Characteristics of Romantic Poets 1. Beauty of the Supernatural: British Romantics believed something existed beyond the physical world.

The Spirit world, according to Romantics, had unleashed its power and inspiration to overthrow tyranny in government and in literature. Unlike the American Romantics who wrote of ghosts, demonic cats, and rope-gnawing rats, British Romanticism's treatment of the supernatural excluded horror and the macabre and focused on supernatural energy and beauty. 2. Championing of the Individual: Revolution in Europe brought to light the importance of the individual. Ordinary people now became the subject of lofty language. British Romanticism attempted to free itself from traditional forms and subjects. 3. The Importance of Nature: The poet, according to the Romantics, is only at peace when in nature; moreover, while in nature, the poet intervened with the great Universal Mind. Romantic poets made frequent use of personification with nature, ascribing human traits to daffodils, fields, streams, and lakes. Nature, in essence, became emotionally expressive. 4. The Dangers of Technology: A natural consequence of celebrating nature was a disdain for technology and industrialism. British Romanticism: Poems for the High School Classroom Article by Trent Lorcher ) Edited & published by SForsyth on Jan 20, 2010 Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/29741.aspx SparkNotes Editors. (2002). SparkNote on Donnes Poetry. Retrieved October 1, 2010, from http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/don ne/ To a Skylark Commentary If the West Wind was Shelleys first convincing attempt to articulate an aesthetic philosophy through metaphors of nature, th e skylark is his greatest natural metaphor for pure poetic expression, the harmonious madness of pure inspiration. The skylarks song issues from a state of purified existence, a Wordsworthian notion of complete unity with Heaven through nature; its song is motivated by the joy of that uncomplicated purity of being, and is unmixed with any hint of melancholy or of the bittersweet, as human joy so often is. The skylarks unimpeded song rains down upon the world, surpassing every other beauty, inspiring met aphor and making the speaker believe that the bird is not a mortal bird at all, but a Spirit, a sprite, a poet hidden / In the light of thought. In that sense, the skylark is almost an exact twin of the bird in Keatss Ode to a Nightingale; both represent pure express ion through their songs, and like the skylark, the nightingale wast not born for death. But while the nightingale is a bird of darkness, invisible in the shadowy forest glades, the skylark is a bird of daylight, invisible in the deep bright blue of the sky. The nightingale inspires Keats to feel a drowsy numbness of happine ss that is also like pain, and that makes him think of death; the skylark inspires Shelley to feel a frantic, rapturous joy that has no part of pain. To Keats, human joy and sadness are inextricably linked, as he explains at length in the final stanza of the Ode on Melancholy. But the skylark sings free of all human error and complexity, and while listening to his song, the poet feels free of those things, too. Structurally and linguistically, this poem is almost unique among Shelleys works; its strange form of stanza, with four comp act lines and one very long line, and its lilting, songlike diction (profuse strains of unpremeditated art) work to create the effect of spontaneous poetic expressio n flowing musically and naturally from the poets mind. Structurally, each stanza tends to make a single, quick point about the skylark, or to look at it in a sudden, brief new light; still, the poem does flow, and gradually advances the mini-narrative of the speaker watching the skylark flying higher and higher into the sky, and envying its untrammeled inspirationwhich, if he were to capture it in words, would cause the world to listen. Metaphysical poetry John Donne, whose poetic reputation languished before he was rediscovered in the early part of the twentieth century, is remembered today as the leading exponent of a style of verse known as metaphysical poetry, which flourished in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. ( Other great metaphysical poets include Andrew Marvell, Robert Herrick, and George Herbert.) Metaphysical poetry typically employs unusual verse forms, complex figures of speech applied to elaborate and surprising metaphorical conceits, and learned themes discussed according to eccentric and unexpected chains of reasoning. Donnes poetry exhibits each of these characteristics. His jarring, unusual meters; his proclivity for abstract puns and double entendres; his often bizarre metaphors (in one poem he compares love to a carnivorous fish; in another he pleads with God to make him pure by raping him); and his process of oblique reasoning are all characteristic traits of the metaphysicals, unified in Donne as in no other poet. Metaphysical poetry features elaborate conceits and surprising symbols, wrapped up in original, challenging language