, John Newton, a symbol of spiritual awakening. - In
1835 the American Composer William Walker set it into the tune known as «New Britain» to which it has
been sung since then. Amazing Grace (1779): - spiritual conversion -> starts as a religious hymn - It is born
as a religious song but in relation to John newton’s life - In the 19th century it was turned into a tune (a
song) 57 - Idea that the suffer will finish in eternal life and they will be both free and equal only when they
will be released from their body - Focus on the mental state of the black child - Maybe the black boy is not
loved by the white boy because of the difference of their skin His interest in racial equality and the abolition
of slaver continued throughout all his life -> collection of illustration by Blake To show the inhumanity of
slavery, tortures and mutilations Famous illustration: A negro hung alive by the ribs to a gallows This was
one of Blake’s extraordinary illustrations for John Stedman’s Narrative of a Five Year’s Expedition Against
the Revolted Negroes of Surinam published by Joseph Johnson in 1796. The Narrative, by the English
Captain John Gabriel Stedman, who had been a mercenary with the Dutch army in Surinam (South Africa)
during the slave rebellion between 1772 and 1777, became one of the most influential works of the time
about the inhumanity of slavery and the slave trade. Though never opening denouncing slavery, it gave
repugnant detailed descriptions of the tortures and mutilations suffered by African slaves along with many
scenes of abuse, that meant to arise the readers’ compassion. -> Hannah More (1754-1833): - Hannah
More was born near Bristol and grew up in a cultured and educated environment, along with her four
sisters. - At a very young age, More embarked on a teaching career at the school run by her older sisters in
Bristol, At the same time she began to devote herself to writing, in particular to writing small moral dramas,
attracting the attention of the cultured society of Bristol. - Between 1763 and 1764, More went to London
for the first time, where she was welcomed into the Bluestocking circle. Here she became a friend of J.
Reynolds, S. Johnson, E. Burke and of the actor-manager David Garrick  who produced her plays The
Inflexible Captive (1775) and Percy (1777). - In 1787, she met John Newton and the 'Clapham Sect' (a group
of Evangelicals Christians who lived close to Clapham in London). The group was strongly opposed to the
Slave Trade. W. Wilberforce was a member of the group and they became close friends.  - Hannah helped
give the abolition movement a public voice with her writings and continued to support the cause for
Abolition until her death. - She lived just long enough to see an end to British involvement in transatlantic
slavery, in 1833. - Her final popular success as a writer was the didactic novel Coelebs in Search of a
Wife (1808). - conservative approach to this ideas, she will never have the same radical ideas as Mary
Wollstonecraft - Idea of improving education for women but always remain at a conservative level - She
fights also for the abolition of slavery - She was a very important person in the English society Poem:
“Slavery” (1788): 1 IF heaven has into being deign'd to call Thy light, O LIBERTY! to shine on all; Bright
intellectual Sun! why does thy ray To earth distribute only partial day? Since no resisting cause from spirit
flows      5 Thy penetrating essence to opose; No obstacles by Nature's hand imprest, 60 Thy subtle and
ethereal beams arrest; Nor motion's laws can speed thy active course, Nor strong repulsion's pow'rs
obstruct thy force;      10 Since there is no convexity in MIND, Why are thy genial beams to parts confin'd? 2
While the chill North with thy bright ray is blest, Why should fell darkness half the South invest? Was it
decreed, fair Freedom! at thy birth,      15 That thou shou'd'st ne'er irradiate all the earth? While Britain
basks in thy full blaze of light, Why lies sad Afric quench'd in total night?     Thee only, sober Goddess! I
attest, In smiles chastis'd, and decent graces drest.      20 Not that unlicens'd monster of the crowd, Whose
roar terrific bursts in peals so loud, Deaf'ning the ear of Peace: fierce Faction's tool; Of rash Sedition born,
and mad Misrule; Whose stubborn mouth, rejecting Reason's rein,      25 No strength can govern, and no
skill restrain; Whose magic cries the frantic vulgar draw To spurn at Order, and to outrage Law; 3 To tread
on grave Authority and Pow'r, And shake the work of ages in an hour:     30 Convuls'd her voice, and
pestilent her breath, She raves of mercy, while she deals out death: Each blast is fate; she darts from either
hand Red conflagration o'er th' astonish'd land; Clamouring for peace, she rends the air with noise,     35
And to reform a part, the whole destroys.     O, plaintive Southerne! * whose impassion'd strain So oft has
wak'd my languid Muse in vain! Now, when congenial themes her cares engage, She burns to emulate thy
glowing page;     40 Her failing efforts mock her fond desires, She shares thy feelings, not partakes thy fires.
Strange pow'r of song! the strain that warms the heart Seems the same inspiration to impart; * Author of
the Tragedy of Oronoko 4 Touch'd by the kindling energy alone,     45 We think the flame which melts us is
our own; Deceiv'd, for genius we mistake delight, Charm'd as we read, we fancy we can write.     Tho' not to
me, sweet Bard, thy pow'rs belong Fair Truth, a hallow'd guide! inspires my song.     50 Here Art wou'd
weave her gayest flow'rs in vain, For Truth the bright invention wou'd disdain. For no fictitious ills these
numbers flow, But living anguish, and substantial woe; No individual griefs my bosom melt,     55 For
millions feel what Oronoko felt: 61 Fir'd by no single wrongs, the countless host I mourn, by rapine dragg'd
from Afric's coast.     Perish th'illiberal thought which wou'd debase The native genius of the sable
race!     60 5 Perish the proud philosophy, which sought To rob them of the pow'rs of equal thought! Does
then th' immortal principle within Change with the casual colour of a skin? Does matter govern spirit? or is
mind     65 Degraded by the form to which 'tis join'd?     No: they have heads to think, and hearts to feel,
And souls to act, with firm, tho' erring, zeal; For they have keen affections, kind desires, Love strong as
death, and active patriot fires;     70 All the rude energy, the fervid flame, Of high-soul'd passion, and
ingenuous shame: Strong, but luxuriant virtues boldly shoot From the wild vigour of a savage root.     Nor
weak their sense of honour's proud control,     75 For pride is virtue in a Pagan soul; 6 A sense of worth, a
conscience of desert, A high, unbroken haughtiness of heart: That self-same stuff which erst proud empires
sway'd, Of which the conquerers of the world were made.      80 Capricious fate of man! that very pride In
Afric scourg'd, in Rome was deify'd.     No Muse, O * Quashi! shall thy deeds relate, No statue snatch thee
from oblivious fate! * It is a point of honour among negroes of a high spirit to die rather than to suffer their
glossy skin to bear the mark of the whip. Qua-shi had somehow offended his master, a young planter with
whom he had been bred up in the endearing intimacy of a play-fellow. His services had been faithful; his
attachment affectionate. The master resolved to punish him, and persued him for that purpose. In trying to
escape Qua-shi stumbled and fell; the master fell upon him; they wrestled long with doubtful victory; at
length Qua-shi got uppermost, and, being firmly seated on his master's breast, he secured his legs with one
hand, and with the other drew a sharp knife; then said, "Master, I have been bred up with you from a child;
I have loved you as myself: in (…..) - narrative verse - Sort of interplay -> notes in prose, so the reader has a
direct explanation 1. - the text opens with invocation of liberty and in terms of human rights - Metaphorical
relation between the sun and liberty -> Idea that sun distributes her bright raises only partially, there are
places that are not illuminated by the sun in equal way 2. - opposition between the north and the south /
light and night - Britain: north and light / Africa: south and night - Between abolitionists is very common to
employ oppositions - Quite conservative representation -> it is a cliché duality that underlines a critique
towards the western world that is behaving in an un-christian way 62 What evils do ye cause? We feel
enslaved, Yet move in your direction. Custom, thou [ 3 ] Wilt preach up filial piety; thy sons Will groan, and
stare with impudence at Heav'n, As if they did abjure the act, where Sin Sits full on Inhumanity; the church
They fill with mouthing, vap'rous sighs and tears, Which, like the guileful crocodile's, oft fall, Nor fall, but at
the cost of human bliss.      Custom, thou hast undone us! led us far From God-like probity, from truth, and
heaven.      But come, ye souls who feel for human woe, Tho' drest in savage guise! Approach, thou son,
Whose heart would shudder at a father's chains, And melt o'er thy lov'd brother as he lies Gasping in
torment undeserv'd. Oh, sight [ 4 ] Horrid and insupportable! far worse Than an immediate, an heroic
death; Yet to this sight I summon thee. Approach, Thou slave of avarice, that canst see the maid Weep o'er
her inky sire! Spare me, thou God Of all-indulgent Mercy, if I scorn This gloomy wretch, and turn my tearful
eye To more enlighten'd beings. Yes, my tear Shall hang on the green furze, like pearly dew Upon the
blossom of the morn. My song Shall teach sad Philomel a louder note, When Nature swells her woe. O'er
suff'ring man My soul with sorrow bends! Then come, ye few Who feel a more than cold, material essence;
Here ye may vent your sighs, till the bleak North Find its adherents aided. —Ah, no more! [ 5 ] The dingy
youth comes on, sullen in chains; He smiles on the rough sailor, who aloud Strikes at the spacious heav'n,
the earth, the sea, In breath too blasphemous; yet not to him Blasphemous, for he dreads not either:—lost
In dear internal imag'ry, the soul Of Indian Luco rises to his eyes, Silent, not inexpressive: the strong beams
