Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Historical context
Social context
Literary context
Historical Context
Queen Victorias reign (1837-1901)
Queen Victoria
worked for the peace and prosperity of her country
was able to keep at bay any conflict over constitutional
matters
reigned constitutionally avoiding the storm of revolutions
played a more active role
became a mediator above political parties
model for her people: exemplary family life, strictly
respectable and decent code of behaviour
(Victorianism)
beloved especially by the middle class who shared her
moral and religious views
Socio-cultural Context
Urbanization
Britain became a nation of town dwellers
Extraordinary industrial development
Overcrowding
Poverty appalling living conditions in slums
(squalor, disease, bad sanitation, crime, high
death rate)
Terrible working conditions
(polluted atmosphere, disatrous effects on health
especially on children)
Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN COMPROMISE
A set code of moral values that explained the
general tendency to be excessively puritanical
and to avoid taking definite positions
Socio-cultural Context
Socio-cultural Context
It was a particular situation which saw two opposing
aspects of life:
on one side PROSPERITY and MATERIAL SCIENTIFIC
PROGRESS, ETHICAL CONFORMISM, MORALISM and
PHILANTHROPY
which opposed
Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN FRAME OF MIND
contained a lot of contradictions caused among other things
by the influence of new philosophical trends, religious
movements, economic theories and scientific discoveries
of the period:
Evangelicalism = good moral Christian conduct
Utilitarianism = only what is useful is good, any problem could
be overcome through reason
Evolutionism = theory of evolution of species governed by
natural selection and struggle for survival
Determinism = theory which denies human freedom of action,
everything is strictly governed by cause and effect
During the Victorian Age for the first time there was a
communion of interests and opinions between writers
and readers
enormous growth of the middle classes
who were avid consumers of literature, they borrowed
books from circulating libraries and read various periodicals.
A great deal of Victorian Literature was first published in
instalments in the pages of periodicals, which allowed the
writer to feel he was in constant contact with his readers.
WOMEN WRITERS:
a great number of novels were written by women.
This is surprising if we consider the state of subjection of
Victorian women but at the same time they were the
majority of novel-buyers and of readers.
However, it was not easy to publish so some women
writers decided to use male pseudonyms in order to see
their novels in print.
Urban setting: the city was the most common setting the
main symbol of industrial civilisation as well the
expression of anonymous lives and lost identities
Precise creation of characters and deep analysis of
characters inner lives (psychology)
Most popular genre = Bildulgsroman (novel of formation)
Main themes: money, wealth, realistic portrait of society
denouncing its injustices and iniquities
VICTORIAN NOVEL
VICTORIAN NOVEL
VICTORIAN NOVEL
Other minor forms of novel developed in this period:
4) Novel of Manners
focusing on economic problems of a particular class
(W.Thackeray)
5) Colonialist Fiction
presenting an exaltation of British imperialistic power
(R.Kipling)
6) Nonsense literature
dealing with fantastic adventures (L.Carroll)