structures, with learned themes that draw heavily on eccentric chains of reasoning. Donnes verse, like that of George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, and many of their contemporaries, exemplifies these traits. But Donne is also a highly individual poet, and his consistently ingenious treatment of his great themethe conflict between spiritual piety and physical carnality, as embodied in religion and loveremains unparalleled. Introduction: Characteristics of Metaphysical poetry John Donne (1572-1631) established what has become known as the Metaphysical style of poetry which was taken up by later poets, the two under consideration here being George Herbert (1593-1633) and Henry Vaughan (1622-95). Some of the chief characteristics of Donne's style are: the abrupt opening of a poem with a surprising dramatic line; the use of colloquial diction; the ideas in the poem being presented as a logical and persuasive argument, the purpose of which is to aid his wooing, whether of a woman or God. Donne took metaphors from all spheres of life, especially from crafts and the sciences, and made frequent use of the 'conceit': a surprising, ingenious, far-fetched turn of ideas. Often a whole poem is an extended 'conceit', and frequently a poem ends with a final 'conceit' in the last two lines. Donne developed his technique writing love poetry, and later adapted it to the writing of religious poetry. Donne and Herbert George Herbert's poetry shows that to a large extent he followed the lead offered by Donne, but he also made contributions which were quite distinct. Herbert's distinguishing characteristic is his simplicity of diction and metaphor. He retains the colloquial manner, and, to an extent, the logical persuasive presentation of ideas, but he draws his metaphors from everyday domestic experience, employing a range of simple commonplace imagery in contrast to the sophisticated imagery of Donne. 'Conceits' are not an important part of Herbert's poetry, and his appeal is not so intellectual as Donne's. A technique Herbert introduced was the ending of a poem with two quiet lines which resolve the argument in the poem without answering the specific points raised by it, and this represents quite a dramatic break from Donne. Donne expresses his doubts in intellectual terms, and answers them in the same way. Herbert occasionally explores his doubts in intellectual terms, but answers them with emotion. In this way Herbert conveys the insight that one cannot argue or reason with God; one either feels God's presence, or loses the feeling. In these respects Herbert can be considered to have broken new ground, into which Henry Vaughan followed later. Metaphysical poetry typically -made use of the metaphysical conceit, yoking together heterogenous ideas. -was complex or obscure. -rebelled against Petrarchan and Elizabethan conventions. -contained colloquial language. -employed natural speech rhythms. -had irregular lines and stanzas. -was argumentative in form and content. Cavalier poetry typically -was balanced, parallel, and symmetrical in style and structure. -had careful organization and progression. -generally demonstrated metrical regularity. -made frequent use of couplet and cessura.

-had formal, polite courtly diction and tone. -showed a restraint of emotion. (George) Herbert (NA 1597 ff.): "The Altar"; "Redemption"; "Easter Wings"; "Jordan (1)"; "Love (3)" (NA 1597, 1599, 1601-2, 1614-5). Note the religious themes which connect these poems to the more serious side of Donne's work (e.g. the Holy Sonnets). Notice Herbert's attention to form, e.g. in the "shaped verse" where the formatting of the poem on the page resembles its subject (e.g. "The Altar," "Easter Wings"; see NA 1596 and 1597 n. 2 ). In the religious sonnet "Redemption," note the metaphysical conceit of Herbert as the dissatisfied tenant who complains to his landlord, Christ, with surprising results. Note Herbert's somewhat selfconscious defense of his decision to write religious verse rather than poems on secular topics (e.g. about about erotic love or in praise or memory of an acquaintance) in "Jordan (1)," with its allusions to allegory, epigrams written in praise of their subject, pastoral poetry, and the conventioal imagery of lyrical verse. In "Love (3)," note the transformation of the conventional imagery of erotic love poetry into an expression of religious faith (compare e.g. Donne's "Holy Sonnets"). Jonson (NA 1292-4 ff.): Know the definition of "epigram,"including importance of the Roman poet Martial as a model, and know how some of Jonson's epigrams deviate from the traditional epigram (see Glossary, NA A-55, and NA 1393, n. 1). In "To My Book," note how Jonson describes the difference between what people expect of a collection called "epigrams" and what he claims the poems in his collection will (and will not) do / be about. Note in this regard the two poignant poems commemorating the deaths of Jonson's first daughter and son, which transcend the ordinary definition of epigraphs. How do these poems compare with the ways other poets write about the