With eager wildness yet drink in the view Of his too humble home, where he had left His mourning father,
and his Incilanda.      Curse on the toils spread by a Christian hand To rob the Indian of his freedom! Curse
On him who from a bending parent steals His dear support of age, his darling child; [ 6 ] Perhaps a son, or
a more tender daughter, 65 Who might have clos'd his eyelids, as the spark Of life gently retired. Oh, thou
poor world! Thou fleeting good to individuals! see How much for thee they care, how wide they ope Their
helpless arms to clasp thee; vapour thou! More swift than passing wind! thou leav'st them nought Amid
th'unreal scene, but a scant grave.      I know the crafty merchant will oppose The plea of nature to my
strain, and urge His toils are for his children: the soft plea Dissolves my soul—but when I sell a son, Thou
God of nature, let it be my own!      Behold that Christian! see what horrid joy (…) Preface: - she identifies
herself as a Bristol born writer - She directly addresses herself to the Earl of Bristol - She invites him on a
journey to the Indian coast 1. - she opens her poem addressing Bristol -> circular structure (also in the end
she will address Bristol) - Bristol was one of the leadings ports in England - Idea of poetry as a way of asking
people to become aware -> Example of using art and literature as a civil weapon in order to make people
aware of something - First line: opposition between Bristol’s glory and Bristol’s shame that is slavery - The
amazement is from the salves looking at Bristol -> they are amazed negatively because Bristol has lost his
glory - She has a very radical anti-slavery sensibility -> here own poetic voice is addressing the earl of
Bristol, her own city and underlines her self-esteem 2. - Lactilla is herself -> she is presenting herself as a
poet who comes from the working class - She is not only capable of feelings but she underlines also her
sensibility and that she is capable of understanding the sorrow of the africans - She is the bridge between
Bristol and the slaves - Emotionalism is present -> clear also for the choice of the blank verse (Hannah
Moore uses the rhyming couplet) - She alines herself with the abolitionist of the time 3. - this text does not
present a central narrative-> sentimental narrative is at the centre of her narration - Examples from real life
and real slaves - Emotional centre of the poem -> narration of the story of a slave, called Luco - While
Hannah Moore decided not to talk about fictional slaves, Ann Yearsley decides to present the story of a
slave who is brutally tortured, imprisoned, captured and burnet to death - This is a unique example - The
readers actually feels the same way of the slave - Emotionally speaking the readers is on the same side of
the slave And so on… 66 - importance of the suffering of women who lose their husbands -> underlines the
distress felt by women that are left on their own while their husbands are taken away - She is thinking of a
female readership to underline the pathos - She is asking for women understanding - During his sufferance,
Luco is thinking of his family and the people he has left behind - Luco is made blind by the violence of the
whip - Description of the violences of the christian on this slave -> moment of climax - then, we have the
description of Luco’s revenge - She exhorts africans to resist -> poetry of resistance - She continues asking
Bristol to come back to its old glory and to become aware of what is going on - She is speaking also to the
British parliament and the British law - She is underlying her confidence that Bristol is the symbol of British
society that will certainly realise what has to be done and the inhumanity of the slavery - Social love should
become the leading sympathy against the trade Hannah Moore and Ann Yearsley: These two poems were
written in the same year so it was impossible that there was a link between these two (also their friendship
already ended) Many female writers embraced the cause of slavery because they found out some
similarities between the condition of women and the condition of the slaves -> JANE AUSTEN (1775-1817):
Key figure in the 19th century literary Britain: - Deeply rooted in the historical, cultural and literary tradition
of the 18th century. - An avid reader throughout her life, Jane Austen knew the work of authors such as
Samuel Johnson, Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, very well. Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison, was one
of Austen’s favourite novels, and inspired her immensely throughout her writing. From Fielding she
probably learned the power of parody and the combination of third-person narration with an intrusive
narrator, sometimes omniscient, sometimes mock-omniscient, who influences and distorts the story and
allows different readings. - Austen also knew the female writers of her time: Charlotte Lennox, Elizabeth
Inchbald, Maria Edgeworth, Anne Radcliffe (the gothic bestelling author of The Mysteries of Udolpho) and
especially Frances Burney, who, with her novels of manners Evelina (1778), Cecilia (1782), and Camilla
(1796), anticipated Austen’s theme of young heroines entering society. Jane Austen and the romantics: -
«For a long time, Austen and the Romantics occupied two different critical worlds: prose versus poetry,
eighteenth century versus nineteenth century, conservative versus radical, female versus male. More
recently, especially with the rise of feminist criticism, connections between Austen and Romanticism have
been traced in a number of ways». (W. Deresiewicz, Jane Austen and the Romantic Poets, 2004) - Although
she is not considered a typical romantic author, Jane Austen was a contemporary of canonical Romantic
authors. The Lyrical Ballads appeared in September 1798, just after Austen had begun to work on Susan. -
By 1816, the year she finished Persuasion, nearly all of Wordsworth’s significant work (excluding, of course,
the Prelude) had seen print. - While Blake would have been unknown to Austen and the careers of Shelley
and Keats not yet sufficiently developed by 1816 to have attracted critical attention, in 1812 Byron was
already famous after the publication of Childe Harold I–II and, Austen was familiar with his work, as the
many references present in Persuasion, and her personal letters testify.    Jane Austen and the Victorians:
67 ◦Jane Austen’s earliest writings are subversive tales of sexual transgression, of female drunkenness and
violence. They are characterised by exaggerated sentiment, extraordinary adventures and parodies of the
literature of her day, showing how early the activity of critical reading characterised her as a writer.  ◦Jane
Austen’s earliest writings are comic imitations or parodies of popular novels: of the classic Sir Charles
Grandison by her favourite author Samuel Richardson; of Oliver Goldsmith’s The History of England (4 vols,
1771); of the essayists Joseph Addison and Samuel Johnson. Jane Austen’s Novels: - Sense and sensibility
(1811) -> Published anonymously with the title “written by a lady” - Pride and Prejudice (1813) -> read by
mani aristocratic ladies, also in Buckingham palace there were copies of this masterpiece - Mansfield Park
(1814) - Emma (1815) - Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (posthumously, 1818) Other manuscripts: ◦Lady
Susan: a short epistolary novel, possibly written in 1794 but not published until 1871, in the second edition
of Edward Austen-Leigh’s Memoir. It is the only example of her work in letters that centers on a fascinating,
yet  unscrupulous and scheming widow obsessed with social power. ◦The Watsons: Provisionally titled The
Watsons, the novel, which was most probably  started in 1804, but left unfinished, following her father
George’s sudden death. The story follows Emma Watson, who is forced to return to her birth family after
the rich uncle who adopted her dies without leaving her an inheritance. Only five chapters (approximately
18,000 words) were ever completed. ◦Sanditon: Sanditon is Jane Austen’s last piece of work. It was begun
in January 1817 and left unfinished in March 1817, a few months before the author’s death, it was
originally entitled The Brothers. The novel appeared  under the title Sanditon upon its first publication in
1925. This last incomplete novel, full of comedy, humour and satire, is about the conversion of a barren
seaside village into a fashionable health resort. First biographies: - MYTH of this unaware and unconscious
genius who wrote only for her family and was not interested in success -> totally untrue story about her -
Henry Austen’s «Biographical Notice of the Author» (1818) published with the first edition of Northanegr
Abbey and Persuasion (1818) was the first attempt to provide details of the author’s lifer. He was the first
to publicly acknowledge his sister’s intelligence and talent, although he felt the need to stress how «neither
the hope of fame nor profit mixed with her early motives», so that she did «shrink from notoriety» and
«that no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions
of her pen». - The myth of the unaware and unconscious genius was thus laid in the Biographical Notice - In
1870, Jane’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published his Memoir of Jane Austen in which he
developed and consolidated this biographical and literary myth for his Victorian readership. He created the
myth of the sweet and loving «dear Aunt Jane», «the delight of all her nephews and nieces, someone who
was certainly not valued «as being clever, still less as being famous», but rather as being «sympathising and
amusing». Language: ◦Austen’s writing is characterised by a rich and dynamic language. ◦Austen is
particularly interested in the manipulation and misappropriation of language, and the consequences of an
inadequate usage of it. 70 ◦«Jane Austen’s concern with constructing appropriate linguistic models to
reflect social and moral conventions manifests itself in her use and refinement of various stylistics
techniques. A fundamental issue in Austen’s fiction is the importance of conversation, owing to the fact
that a woman’s sphere of action was considerably restricted in the nineteenth-century gentry world. » (A.