loss of a child? (compare e.g. Taylor, assigned for today; or Philips, NA 1683-4, assigned for week 8). Is there a connection between the acute consciousness of mortality brought on by the death of a child and e.g. the religiosity of some of the "metaphysical" poets, on the one hand, or the sensual carpe diem ("seize the day") theme found in Donne and the "Sons of Ben" poets? Note Jonson's obvious admiration for Donne in the poem dedicated to him. Which aspects of Donne's poetry do you think Jonson may have particularly admired or felt an affinity with? In "On Giles and Joan," note the humorous cynicism and arguably misogynistic streak of this "battle of the sexes" poem; compare to Herrick's "Upon Jack and Jill." By contrast, "Song: To Celia" is a beautifully melodic but relatively conventional poem praising a lady's beauty; it lacks the satiric bite and humor of "On Giles and Joan," but displays Jonson's classical learning (it is based on translations of five passages from the work of the Greek sophist Philostratus). It is memorable for its polish and elegant musicality rather than for any particularly striking imagery or memorable message it contains (which makes it very different from e.g. the love poems which Donne wrote to his wife). Finally, note Jonson's admiration of Mary Wroth, whose poetry he claims made him both "a better lover, and much better poet." His hommage to her is notable both in the sonnet form he chooses to follow and in the specific imagery (like Wroth, he alludes to the maternal Venus) -- but unlike Wroth, he can express sexual desire more openly than is typical of a woman poet (see e.g. the reference to Venus's aphrodisiacal "ceston," or belt, in the final line). In "My Picture Left in Scotland," note the playful pastoral-like theme of an attempted seduction, the humorous way in which he recounts his failure with the lady in question, and the implicit acknowledgement of the link between this vein of light, quasi-erotic verse and seduction (see e.g. the final line). ENGL 204 / ENGL 331: Renaissance Literature Dr. Debora B. Schwartz English Department, California Polytechnic State University http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl331/donne.html Themes Courtly Love Jonson borrowed the conventions of courtly love for the poem but manipulated them to create his unique voice. Traditionally, the lover in these poems is stricken by his lady's beauty, which causes him to idealize her. Ever obedient to her wishes, the humble lover strives to be worthy of her. His feelings of love ennoble him and lead him on the path to moral excellence. To Celia A Romance Poem Rendered in English by Ben Jonson From a Love Letter by Philostratus of Athens or Philostratus of Lemnos Jonson Published the Poem in 1616 1....Drink to me only with thine eyes, 2....And I will pledge with mine; 3....Or leave a kiss within the cup, 4....And I'll not ask for wine 5....The thirst that from the soul doth rise, 6....Doth crave a drink divine; 7....But might I of Jove's nectar sup, 8....I would not change for thine 9....I sent thee late a rosy wreath, 10..Not so much honoring thee 11..As giving it a hope that there 12..It could not withered be; 13..But thou thereon didst only breathe 14..And sent'st back to me, 15..Since when it grows and smells, I swear, 16..Not of itself, but thee George Herbert's "Easter Wings" is written in a form of pattern poetry known as carmen figuration, otherwise known as shaped verse, in which the words and lines are arranged on the page so that they create a visual image or illustration of the poem's subject. However, as important as is the visual image projected by the author's creativity in design, it is the metrical form the poet uses that creates a supporting foundation for the poem itself. In using shaped verse, the poet creates a visual image of wings. These wings, whether intended to be of angels or of birds, offer a thematic view of the human state. Additionally, as the poet progresses from the first stanza to the second, the nature of man also progresses from God's creation and the gifts provided therein to the fall of man and the required acceptance of Christ. In closing the poem, Herbert references wings, and the repair (healing) thereof to state that with help of God he can fly again and that his purposeful suffering will allow him to progress spiritually. In rhyme scheme, Herbert uses ababacdcdc in both stanzas, giving the poem a sense of order in the structure. With each stanza representing a different relational aspect of man to God, the first being the fall of man and the second being man's redemption through Christ, the rhyme scheme suggests that even with the failure of man, God keeps balance and order within the universe. In writing his form of verse in this poem, Herbert forces almost every line to stand on its own by using the placement of hard punctuation at the end of almost every line. Additionally, he forces the aspect that each line is important by capitalizing the first letter on each line. However, his line design of having longer lines at the beginning and end of each stanza as compared to the middle lines does more than just create a visual image. The middle four lines of each stanza are reduced to four syllables on lines four and seven, and only two syllables on line five and six, as compared to ten syllables in each line that forms the cap and base of each stanza. Additionally, in each stanza, it is important to note that each line is shortened by two syllables until only two syllables remain in lines five and six, at which time each line is lengthened by two syllables, giving it a syllabic pattern, per line, of 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, per stanza. By developing such a meter as Herbert does in "Easter Wings" he is able to adjust not only the number of accentual placements within each line, but also the number of feet, giving the poem a flow that feels as though the work itself is contracting and expanding, much like the opening and closing of the wings represented in the visual image produced by the layout of the lines, and also possibly the contracting and expanding of man's heart, within which God lives. In closing each stanza, Herbert uses alliteration to observe where man is in the process of redemption. In closing stanza one, he stresses the word "fall" and alludes that the "fall" is necessary in order to "further the flight in me" (10). In closing stanza two, and therefore the poem, Herbert writes, "For, if I imp my wing on thine /

Affliction shall advance the flight in me" (19-20), inferring that by repairing our wings by grafting them to God's, such an "affliction" will allow man closer communion with the Lord. Andrew Marvell's famous lyric To His Coy Mistress is a metaphysical poem. For those who didn't major in English, metaphysical poems are brief, intense meditations employing wit, irony and wordplay. Underlying the formal structures of rhyme, meter, and stanza is the poem's logic-based argument. In To His Coy Mistress the explicit argument (the speaker's request that the coy lady yield to his passion) is a whimsical statement bristling with humorous hyperbole but leading to a deadly serious argument about the shortness of life and the quick passage of libidinal pleasure. The theme expressed in it iscarpe diem or seize the day. Marvell's poem is usually excluded from secondary level textbooks because of its explicit sexuality, despite its author being a Puritan and the son of a Calvinist Anglican preacher. This seduction poem is presented in the unromantic form of a logical syllogism. The opening "if" segment lacks that subordinating conjunction that is more elegantly presupposed by the subjunctive mood of "Had we but world enough and time." The mediate inference is presented in the second verse paragraph beginning with "But," and the deduction in the concluding stanza commencing with "Now therefore." Such strict adherence to logical argument befits the author who was an important political figure in the Cromwell protectorate in England. Current readers of Marvell's poem are often upset to learn that the adjective "coy" at the time of writing had none of its modern suggestions of playful teasing or coquetry. In Marvell's day the word was a synonym for reluctant, modest, even disdainful. [Shorter Oxford English Dictionary] In "the mother tongue: english and how it got that way" [page 73], Bill Bryson points out that "'coy' and 'quiet' both have the same grandparent in the Latin 'quietus'."The lady addressed in the poem remains silent - reluctant to accede to the speaker's pleas because she wishes to maintain her "quaint Honour" or virginity. There is none of the dalliance or playinghard-to-get that we usually assume with coyness. Bryson also mentions how Marvell's term "quaint" was in Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale spelled "quainte" but also appears as "kent" and three other spelling variations. The variable spellings of today's unspeakable crudity "lie with Chaucer or his copyists of both." [page 62]. In stanza one, the speaker/seducer makes concrete the abstractions of "Had we but world enough and time." John Keats poem, O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell" is a Petrarchan sonnet with the rime scheme ABBAABBACDDCDC; it dramatizes a basic tenet of the Romantic Movement, the desire to live a bucolic life and to commune with nature. Octave: O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell In the octave, the speaker declares that if he must live alone or in Solitude, he would choose to live in a rural setting. He particularly scorns the city and demonstrates that feeling by asking of Solitude not to require him to live among the jumbled heap / Of murky buildings. The speaker clearly disdains humankinds clumping together in edifices in the city. He invites Solitude to climb with me the steep. He wants to roam in hills in the open air, unencumbered by streets, signs, and crowds of people. He desires the green grass and the sounds of rivers moving naturally through the landscape. The speaker issues forth the Romantic sensibility of yearning for Natures observatory, from which the dell, / Its flowery