Mandall, Language in Jane Austen in Context) ◦Irony and wit: The use of irony and wit is one of the
prominent features of Austen’s style: it is displayed both by the authorial voice and by the characters, and
it’s the privileged means of social satire. Dialogue: ◦Austen doesn’t go into details when describing her
characters’ physical attributes, she is more interested in revealing their moral features through their words
and dialogues. ◦Jane Austen “had a dramatic sense of written dialogue, something  between ordinary and
theatrical speech”.(J. Todd, The Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen, 2006). ◦Dramatic dialogue is
particularly relevant in her novels. Austen learned from both Richardson and Burney whose characters
often reproduced conversations that run like play scripts. ◦«Austen’s sustained use of dialogue, with its
increasing naturalism, combines with her specific on-stage placement of characters, in order to provide a
dramatic urgency to novels in which not very much actually happens» ◦Her dialogues strike readers as more
“natural” than that of the other early 19th-century novelists. Narrative technique: ◦Austen developed a
narrative style to handle moral and emotional problems, including the internal conflicts of her heroines.
◦She found precedents in Fielding and Richardson but a major influence on her was represented by female
writers like Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Smith . ◦An important innovation they shared was free
indirect discourse, a narrative technique crucial to the novel’s inward turn. Accounts of this technique
regularly name Austen its first extensive practitioner, but it was used significantly by Austen’s immediate
precursors and contemporaries, and enabled the development of “a style which could allow a woman
writer to speak as one having authority” (Doody 1980: 268). ◦ In free indirect discourse, a text’s dominant
narrative style (typically third-person and past tense) incorporates, for brief snatches or longer passages,
words emanating from a particular character, without such tags as “he said” or “she thought” to make their
attribution explicit. Character and narrator momentarily merge and move apart again. ◦After the
publication of P&P, in a letter to her sister Cassandra, Austen wrote: «There are a few Typical errors –  & a
‘said he’ or a ‘said she’ would sometimes make the Dialogue more immediately clear – but I do not write for
such Dull Elves» (To Cassandra Austen, 29 January 1813) ◦Narrator: The Austen narrator is a strange
presence. Sometimes the narrator makes a synthesis of the general public opinion; sometimes it is not clear
whether a statement is a comment or free indirect speech, whether it belongs to the narrator or to a
character.  Conservative criticism -> Austen as a writer being part of a conservative tradition, this critiques
are the supporters of the memoire published about her, so a writer that was not interested on her success,
conservative ideas Subversive criticism -> they think that there was something behind Jane Austen’s stories,
they try reading in between her novels and her letters in order to find her real voice which has been hidden
by her biography written by her nephew 71 MANSFIELD PARK (1814): • Mansfield Park is the first of Jane
Austen’s novels to be conceived as well as executed and published in maturity. • Explicitly set in the
contemporary world, and with several references to current events and controversies, Mansfield Park
marked the beginning of a new phase of her writing. • Jane Austen was working on Mansfield Park in 1813,
completing it by the summer. • Published by Thomas Egerton, like her previous novel Pride and Prejudice.
Austen believed that he would agree to a second edition. Egerton declined and with the help of her brother
Henry, Jane changed publisher. It was John Murray (publisher of Scott and Byron) who published the
second edition of MP in February 1816. • Neglected in its own time (it was never reviewed), in our time MP
is eagerly read as it is generally considered Austen’s most controversial novel. «This is largely because its
apparent skepticism about wit, high spirits, and desire appears to announce an abrupt about-face from her
previous work» (C. Johnson, Jane Austen and Mansfield Park) Title: • The title, according to John Wiltshire,
might allude to Mansfield House in Samuel Richardson’s novel Sir Charles Grandison.  • Many critics believe
that the name Mansfield might refer to Lord Mansfield, the eighteenth-century judge who gave a
judgement in forbidding slavery on English soil in 1772. He became very well known thanks to the
Somersett case (1772) that involved a slave, James Somersett who was bought in Virginia and tried to run
away after arriving in London. Mansfield decided that an escaping slave could not be forcibly removed from
England for punishment in a colony. He argued that while colonial laws might permit slavery, neither the
common law of England, nor any law made by Parliament recognised the existence of slavery, and that it
was therefore illegal. • Until 1772, when Lord Chief Justice Mansfield’s judgement in the Somerset case
established the first and controversial precedent, the legal frame for the status of colonial slaves in England
was provided by the Yorke and Talbot joint opinion, which, in 1729, had established that “a slave by coming
from the West Indies into Great Britain or Ireland, either with or without his master, does not become
free.” • In 1729, Sir Philip Yorke and Charles Talbot, respectively, as attorney-general and solicitor- general,
had had a petition submitted to them by the West India lobby, asking for legal clarification on property
rights regarding black slaves brought into England. In 1772, the case of the slave James Somerset, who was
being forcibly re-exported to the colonies by his master, was brought before the Lord Chief Justice
Mansfield, by a group of English humanitarians, led by Granville Sharp. Mansfield established that the
owner did not have the right to re-dispatch the slave to the colonies. However important the establishment
of a precedent might be, it was far from promoting a generalised rule, or the elimination of slavery in
England, as the “historical myth” of the Somerset case often had it The “Mansfield” connection: Jane
Austen’s deliberate choice? Before Jane Austen was born, Granville Sharp’s pioneering work against slavery
in collaboration with black people in London in the 1760s show consciences at work and with influence.
Injustices had already been brought to notice, helping to create a fertile ground for the 1780s
popularization of the abolitionist cause. Her life coincided with heroism against formidable opposition from
those with much to lose from disturbing the wealth-creation enabled by development of sugar plantations.
[...] The ‘West India interest’ must have been annoyed by the legal decision in 1772 of Lord Chief Justice
Mansfield. The decision, three years before Jane Austen was born, was that a black defendant James
Somersett could not be taken against his will back out of England and returned to slavery in the colony of
Virginia. [...] It has been suggested that the title of Mansfield Park may be an allusion to Lord Mansfield,
whose name had become associated 72 • Maria Bertram, elder daughter of Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram,
three years older than Fanny. • Julia Bertram, younger daughter of Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, two years
older than Fanny. • Dr Grant, incumbent of the Mansfield Park parsonage after Mr Norris dies. • Mrs Grant,
wife of Mr Grant, and half-sister of Henry and Mary Crawford. • Henry Crawford, brother of Miss Crawford
and half-brother of Mrs Grant. • Mary Crawford, sister of Mr Crawford and half-sister of Mrs Grant. • Mr.