slopes, its rivers crystal swell. He craves to reside among the flowers and clear river on a hillside, instead of living in a shabby city apartment. He adds that he woul d prefer to [keep his vigils] / Mongst boughs pavilliond, where the deers swift leap / Startles the wild bee from the fox-glove bell. His lovely pastoral descriptions are the stuff that made the hearts of the Romantics flutter with ecstasy, as they conveniently omitted from their country-life fantasies the inconveniences that had originally motivated human beings to construct and collect in cities. Sestet: But though Ill gladly trace these scenes with thee In the sestet, the speaker adds a proviso to his notion of perfect solitarian living out in the country. He reveals that even though he would happily live alone as described in the octave, he would prefer to be accompanied by someone who is capable of offering the sweet converse of an innocent mind. His souls pleasure is to be able to have conversations with someone who is like minded, someone [w]hose words are images of thoughts refind. He wants to share his bucolic existence with someone who thinks as poetically as he does. What he ultimately discloses is that he would like to live in the country with solitude, but not total solitude, because he has decided that the height of bliss of human kind is when two like-minded peopletwo kindred spiritscan escape from the city and fly to the rustic locale together. Read more at Suite101: Keats' O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell: The Bliss of a Kindred Spirit http://www.suite101.com/content/keats-o-solitude-if-imust-with-thee-dwell-a100422#ixzz12pORLFfD Themes 1. Nature' s beauty uplifts the human spirit. Lines 15, 23, and 24 specifically refer to this theme. 2. People sometimes fail to appreciate nature's wonders as they go about their daily routines. Lines 17 and 18 suggest this theme. 3. Nature thrives unattended. The daffodils proliferate in splendor along the shore of the lake without the need for human attention. . Wordsworth and Romanticism .......In English literature, Wordsworth and his friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, were pioneers in the development of the Romantic Movement, or romanticism, a movement that championed imagination and emotions as more powerful than reason and systematic thinking. What I feel about a person or thing, a romantic poet might have said, is more important than what scientific investigation, observation, and experience would say about that person or thing. Intuitionthat voice within that makes judgments and decisions without the aid of reasonwas a guiding force to the romantic poet. So was nature. Romanticism began in the mid-1700's as a rebellion against the principles of classicism. Whereas classicism espoused the literary ideals of ancient Greece and Rome objectivity, emotional restraint, and formal rules of composition that writers were expected to followromanticism promoted subjectivity, emotional effusiveness, and freedom of expression . I want to write my way, the romantic poet might have said, not the way that writers in ancient times decreed that I should write. Compiled by Michael J. Cummings... 2008. http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/IWandered.html The theme of this poem is the passing of human glory. The once great king, Ozymandias, modeled on an Egyptian Pharaoh, ruled domineeringly over a great empire. In his own lifetime he had a huge statue of himself erected to impress his subjects, who must have been then numerous in this part of the world, but it is now desert. The colossal statue has likewise been wasted by the passing of time, so that of the once bustling imperial scene nothing now remains but wreckage and sandSic transit gloria mundi, said the Latinsthus passes the glory of the world.... The imagery of the poem lies in the description of the desert scene. It is a vivid description, with one dramatic word after another that punches over the message: antiquevastshatteredfrownsneerstampeddespaircolossalwreckboundless. Such vocabulary builds up a powerful effect, c limaxing in the eleventh line, dying away again in the return of the last three lines to the desert, where the poem began. In the beginning there is nature. Then man com es to strut and fret his hour upon the stage, but finally all that is left is nature. Deserted nature at that. Despair! is indeed the key-word of the poem. Nothing in the 14 lines gives the hope that human affairs have any final meaning. The most that can be said, Shelley seems to tell us, is that human affairs can be impressive and mighty for as long as they last, butas he clearly suggests through the inscription on the pedestal of the broken statuethey never do last. Ozymandias was indeed once great. His ambition to command as King of Kings went well beyond reasonable bounds. Like Solomon in the Old Testament, he was driven to recognize that all is vanity (Eccles. 1:2), but even if he failed to achieve anything that lasted, nevertheless he affirmed by the striving of his works that there is more to life than just living out ones life-span in material comfort with social security. So against the complacent materialism of a modern world shutting out God and closing down human beings, the Romantics score heavily. Where they fail is that their affirmation of the Something More is not usually hooked to any reality tougher than their own instincts and feelings that there must be Something More. But supposing there is not? Feelings alone are not enough. And that is why Ozymandias finishes in despair. He sensed that human greatness had a meaning, and he lived greatly as though it did, but he never found that meaning. And so for Shelley there seems to remain nothing but the desert, forerunner of T. S. Eli ots famous Wasteland. Therefore the Romantics correctly see that sick modern man is making life into a poor affair. They protest, eloquently. They are right to protest. But unless they diagnose the sickness as being the cutting out of God, and unless they re-anchor their instincts and feelings in the greatness of the true God who invites all men to Heaven, then a few generations later the Romantics beautiful feelings and noble instincts and great longings will be cast out as so much kidology. Man lives by

Truth. He demands truth to live by. And that is why the 20th century, however much it may have longed to be able to continue feeling good about life, saw a strong anti-Romantic reaction. A L M S F O R O B L I V I O N . PIERS LEW IS (2008). http://almsforoblivion.blogspot.com/2008/11/shelleys-ozymandias.html Characteristics of Victorian Literature The literature of the Victorian age (1837 1901, named for the reign of Queen Victoria) entered in a new period after the romantic revival. The literature of this era expressed the fusion of pure romance to gross realism. Though, the Victorian Age produced great poets, the age is also remarkable for the excellence of its prose. The discoveries of science have particular effects upon the literature of the age. If you study all the great writers of this period, you will mark four general characteristics: 1. Literature of this age tends to come closer to daily life which reflects its practical problems and interests. It becomes a powerful instrument for human progress. Socially & economically, Industrialism was on the rise and various reform movements like emancipation, child labor, womens rights, and evolution. 2. Moral Purpose: The Victorian literature seems to deviate from "art for art's sake" and asserts its moral purpose. Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, Ruskin all were the teachers of England with the faith in their moral message to instruct the world. 3. Idealism: It is often considered as an age of doubt and pessimism. The influence of science is felt here. The whole age seems to be caught in the conception of man in relation to the universe with the idea of evolution. 4. Though, the age is characterized as practical and materialistic, most of the writers exalt a purely ideal life. It is an idealistic age where the great ideals like truth, justice, love, brotherhood are emphasized by poets, essayists and novelists of the age. The Style of the Victorian Novel Victorian novels tend to be idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck win out in the end; virtue would be rewarded and wrongdoers are suitably punished. They tended to be of an improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart. While this formula was the basis for much of earlier Victorian fiction, the situation became more complex as the century progressed. Victorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) and corresponds to the Victorian era. It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different literature of the 20th century. The 19th century saw the novel become the leading form of literature in English. The works by pre-Victorian writers such as Jane Austen and Walter Scott had perfected both closely-observed social satire and adventure stories. Popular works opened a market for the novel amongst a reading public. The 19th century is often regarded as a high point in British literature as well as in other countries such as France, the United States and Russia. Books, and novels in particular, became ubiquitous, and the "Victorian novelist" created legacy works with continuing appeal. http://www.homewood.k12.al.us/hms/PreAP2010Summerreading/BEFORE%20READING/Time%20Machine%20Background.pdf The Victorian Period revolves around the political career of Queen Victoria. She was crowned in 1837 and died in 1901 (which put a definite end to her political career). A great deal of change took place during this period--brought about because of the Industrial Revolution; so it's not surprising that the literature of the period is often concerned with social reform. As Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) wrote, "The time for levity, insincerity, and idle babble and play-acting, in all kinds, is gone by; it is a serious, grave time." Of course, in the literature from this period, we see a duality, or double standard, between the concerns for the individual (the exploitation