Rushworth, Maria Bertram's fiancé, then husband. • The Hon. John Yates, friend of Tom Bertram. • William
Price, Fanny's older brother. • Mr Price, Fanny's father, an officer in the Marines who lives in Portsmouth. •
Mrs Price, born Frances (Fanny) Ward, Fanny's mother. • Susan Price, Fanny's younger sister. • Lady
Stornoway, a society woman, complicit in Mr Crawford and Maria's flirtation. • Mrs Rushworth, Mr
Rushworth's mother and Maria's mother-in-law. • Baddeley, the butler at Mansfield Park. Internal
chronology of Mansfield Park: “I shall walk down immediately after breakfast,” said he, “and am sure of
giving pleasure there. And now, dear Fanny, I will not interrupt you any longer. You want to be reading. But
I could not be easy till I had spoken to you, and come to a decision. Sleeping or waking, my head has been
full of this matter all night. It is an evil, but I am certainly making it less than it might be. If Tom is up, I shall
go to him directly and get it over, and when we meet at breakfast we shall be all in high good–humour at
the prospect of acting the fool together with such unanimity. You, in the meanwhile, will be taking a trip
into China, I suppose. How does Lord Macartney go on?”—opening a volume on the table and then taking
up some others. “And here are Crabbe’s Tales, and the Idler, at hand to relieve you, if you tire of your great
book. I admire your little establishment exceedingly; and as soon as I am gone, you will empty your head of
all this nonsense of acting, and sit comfortably down to your table. But do not stay here to be cold.” - For
Jane Austen, reading is always a positive element, in fact all her heroines read a lot, especially Fanny Price -
Among the books that Edmund finds on her table, he finds George Crabbe’s tales - George Crabbe’s tales:
rural life of the time, episodes of degradation and poverty, his tales are examples of realistic
representations of rural life, his tales were published in 1812 -> so we can suppose that Austen’s novel
might take place in this period - Until 1995, the idea was that Austen set the novel in 1809 Re-construction
of the timeline of the novel by Brian Southam: -Sir Thomas and Tom leave for Antigua about October 1810 -
Tom returns about September 1811 -Sir Thomas writes home, April 1812 -Fanny in possession of Crabbe’s
Tales, published in September 1812 -Sir Thomas returns, late October 1812 -Edmund turns to Fanny,
summer 1813 According to Brian Southam: “So Jane Austen fixes the month and the year of Sir Thomas’s
return as October 1812. October 1813 is theoretically possible, until we calculate that this would put the
end of the story at mid-1814, about nine months after Austen had completed the novel; and it is highly
improbable that she would use a time scheme setting the final section of the story in the future. With
October 1812 as the known point, the reader can work backwards and forwards in the story to construct a
time-scheme for the main action of just under three years, within which fall six key events” 75 Setting the
novel in 1810 tells us that Sir Thomas had business in Antigua when the slave trade had already been
abolished in 1807, so he had an illegal business The dating of the action: an alternative reading • Not all
critics agree with Brian Southam’s analysis • The dating of the action of Mansfield Park is controversial, and
upon it depends the interpretation of several incidents or circumstances in the novel. […] • I have taken the
view […] that the action of the novel, running mainly from 1808–9, reaches its climax in March or April
1809, and that the aftermath takes place over the next year or two, bringing it up close to the date on
which Jane Austen probably began planning or composing in 1811. It is certainly after the abolition of the
slave trade, but I do not believe that Jane Austen meant the reader to recognise that the action took place
in a precise year or years. Main themes: - double heroine: Fanny vs Mary Crawford-> Fanny Price is a
complex heroine, she is not described as an attractive heroine, she is described as a plain character, she
gets tired very easily, she doesn’t talk very often, she is the opposite of Mary Crawford, a fashionable young
lady who arrives from London, she seems to be the real continuation of Elizabeth Bennet - Private
theatricals - Slave trade -> Sir Thomas ambiguous position in the West Indies (Antigua), how does Austen
want us to think about his (illegal?) business - The church and the military -> these are the professions she
knew most about, the idea that Edmund was about to become a clergyman was a totally unattractive idea
Narrative Voice: - it is another problematic aspect - Part of the complexity of MP is represented by the
narrative voice, more evasive and unreliable than in any other Austen novel: more devoted at one moment,
more detached at another, sometimes apparently ‘allied’ with (‘my’) Fanny, sometimes ironically detached.
- The narrator is more obtrusive, moralizing on characters and events in a way more evident than in ant
other Austen novels. - The use of free indirect speech increases resulting in a subtler psychological analysis
of characters than that realised in her earlier fiction.      Critical reception: • «Mansfield Park confounds
popular conceptions of ‘Jane Austen’ as a light and amusing novelist, as well as the expectations of readers
fresh from her other books» (J. Wiltshire, Introduction to Mansfield Park, in The Cambridge Edition of the
Works of Jane Austen, CUP, 2005) • On publication the novel wasn’t reviewd, it was met with silence. 
When Walter Scott reviewed Emma (Quarterly Review, October 1815) he did not mention MP.  • MP is
Austen’s most controversial novel also as far as its critical reception is concerned. What puzzled critics was
in particular the character of Fanny Price. Reginald Farrer described her as a «penniless little nobody»
(1917), D. W. Harding as a «dreary, delibitated, priggish goody-goody» (1970). • In his ground-breaking
1954 essay, Lionel Trilling famously wrote: «Nobody, I believe, has ever found it possible to like the heroine
of Mansfield Park» but he was one of the first critics to rehabilitate the novel, later, Tony Tanner (1968)
maintained emphasis on the novel's deep moral strength.  A. Duckworth (1971) read the novel as the
expression of Austen’s conservativism and defense of the traditional social values. The episode of the
theatricals was also interpretd as a violation of the established order that needed to be condemned. M.
Butler (Jane Austen’s War of Ideas) followed Duckworth’s critical position even adding that Austen shared
the same position as other Anti-Jacobin writers. Fanny’s status as a 76 specifically Christian heroine
characterised Butler’s interpretation. Claudia Johnson’s subversive reading of MP (Jane Austen: Women,
Politics and the Novel,1988) underlines how the novel «erodes rather than upholds» conservative issues.
Particularly convincing was her reading of Sir Thomas as a tyrant who treats the women of his family like
slaves. Johnson went even further in remarking that Sir Thomas’s family fortunes depended on his
plantations in Antigua. This idea was famously developed by the post-colonial critic Edward Said • By the
end of the twentieth-century post-colonial readings of the novel cohabited with feminist readings as
imperialism itself could be interpreted as an expression of patriarchal values.  • Scholars, like Margaret
Kirkham, who had published her Jane Austen, Feminism and Fiction, some years earlier than Culture and
Imperialism, didn’t simply secure a place for Jane Austen among a line of proto-feminist authors like Mary
Astell and Mary Wollstonecraft, finding that they shared similar ideas about the position of women in
society, female education, marriage, Kirkham, was one of the first feminist critics to directly debate
Austen’s knowledge of slavery, but also to critically argue the confluence of abolitionist and feminist issues
within Mansfield Park. She wasn’t only convinced that Austen was an abolitionist, but also that in her work:
“ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity are given an English, feminist meaning”, so much so that “the
equal moral status of women is made clear through exposure of the absurdity of any other belief.” Faithful
to this subversive reading, Fanny’s query about the slave trade could not but be read as directly questioning
the condition of women and that of slaves: “We are not told what the question was, nor what answer was
given but, through the title, the making of Sir Thomas a slave- owner abroad, and the unstated question of
Miss Fanny, her moral status in England is complicitly contrasted yet also compared with that of the
Antiguan slaves.” • Another pioneering and extremely influential feminist interpretation is represented by
Moira Ferguson’s “Mansfield Park: Slavery, Colonialism, and Gender”, in which the critic theorises the
reenactment of a plantocratic society at Mansfield Park. According to Ferguson, it is Fanny Price herself
who – transported from Portsmouth to Mansfield, abused by Mrs. Norris, who functions as Sir Thomas’s
superintendent – personifies in the novel the role of the slave, she “is the object” and her “feelings are
irrelevant as slaves’ feelings” , clearly embodying the Antiguan slave at Mansfield Park. The theatricals: -
The texts that is staged is “Lovers’Vows" (1798), a play by Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821), she adapted the
play from a German novel “Das Kind Der Liebe” (1790) by August Von Kotzebue (1761-1819) - Lovers’ Vows:
Story of a young woman called Amelia who falls in love with her tutor, she is a radical heroine who imposes
her will to her father, in the end she marries the man she loves and not the one decided by her father - It
was a very popular and at the same time a very criticised text - Lovers’ Vows, Elizabeth Inchbald adaptation
of August von Kotzebue’s play Das Kind der Liebe (1790) was performed for the first time at Covent Garden
on 11 October 1798 reaping an unexpected success. During the 1798-1799 season it was staged 42 times,
and Jane Austen herself probably went to see it when it was performed in Bath at the Theatre Royal.  -
August von Kotzebue (1761-1819), was one of the most distinguished and successful playwrights of the
time in Germany, though his work had always been accused by the critics of being merely a form of
superficial entertainment. While his comedies and dramatic pieces met with immense success in England,
France, Russia, Sweden and Italy, he was very ill treated in Germany, where the negative judgments of the
most famous writers of his time (Goethe, Schiller), prejudiced his contemporary and future esteem.   The
key scene: it was attacked by everyone as being an irreverent attack to the patriarchal society, it is the
scene that Edmund and Mary Crawford have to stage in the novel 77 “About thirty years ago Miss Maria
Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas
Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a
baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All
Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be
at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her
elevation; and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as
Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage. But there certainly are
not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them. Miss Ward, at
the end of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her
brother-in-law, with scarcely any private fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse. Miss Ward's match,
indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend
an income in the living of Mansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with
very little less than a thousand a year. But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her
family, and by fixing on a lieutenant of marines, without education, fortune, or connexions, did it very
thoroughly. She could hardly have made a more untoward choice. Sir Thomas Bertram had interest, which,
from principle as well as pride--from a general wish of doing right, and a desire of seeing all that were
connected with him in situations of respectability, he would have been glad to exert for the advantage of
Lady Bertram's sister; but her husband's profession was such as no interest could reach; and before he had
time to devise any other method of assisting them, an absolute breach between the sisters had taken place.
It was the natural result of the conduct of each party, and such as a very imprudent marriage almost always
produces. To save herself from useless remonstrance, Mrs. Price never wrote to her family on the subject
till actually married. Lady Bertram, who was a woman of very tranquil feelings, and a temper remarkably
easy and indolent, would have contented herself with merely giving up her sister, and thinking no more of
the matter; but Mrs. Norris had a spirit of activity, which could not be satisfied till she had written a long
and angry letter to Fanny, to point out the folly of her conduct, and threaten her with all its possible ill
consequences. Mrs. Price, in her turn, was injured and angry; and an answer, which comprehended each
sister in its bitterness, and bestowed such very disrespectful reflections on the pride of Sir Thomas as Mrs.
Norris could not possibly keep to herself, put an end to all intercourse between them for a considerable
period.” • She is brought at the age of 9 to live with her reach relatives • It is a buildungsroman because we
follow the story of a heroine and her growing up • She is quite unhappy when she arrives and the only
character she relates to is Edmund and when she grows older she falls in love with him • The first chapter
already tell us a lot about what is going to happen next • The beginning is very similar to Pride and
Prejudice: importance of the marriage and the money -> everything was settled through marriage and
money • Austen writes in a period which is based on marriage contracts, but Jane Austen relies her interest
on the possibility that her characters may marry for love (Fanny and Edmund) • If you don’t have much
money, it is difficult to find your daughter a good husband • Miss Maria Word manages to make a good
match because she is beautiful -> when a daughter marries well, the rest of the family has the possibility to
do the same • But this is not the case, because her sister Frances marries much below of her possibilities •
Idea that an imprudent marriage can ruin your life and future Beginning (volume 1, chapter 1) “Mrs Norris
was sorry today that the little girl’s staying with them, at least as things then were, was quite out of the
question. Poor Mr. Norris’s different state of health made it an impossibility, he could no more bear the
noise of a child than he could fly, if indeed he should ever get well of his gouty complaints, it would be a
different matter …” • Example of free indirect speech 80 • Third person narrator who presents the ideas
and the worlds of the characters through an indirect speech • Emblematic passage • After many years,
Frances writes a letter asking her sisters to help her because she has financial difficulties • Already in the
second page of the novel we get to know that Sir Thomas has his business in Antigua • Mrs Norris does not
want the child to stay with her but she thinks it is right to send her to Mansfield Park -> here the narrator
reports the idea of Mrs Norris, example of indirect speech Beginning (vol. I chapter I) […]"Should her
disposition be really bad," said Sir Thomas, "we must not, for our own children's sake, continue her in the
family; but there is no reason to expect so great an evil. We shall probably see much to wish altered in her,
and must prepare ourselves for gross ignorance, some meanness of opinions, and very distressing vulgarity
of manner; but these are not incurable faults; nor, I trust, can they be dangerous for her associates. Had my
daughters been _younger_ than herself, I should have considered the introduction of such a companion as
a matter of very serious moment; but, as it is, I hope there can be nothing to fear for _them_, and
everything to hope for _her_, from the association." "That is exactly what I think," cried Mrs. Norris, "and
what I was saying to my husband this morning. It will be an education for the child, said I, only being with
her cousins; if Miss Lee taught her nothing, she would learn to be good and clever from _them_." "I hope
she will not tease my poor pug," said Lady Bertram; "I have but just got Julia to leave it alone." "There will
be some difficulty in our way, Mrs. Norris," observed Sir Thomas, "as to the distinction proper to be made
between the girls as they grow up: how to preserve in the minds of my _daughters_ the consciousness of
what they are, without making them think too lowly of their cousin; and how, without depressing her
spirits too far, to make her remember that she is not a _Miss Bertram_. I should wish to see them very
good friends, and would, on no account, authorise in my girls the smallest degree of arrogance towards
their relation; but still they cannot be equals. Their rank, fortune, rights, and expectations will always be
different. It is a point of great delicacy, and you must assist us in our endeavours to choose exactly the right
line of conduct.” • The dialogues tell us a lot about the character themselves • Sir Thomas has a very
paternalistic attitude -> idea that Fanny is poor and so they all have to be prepared for her vulgarity, he
discusses everything according to the social status of the people • Lady Bertram is a useless character, she
does not care about anything, she does not care about her children who are raised by another woman •
From the moment Fanny arrives, everyone says to her that she is very lucky and she is always remanded
that she is not their equal and that she should always show her gratitude towards them • Fanny should be
always remanded of her inferiority • Here we see the way Jane Austen is able to introduce the character
and their ideas thought the dialogue • Mrs Norris is a very tricky and nasty character -> there some ironic
elements, when they are discussing she says that solution is to raise the children together in order to avoid
sentimental relations Fanny Price Fanny Price was at this time just ten years old, and though there might
not be much in her first appearance to captivate, there was, at least, nothing to disgust her relations. She
was small of her age, with no glow of complexion, nor any other striking beauty; exceedingly timid and shy,
and shrinking from notice; but her air, though awkward, was not vulgar, her voice was sweet, 81 and when
she spoke her countenance was pretty. Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram received her very kindly; and Sir
Thomas, seeing how much she needed encouragement, tried to be all that was conciliating: but he had to
work against a most untoward gravity of deportment; and Lady Bertram, without taking half so much
trouble, or speaking one word where he spoke ten, by the mere aid of a good-humoured smile, became
immediately the less awful character of the two. […] The holiday allowed to the Miss Bertrams the next day,
on purpose to afford leisure for getting acquainted with, and entertaining their young cousin, produced
little union. They could not but hold her cheap on finding that she had but two sashes, and had never
learned French; and when they perceived her to be little struck with the duet they were so good as to play,
they could do no more than make her a generous present of some of their least valued toys, and leave her
to herself, while they adjourned to whatever might be the favourite holiday sport of the moment, making
artificial flowers or wasting gold paper. Fanny, whether near or from her cousins, whether in the
schoolroom, the drawing-room, or the shrubbery, was equally forlorn, finding something to fear in every
person and place. She was disheartened by Lady Bertram's silence, awed by Sir Thomas's grave looks, and
quite overcome by Mrs. Norris's admonitions. Her elder cousins mortified her by reflections on her size, and
abashed her by noticing her shyness: Miss Lee wondered at her ignorance, and the maid-servants sneered
at her clothes; and when to these sorrows was added the idea of the brothers and sisters among whom she
had always been important as playfellow, instructress, and nurse, the despondence that sunk her little
heart was severe. The grandeur of the house astonished, but could not console her. The rooms were too
large for her to move in with ease: whatever she touched she expected to injure, and she crept about in
constant terror of something or other; often retreating towards her own chamber to cry; and the little girl
who was spoken of in the drawing-room when she left it at night as seeming so desirably sensible of her
peculiar good fortune, ended every day's sorrows by sobbing herself to sleep. A week had passed in this
way, and no suspicion of it conveyed by her quiet passive manner, when she was found one morning by her
cousin Edmund, the youngest of the sons, sitting crying on the attic stairs. “My dear little cousin,” said he,
with all the gentleness of an excellent nature, “what can be the matter?” (chapter II) • Fanny is presented
like someone not particularly worthy, she does not have something particular to underline, she has
“nothing to disgust her relations”, she does not have a striking beauty -> we have nothing to say about her
• She is received kindly by Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram -> the relation between Sir Thomas and Fanny is
very complex • People tend to forget about her, they don’t know where she is, they don’t understand what
kind of person she is, Fanny is often silent and always sitting in a corner of the house • From the moment
Sir Thomas comes back from Antigua: she very slowly turns into the centre of the stage • Fanny is
considered poor because of the way she looks like, she does not have enough clothes, she does not have a
proper education • When she was at her home, she had a precise role because she was the older sisters,
now in Mansfield Park she feels totally lost • Fanny is always asked to be grateful, it is expected from her to
be grateful from the upbringing she is receiving -> she is going to grow up in an aristocratic context • Fanny
takes her inner feeling for herself and in order to survive she lies -> she is constantly un-sincere about her
feelings • Dissimulation: she pretends to be ok while she actually is not • On the contrary, Mary Crawford is