and corruption both at home and abroad) and national success--in what is often referred to as the Victorian Compromise. In reference to Tennyson, Browning and Arnold, E. D. H. Johnson argues: "Their writings... locate the centers of authority not in the existing social order but within the resources of individual being." Victorian Period - A Time of Change (1837 -1901) By Esther Lombardi, About.com Guide. http://classiclit.about.com/od/victorianliteratu/a/aa_victorian.htm 20th Century British Literature A strong crop of British authors emerged during the 20th century. From "The Waste Land" to "1984," 20th century British writers helped shape the modern and postmodern movements in art and literature. While they have been strong in number, the majority of great works came during the first half of the century. Unparalleled economic and geopolitical catastrophes helped mold a generation raised with great hardship and little hope. World Wars I and II and the severe economic depression in between encouraged the exploration of themes like destitution and loss and accounts of adventures from the battlefronts and breadlines. http://www.bookspot.com/genres/20thcenturybritlit.htm. Nicole E. Magistro. 1997-2010, StartSpot Mediaworks, Inc. Alienation: The theme of the 20th-century novel by B. B. James The 20th century marked the period when the novel really became self-reverential - ie., when writers wrote novels for the purpose of exploring themselves and their world. This is both a great strength and a great weakness. The strength lies in the depth and breadth of themes that literature can effectively address, and how novelists have been able to use the form to literally change the world by exposing readers to important themes. The weakness is that when novels are written solely for thematic purposes, but entertainment is forgotten, then they become an elitist art form and lose their power. Almost all novels in the 19th century were written for entertainment value, although the very best authors were able to explore universal themes at the same time. Think about Dickens, Twain, Victor Hugo, Poe, etc. They were entertainers first - but entertainers who provided deep thought in the midst of the entertainment they provided. In the 20th century, many novelists wrote for the sake of writing, and they became more self-referential and obscure as a result. They experimented with form (James Joyce, Nabokov, Faulkner), or wrote to push the envelope and to prove a point (DH Lawrence and obscenity), or to change society (Upton Sinclair, Erich Maria Remarque). Sometimes, this was effective, and sometimes it was just obscure; sometimes, it was writing merely for the sake of writing. We still have entertainers who could also express great themes (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Tom Wolfe, Amy Tan, John Irving), but they run the risk of being overwhelmed by the less commercially successful artists. The popularity of writer's schools has exacerbated the problem in the past 30 years. Today, most "serious" novels are very difficult to understand unless you have enjoyed an elite academic education or have at-hand reference materials that explain what an author is trying to do. I don't find this to be a healthy development, even though I credit the authors with trying to advance their craft to new heights. In conclusion, themes became paramount in serious literature in the 20th century and appear likely to continue to be the marker of "the best" literature in the future. It is impossible to give a comprehensive, or even close-to-comprehensive, list of themes that are present in literature of the past 100 years. The themes have changed as society's concerns have changed - or, often - as literature helped to change society's concerns. In the early part of the 20th century, literature looked at how people grappled with an industrializing, fast-changing world that enriched a few and impoverished many; then came a period in which the experiences of World War I dominated literature; then it was the hoped-for universal world peace in the wake of the war, and praise for the technologies that were bringing excitement and ease to many; followed by authors who wrote about the agony of an even worse war. Following WWII, novelists looked at the nuclear age and an even more rapid proliferation of technological change, but this time they were fearful about it, instead of generally supportive in the past. More recently, literature's themes also began to focus on subsets of the population (women, African-Americans, the Jewish experience, etc.), which led directly to today's focus on the individual through fiction and memoir. What's next? Probably the interaction of man and his environment, and also the impact of globalization on individual lives, as we will see many, many good novels about a person from one culture who is dropped down into an alien culture. In sum, literature is simply too diverse and creative to be catalogued in a list. Copyright 2002-2010 Helium, Inc. . http://www.helium.com/items/272868-alienation-the-theme-of-the-20th-century-novel