always very direct Mary Crawford Mary Crawford was remarkably pretty; Henry, though not handsome,
had air and countenance; the manners of both were lively and pleasant, and Mrs. Grant immediately gave
them credit for everything else. She was delighted with each, but Mary was her dearest 82 father's account,
absent as he is, and in some degree of constant danger; and it would be imprudent, I think, with regard to
Maria, whose situation is a very delicate one, considering everything, extremely delicate.” (MP, chapter XIII)
The first use she made of her solitude was to take up the volume which had been left on the table, and
begin to acquaint herself with the play of which she had heard so much. Her curiosity was all awake, and
she ran through it with an eagerness which was suspended only by intervals of astonishment, that it could
be chosen in the present instance, that it could be proposed and accepted in a private theatre! Agatha and
Amelia appeared to her in their different ways so totally improper for home representation—the situation
of one, and the language of the other, so unfit to be expressed by any woman of modesty, that she could
hardly suppose her cousins could be aware of what they were engaging in; and longed to have them roused
as soon as possible by the remonstrance which Edmund would certainly make. (chapter XIV) • The moment
in which the feelings that had been kept inside and beneath now explode • Jane Austen herself extremely
enjoyed going to the theatre, she loved the theatricals at home as well • When Lover’s vows was staged for
the first time, Several periodicals started a campaign against the moral depravation of the German dramas
• Especially the character of Amelia was very discussed (a female character who imposes herself over the
others) • The moment of acting is proposed by Mr Yates and Tom Bertram, who is returned earlier from the
West Indies • Moment of great excitement at Mansfield • Fanny’s role in the theatrical : it is marginal, she
does not want to stage anything improper, she immediately says that she won’t stage the play -> at the end
she will have a more important role than what we think in the beginning • At the beginning, Edmund is
totally against this theatrical • Fanny starts to read the theatrical play -> role of Fanny Price as a great
reader • Fanny knows exactly what is going on • Specific passage : when Amelia (a confident and young
woman) decides not to marry the count but to marry her tutor since she is in love with him • Scene in
which Amelia declares her love to her tutor in such a direct and impertinent way -> indignation of everyone
• Mary = Amelia / Edmund= Anhalt • Amelia breaks the balance in the relations between tutor and
student / man and woman / love and marriage -> incredible moment of subversion of hierarchy “She
began, and Fanny joined in with all the modest feeling which the idea of representing Edmund was so
strongly calculated to inspire; but with looks and voice so truly feminine as to be no very good picture of a
man. With such an Anhalt, however, Miss Crawford had courage enough; and they had got through half the
scene, when a tap at the door brought a pause, and the entrance of Edmund, the next moment, suspended
it all. Surprise, consciousness, and pleasure appeared in each of the three on this unexpected meeting; and
as Edmund was come on the very same business that had brought Miss Crawford, consciousness and
pleasure were likely to be more than momentary in them. He too had his book, and was seeking Fanny, to
ask her to rehearse with him, and help him to prepare for the evening, without knowing Miss Crawford to
be in the house; and great was the joy and animation of being thus thrown together, of comparing
schemes, and sympathising in praise of Fanny's kind offices. She could not equal them in their
warmth. Her spirits sank under the glow of theirs, and she felt herself becoming too nearly nothing to both
to have any comfort in having been sought by either. They must now rehearse together. Edmund proposed,
urged, entreated it, till the lady, not very unwilling at first, could refuse no longer, and Fanny was wanted
only to prompt and 85 observe them. She was invested, indeed, with the office of judge and critic, and
earnestly desired to exercise it and tell them all their faults; but from doing so every feeling within her
shrank—she could not, would not, dared not attempt it: had she been otherwise qualified for criticism, her
conscience must have restrained her from venturing at disapprobation. She believed herself to feel too
much of it in the aggregate for honesty or safety in particulars. To prompt them must be enough for her;
and it was sometimes more than enough; for she could not always pay attention to the book. In watching
them she forgot herself; and, agitated by the increasing spirit of Edmund's manner, had once closed the
page and turned away exactly as he wanted help. It was imputed to very reasonable weariness, and she
was thanked and pitied; but she deserved their pity more than she hoped they would ever surmise. At last
the scene was over, and Fanny forced herself to add her praise to the compliments each was giving the
other; and when again alone and able to recall the whole, she was inclined to believe their performance
would, indeed, have such nature and feeling in it as must ensure their credit, and make it a very suffering
exhibition to herself.  Whatever might be its effect, however, she must stand the brunt of it again that very
day”. (chapter 18) • Fanny is asked first by Mary (who has come to see her in a room where she hides most
of the time) to rehearse with her, then arrives also Edmund who has come to see Fanny for the same
reason • Fanny becomes the “voyer” of watching Mary and Edmund rehearsing this scene • Fanny reads
the play completely, she knows exactly what the play is about, she rehearse it with Mary, then she
becomes the witness the staging of this love scene • Fanny learns from Amelia many aspects of herself -> in
the life of Mansfield Park, the one who will finally get the role of Amelia will be Fanny • Edmund in Fanny’s
life could be read as her tutor, exactly as Amelia and Anhalt • Fanny and Mary are the two heroines who
are longing to get the role of Amelia in real life • Mary is as sincere and confident as Amelia, on the
contrary, Fanny is not Slavery “I suppose I am graver than other people,” said Fanny. “The evenings do not
appear long to me. I love to hear my uncle talk of the West Indies. I could listen to him for an hour
together. It entertains me more than many other things have done; but then I am unlike other people, I
dare say.” “Why should you dare say that?” (smiling). “Do you want to be told that you are only unlike
other people in being more wise and discreet? But when did you, or anybody, ever get a compliment from
me, Fanny? Go to my father if you want to be complimented. He will satisfy you. Ask your uncle what he
thinks, and you will hear compliments enough: and though they may be chiefly on your person, you must
put up with it, and trust to his seeing as much beauty of mind in time.” Such language was so new to Fanny
that it quite embarrassed her. “Your uncle thinks you very pretty, dear Fanny— and that is the long and the
short of the matter. Anybody but myself would have made something more of it, and anybody but you
would resent that you had not been thought very pretty before; but the truth is, that your uncle never did
admire you till now—and now he does. Your complexion is so improved!—and you have gained so much
countenance!—and your figure—nay, Fanny, do not turn away about it— it is but an uncle. If you cannot
bear an uncle’s admiration, what is to become of you? You must really begin to harden yourself to the idea
of being worth looking at. You must try not to mind growing up into a pretty woman.” (chapter 21) • The
moment when sir Thomas comes back from Antigua • Everyone is rehearsing the play, it is a moment of
great joy and excitement -> in the middle of everything sir Thomas comes back • They are staging in rooms
that belong to sir Thomas (billiard room and sir Thomas’ study where there is a library) -> patriarchal locus
• The staging itself is a threat to the patriarchal order in a moment when the patriarch is away 86 • What
sort of authority does sir Thomas represent? Problem of the post-colonial reading has entered • On what
business does all Mansfield Park does lie on? • Sir Thomas faced with serious problems in Antigua, maybe
there were some rebellions? • Fanny becomes more relevant in the eyes of sir Thomas -> as soon as he
comes back he asks for Fanny • From this moment on, Fanny starts having a less peripheral role and
becomes more and more important • She is also more interested into sir Thomas business • Moment when
Fanny end Edmund are discussing the relation Fanny has with sir Thomas Slavery “Oh! don’t talk so, don’t
talk so,” cried Fanny, distressed by more feelings than he was aware of; but seeing that she was distressed,
he had done with the subject, and only added more seriously— “Your uncle is disposed to be pleased with
you in every respect; and I only wish you would talk to him more. You are one of those who are too silent in
the evening circle.” “But I do talk to him more than I used. I am sure I do. Did not you hear me ask him
about the slave–trade last night?” “I did—and was in hopes the question would be followed up by others. It
would have pleased your uncle to be inquired of farther.” “And I longed to do it—but there was such a
dead silence! And while my cousins were sitting by without speaking a word, or seeming at all interested in
the subject, I did not like— I thought it would appear as if I wanted to set myself off at their expense, by
shewing a curiosity and pleasure in his information which he must wish his own daughters to feel.” (chapter
21) • Question of the slave-trade that Fanny asks to her uncle • What is Fanny / Jane Austen trying to do in
this passage? It remains an open question • Fanny gives the theme of discussion of the slave trade for
granted • This is the most discussed passage of the novel Mr Crawford’s proposal There was a look, a start,
an exclamation, on hearing this, which astonished Sir Thomas; but what was his increase of astonishment
on hearing her exclaim - "Oh! no, Sir, I cannot, indeed I cannot go down to him. Mr. Crawford ought to
know - he must know that - I told him enough yesterday to convince him - he spoke to me on this subject
yesterday - and I told him without disguise that it was very disagreeable to me, and quite out of my power
to return his good opinion." "I do not catch your meaning," said Sir Thomas, sitting down again. - "Out of
your power to return his good opinion! What is all this? I know he spoke to you yesterday, and (as far as I
understand), received as much encouragement to proceed as a well-judging young woman could permit
herself to give. I was very much pleased with what I collected to have been your behaviour on the occasion;
it shewed a discretion highly to be commended. But now, when he has made his overtures so properly, and
honourably - what are your scruples now?" "You are mistaken, Sir," - cried Fanny, forced by the anxiety of
the moment even to tell her uncle that he was wrong - "You are quite mistaken. How could Mr. Crawford
say such a thing? I gave him no encouragement yesterday - On the contrary, I told him - I cannot recollect
my exact words - but I am sure I told him that I would not listen to him, that it was very unpleasant to me in
every respect, and that I begged him never to talk to me in that manner again. - I am sure I said as much as
that and more; and I should have said still more, - if I had been quite certain of his meaning any thing
seriously, but I did not like to be - I could not bear to be - imputing more than might be intended. I thought
it might all pass for nothing with him.» She could say no more; her breath was almost gone. "Am I to
understand," said Sir Thomas, after a few moments silence, "that you mean to refuse Mr. Crawford?» "Yes,
Sir." 87 ENDING Would Henry Crawford have deserved more there can be no doubt that more would have
been obtained especially when that marriage had taken place, which would have given him the assistance
of her conscience in subduing her first inclination, and brought them very often together. Would he have
persevered and fanny must have been his reward - and a reward very voluntarily bestowed - within a
reasonable period from Edmund’s marrying Mary Scarcely had he done regretting Mary Crawford, and
observing to Fanny how impossible it was that he should ever meet with such another woman, before it
began to strike him whether a very different kind of woman might not do just as well, or a great deal
better: whether Fanny herself were not growing as dear, as important to him in all her smiles and all her
ways, as Mary Crawford had ever been; and whether it might not be a possible, an hopeful undertaking to
persuade her that her warm and sisterly regard for him would be foundation enough for wedded love. I
purposely abstain from dates on this occasion, that every one may be at liberty to fix their own, aware that
the cure of unconquerable passions, and the transfer of unchanging attachments, must vary much as to
time in different people. I only entreat everybody to believe that exactly at the time when it was quite
natural that it should be so, and not a week earlier, Edmund did cease to care about Miss Crawford, and
became as anxious to marry Fanny, as Fanny herself could desire.[…] Fanny was indeed the daughter that
he wanted. His charitable kindness had been rearing a prime comfort for himself. His liberality had a rich
repayment, and the general goodness of his intentions by her deserved it. He might have made her
childhood happier; but it had been an error of judgment only which had given him the appearance of
harshness, and deprived him of her early love; and now, on really knowing each other, their mutual
attachment became very strong. (chapter XLVIII) • Some critics think that in reality she had in mind a
different ending • Ambiguous passage that regards Henry Crawford -> it is not only a thought of the reader,
but it is also something that Austen discusses with her reader, maybe she could have chosen another
ending for Henry • The possibility of this double ending is actually something that Austen herself makes
very clear in the end of the novel • It reflects two reading of the novel -> idea of the conservative (they
endorse the official conclusion of the novel, as an approval of the traditional and moral values embodied by
Fanny) and subversive reading (they take the side of Mary) • Dichotomy = there are projections of the
author herself both in Mary and in Fanny -> both heroins are fighting for the role of Amelia, as for the
theatre the role is given to Mary but in reality it is given to Fanny • There are many different possibilities of
interpretation • Fanny comes back to Mansfield Park • During Thomas’ illness, Mary Crawford says she
hopes Thomas to die so that Edmund will become the heir • At this point, Edmund understands that he
cannot marry her because she is too direct and she is not the right person for him • Then he realises that
there is someone else who loves him, that is Fanny • Edmund is sexually attracted to Mary, but Fanny is the
right woman in order to become the wife of a clergyman • Jane Austen does not give us any details •
Disappointing feeling-> we do not understand if Edmund is still in love with Mary or not • The only one who
is happy at the end is Fanny • Natural moment for Edmund looking at fanny and realising that she is the
companion he have always wanted • Ambiguous and satisfying ending 90 • Relation between fanny and sir
Thomas • Sir Thomas sees fanny as the moral heir of Mansfield Park Final ideas about this novel: When we
have so many different contradictory interpretations about a novel, there must be something that leaves us
with an ambiguity that is not resolved This novel is created by Jane Austen herself as an ambiguous novel,
she did it intentionally So many things remain unsolved -> the role of sir Thomas in Antigua, the
relationship between fanny and Edmund It is destined to remain a complex and unresolved text
Cinematographic adaptations: Patricia Rozema adaptation of Mansfield park (1999): - post-colonial reading
- She re-interpreted the role of Fanny Price -> character of Fanny Price in order to create a heroine that
could be interesting for the audience of the 20th century, it is a mix between the character and the life of
Fanny Price and of Jane Austen, many changes in order to make Fanny attractive, she is physically active,
she is very direct, she is an attractive young woman and a talented writer - Many changing to the original
novel: Differences from the novel: David Monaghan argues that viewers should approach Rozema's
Mansfield Park as ‘an independent work of art rather than an adaptation of Austen’s novel’. The film differs
from the Jane Austen novel Mansfield Park in several ways. The film changes some central characters,
eliminates several others, and reorganises certain events. The result is a film that retains the core of
character evolution and events of Austen's novel, but in other ways, stresses its themes and ideas
differently. The plot changes the moral message of Austen's novel, making the story a critique of slavery
rather than, as some critics understand it, a conservative critique.[4] While in the novel Fanny's passivity
and moral stance are represented as virtues, these aspects of her character are altered in the film. The
exception is in the staging of Lovers' Vows when Fanny abstains.[5][6] - Slavery: Austen's novel
mentions slavery on several occasions but does not elaborate on it. Most notably, in the novel, Fanny asks a
question about the slave trade to Sir Thomas and is not answered. The film includes slavery as a central plot
point, including explicit descriptions of the treatment of slaves (e.g. Fanny finds violent drawings of the
treatment of slaves in Tom's room); numerous reminders of how the Bertram family owes its wealth to
slavery, as well as Great Britain's role in the slave trade. The role and influence of slavery in the world of
Mansfield Park is emphasized from the start of the film. Fanny sees a slave ship near the coast on her initial
journey to the family, asks her coachman about it and receives an explanation. Tom Bertram's return from
Antigua is motivated by his disgust with what he has seen there, and this disgust is reinforced by a journal
that Fanny finds at Mansfield Park recounting apparently criminal events occurring in Antigua that involve
Sir Thomas. The profits coming to the plantation are strictly connected to Mansfield Park, in fact they all
live from the profits, including fanny At the end of the film a voiceover also informs the viewer that Sir
Thomas has divested himself of his estates in Antigua, presumably as a form of redemption. - The character
of Fanny Price: Rozema employs "a collage or prismatic-like approach" in her adaptation of Fanny's
character, incorporating elements of Jane Austen's character in order to update the 91 "annoying"
character for a contemporary audience. Rozema's modification of the character of Fanny Price, whom she
considered an unpopular heroine, was to add colour and spirit by conflating her with the character of
Austen herself, drawing upon her extensive juvenilia and letters.[3] In the novel, Fanny is very shy and
timid, and generally reluctant to give her own opinion. Her physical condition is frail, making her tire easily.
In the film, in contrast, Fanny is extroverted, self-confident, and outspoken, while also being physically
healthier. In addition, the film version of Fanny is portrayed as a writer from her childhood into her
adulthood at Mansfield Park. These character traits are incorporated directly from the life of Jane Austen –
some of Fanny's writings are actually Austen's, including the "History of England". Fanny Price is more
reliable as the object of the attractions of Henry and Edmund -> the fact that these two fall in love with her
makes much more sense in the film than in the book Combination between the biographical author and the
fictional heroine -> in this way, we understand that both Jane Austen and Fanny Price are abolitionists V.
THE VICTORIAN AGE (1837-1901) Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901) - daughter of prince Edward, fourth
son of king George the III - She became queen after all the legitimate brothers of her father that died living
no heirs after then - She was very young and she married her first German cousin Prince Albert-> very strict
connections towards Germany - They had 8 children together, when Albert died (1861) she decided to wear
black clothes until the rest of her life -> it was a rare case of a happy marriage Constitutional monarchy ->
When William IV died, he was succeeded by his young niece Victoria (1837-1901), who reigned until her
death. This was the longest reign in the history of England, and a period of unprecedented material
progress, imperial expansion and constitutional developments. Queen Victoria’s decided to have a more
diplomatic role and at least officially pretended to be super partes -> Unlike other European monarchs, the
queen of England reigned constitutionally. Supremacy of Parliament and party politics (Conservative vs
Liberals) She avoided the incredible revolution storms in Europe and the many wars of independence in all
Europe -> Britain avoided the revolutionary storm which spread all over Europe in 1848.  Queen Victoria’s
role: •The Queen agreed to give up the more active role played by her predecessors and to become a
mediator above party politics. •Her exemplary family life and decent code of behaviour, made her beloved
especially by the middle classes, who shared her moral and religious views. -> she embodied the role of the
perfect wife, the perfect woman who believed in strict moral codes The British Empire -> •During Victoria’s
reign the British Empire reached its largest expansion, particularly in Asia and Africa, ruling over almost a
quarter of the world’s population. •Firm belief in the excellence of British culture and in the ‘civilising’
mission of the colonial enterprise. •Long history of brutality and impositions that with its ending brought
many problems Victorian economy and society: •An age of radical social and economic change •Great
economic expansion and progress •Industrial economy •The rise of the middle class •Poverty and
contradictions 92 CULTURAL CONTEXT: •CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882): Darwin’s theory on evolution
transformed the way people thought about the natural world. The reception of his book The Origin of
Species (1859) was extremely controverisal. Darwin’s text implied that man was simply another form of
animal and that human being evolved from apes. Darwin’s theories were harshly attached by the Church
and created a crisis of faith and spiritual doubts among many contemporaries. The publication of Darwin’s
book, which cast strong doubts on the traditional belief in the origins of life, also prompted a sharp
reorientation of philosophical and moral attitudes. •JOHN STUART MILL (1806-1873): Mill had a
fundamental role in Victorian England as far as individual rights were concerned. In his book On Liberty
(1869) he emphasized the importance of individuality in society. The ideas presented in this essay have
remained the basis of much liberal contemporary political thought. Mill was also a pioneer of women’s
rights. In The Subjection of Women (1869) he theorised the necessity for an equality of the sexes. When he
was elected to Parliament, in 1865, his platform included votes for women. In May 1867 Mill proposed an
amendment to the 1867 Reform Act to give women the same political rights as men but the amendment
was treated with derision and defeated by 196 votes to 73. John Stuart Mill:The Subjection of Women
(1869) •«That the principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes – the legal
subordination of one sex to the other – is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human
improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or
privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other» •«The social subordination of women thus stands out
an isolated fact in modern social institutions; a solitary breach of what has become their fundamental law;
a single relic of an old world of thought and practice exploded in everything else, but retained in the one
thing of most universal interest…» • He is openly talking about the subordination of one sex to the other •
The situation of women goes backward in the Victorian age -> puritan age • He was the first one who
actually started talking about the situation of women THE WOMAN QUESTION: •The woman question in
Victorian England referred to the various debates about women’s role in society. There were opposing
ideas emphasising either the need for women to have greater economic, educational, and political
opportunities or the idea that women belonged in the home as caretaker to her family. •The Victorian Era
saw significant challenges to traditional ideas about women’s submissive role in society. •In contrast to the
traditional and disembodied image of the «Angel in the house», that rendered women nearly sexless,
Victorian society also, at times, objectified women as nothing but sex objects, reinvigorating the classic
virgin/whore dichotomy. •The backlash against women’s social and political development often expressed
itself in terms of concerns about women’s sexuality. • The most important role of women was the one
inside the family -> considered has care- taker and women that belonged to home • Their situation outside
the family was not important • Women depended first to their father and then to their husbands • On one
hand there was an incredible spread of prostitution (objectified as a sexual object), on the other hand there
was still the image of the respectable woman inside the house that should embody the moral values of
society 95 • Women were left in the dark when taking about sexuality -> women should not learn anything
about sex, also the reading of some French novels (Madame Bovary) was considered dangerous • The
woman question starts from Mary Wollstonecraft and it will have an important boost in the last 30 years of
the victorian period thanks to the phenomenon of “the new woman” THE NEW WOMAN: •The meaning of
the term New Woman was, and still is, quite ambiguous in its historical and literary meaning. The
‘designation’ of this new type of woman took place in a period in which the debate about the necessity of a
social, legal and educational equality between men and women became a matter of discussion on British
papers and magazines. •The term New Woman was capitalised for the first time - indicating explicitly a new
model of feminine identity - in the female magazine The Woman’s Herald in August 1893.          •The term
New Woman started having a wider circulation and entered officially the fin de siècle terminology, only
when the writer Ouida, in response to an article by Sarah Grand called The New Aspect of the Woman
Question (published in May 1894 on the North American Review) polemically wrote an article entitled The
New Woman. From that moment on, the New Woman, object of admiration for some, of scorn and
mockery for others, became an icon of the literary and political imagination. In novels as well as in
newspapers she embodied the reasons and the battles that would lead to the important historical and
political conquests achieved by the suffragettes of the XX century.          •Who was the New Woman? In
newspapers and magazines she was depicted as an open- minded unhinibited woman who had abandoned
her tight petticoats and now smoke in public and rode on her bicycle. •The New Woman is a resolute and
self-conscious woman who has usually received a good education and finds it therefore very difficult to
adapt to the traditional social role of wife and mother. Typical icon of the culture and society of the fin de
siècle, the New Woman is an ambiguous and multi-faceted creature, at the same time object and subject of
literary writing, real and fictional character. •Before the end of the nineteenth-century more than a
hundred novels and even a greater number of short stories had been dedicated to her.   •The New Women
fought for a perfect equality of men and women before the law, in their private as well as professional
lives. They harshly opposed the promulgation of laws like the Contagious Desease Acts (1864-1886) that
will become the target of one of the bestsellers of New Women’s literature: The Heavenly Twins (1893) by
Sarah Grand. -> women that were suspected to be prostitutes where brought in some hospitals that were
like prisons, men were left free in society and continued to spread their disease •The New Women’s
rebellion was mainly expressed through literary writing and the resulting debates. It presented itself from
the very beginning as a challenge to social and moral conventions in order to conquer a new sexual, artistic
and intellectual liberty.           • Position of women in society -> they wanted to enter universities, the same
education of men, to get rid of the dresses they used to wear in the victorian age, to smoke in public, to
ride their bicycles • Both practical improvements and improvements in society in general • The new woman
movement was discussed both in magazines and in novels • Inside this movement, there were also
divergent ideas -> some of them asked social and sexual equality, others were more conservative and
continued to look at women as the centre of the family • It was a bit ambiguous THE SUFFRAGETTES: •In
1866, a group of women organised a petition that demanded that women should have the same political
rights as men and gathered over 1500 signatures in support of the cause. The women took their petition to
Henry Fawcett and John Stuart Mill, two MPs who supported universal suffrage. Mill drafted an amendment
to the Second Reform Bill that would give 96 women the same political rights as men and presented it to
parliament in 1867. The amendment was defeated, however, by 196 votes to 73. •In the wake of this
defeat the London Society for Women's Suffrage was formed and similar women's suffrage groups were
founded all over Britain. In 1897, 17 of these individual groups joined together to form the National Union
of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), led by Millicent Fawcett. •The NUWSS adopted a peaceful and
non-confrontational approach. Members believed that success could be gained by argument and
education. The organisation tried to raise its profile peacefully – and legally – with petitions, posters,
leaflets, and public meetings. By 1914 the NUWSS had grown to approximately 54,000 members. Almost all
of its leaders and most of its members were middle or upper class, and largely they campaigned for the
vote for middle- class, property-owning women. However, working-class women joined the NUWSS, too,
and some members recognised that  they needed the support of all women. •From the perspective of
some campaigners, the suffragists failed to achieve votes for women by peaceful, ‘respectable’ methods.
Many disillusioned women began to advocate a more militant approach. These groups became known as
the suffragettes, and they adopted the motto «Deeds not Words». •In Manchester in 1903 Emmeline
Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) with her daughters Christabel and
Sylvia. The organisation grew to include branches all over Britain and involved more working-class women.
The WSPU adopted militant, direct action tactics. They chained themselves to railings, disrupted public
meetings and damaged public property. In 1913, Emily Davison stepped out in front of the King's horse at
the Epsom Derby. Her purpose remains unclear, but she was hit and later died from her injuries.
•Suffragettes were arrested and imprisoned, but continued their protest in prison by hunger strike.
Emmeline Pankhurst was jailed and released on 11 occasions. VICTORIAN LITERATURE: •During the
Victorian Age for the first time there was a communion of interests and opinions between writers and their
readers. One reason for this was the enormous expansion of the middle classes who were great consumers
of literature. They borrowed books from circulating libraries and read periodicals. •A great deal of Victorian
literature was first published in this form: essays, poems and novels. •The greatest literary achievement of
the age is to be found in the novel which became the most popular form of literature and the main form of
entertainment.   •In the 1840s novelists felt they had a social and moral responsibility to fulfil: they wanted
to write about the social changes that had been in progress for a long time, like the Industrial Revolution,
the struggle for democracy and the growth of towns. •The writers of the first part of the Victorian period
depicted society as they saw it. They were aware of the great problems of society, such as the terrible
conditions of manual workers and the exploitation of children. However, their criticism was much less
radical than that of contemporary European writers like Balzac, Flaubert, Dostoevsky. •The setting chosen
by most Victorian novelists was the city, which was the main symbol of industrial civilisation.  •Victorian
writers concentrated on the creation of characters. •A great number of novels published during the middle
period of Victorianism, up to 1870-1880, were written by women like Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Elizabeth
Gaskell and George Eliot. •This is surprising if we think of the state of subjection of Victorian women; it is
less surprising if we remember that the majority of novel-buyers and readers were women. •However, it
was not easy to publish a book, and some women used male pseudonyms in order to see their work in
print. 97