Contextualize The Text From A Historical and Cultural Point of View - FFFF Bun

The Renaissance 1485 - 1649
Shakespeare lived and wrote during a remarkable period of English history, a time of
relative political stability and great development, 1485 - 1649. Science made it possible to
navigate, explorers set out to find a new world. The ideas of the Renaissance are strongly
influenced by the concept of humanism. The aim was to restore human values from antiquity
by reintroducing the philosophies, language and literature of the ancient Greece and Rome.
One of the major developments in English literature at this time is in drama. Some of
Shakespeares plays reflect historical and political tensions; others deal with common life
experiences which are described in comedy as well as tragedy. During this period poetry was
another important literary genre.
Enlightenment 1650 - 1800

The novel was written during the Enlightenment era, a period of
scientific awakening, a time of unprecedented optimism in the potential of knowledge and
reason to understand and change the world. It was believed that the use of reason and science
could improve the human condition. This period saw the rise of the political pamphlet and
essay but the leading genre of the Enlightenment became the novel. The hero of the novel
was the average man, the middle-class man, with a pragmatic common sense, and literature
became very instructive; writers aimed to educate readers through their stories, criticizing the
flaws of society and individuals. Most of the writers of this time wrote political pamphlets,
but the best came from the pens of Defoe and Swift. The novel writing was influences by
travel literature, biographies, memoirs, diaries.
Romanticism (1789-1832)
(S. Coleridge , J. Austen, J. Keats, Transcendentalism: W. Whitman,
Hawthorne, Dickinson, Melville)
The author belongs to Romanticism, the literary period between 1789 1832,
approximately. It was an age greatly marked by the industrial development with serious
consequences on peoples lives, and the French Revolution of 1789, the focus of which was
to create political and social freedom, equality, brotherhood and democracy. As a result,
Romantics were enthusiastic about nature and especially appreciated areas in nature which
had not been touched by human intervention. Simple rural life, which had not been
influenced or ruined by the Industrial Revolution and in which man still lived in harmony
with nature, was seen as ideal. Romanticism saw a shift from faith in reason to faith in senses,
feelings, imagination. Poetry and novels are the most common genres. All these reflected in
the works of the most prominent romantic writers, including.
Victorian Age (1837-1901)

(Dickens, L. Carroll, Hardy)
The author belongs to Victorian age, a period starting before the middle of the 19th
century, when the reign of Queen Victoria began, a time characterized by changes in the
political life, expansion of the British Empire, continuation of the industrialization. Religious
ideas were challenged by Darwins theory of evolutionism. It was a time of great energy and
the poets and novelists of the period were very productive as they sought to chronicle their
exciting age and provide it with a high moral tone and a refined taste in literature and arts.
1
The Victorian era was the great age of the English novelrealistic, thickly plotted,
crowded with characters, and long. It was the ideal form to describe contemporary life and to
entertain the middle class. They describe life as people experienced it giving an impression of
the life of the poor in industrialized cities in England in the middle of the 19th century
Realism (1861 1914 , 65 90 pt Am.)

(H. James 1881 father of British modernism ; M. Twain)
Born at the end of the Civil war, the literary period in which wrote,
aimed to recreate reality in literature. The years following the war symbolized a time of
healing and rebuilding. In literature this was a time of upheaval. As the United States grew
rapidly after the Civil War, the increasing rates of democracy and literacy, the rapid growth
in industrialism and urbanization, an expanding population base due to immigration, and a
relative rise in middle-class affluence provided a fertile literary environment for readers
interested in understanding these rapid shifts in culture.
Realists are concerned with the effect of the work on their reader and the reader's life,
a pragmatic view. Pragmatism requires the reading of a work to have some verifiable
outcome for the reader that will lead to a better life for the reader. This lends an ethical
tendency to realism while focusing on common actions and minor catastrophes of middle
class society.
Modernism (1914 1950)

(J. Conrad, J. Joyce, G.B. Shaw, V. Woolf, F.S. Fitzgerald am, E. Hemingway am, E.
ONeill am, W. Faulkner am, T.S. Elliot am)
Modernism was a literary movement that lasted approximately from 1914-1950.
Modernism began the breaking of traditional writing styles that we know today. During this
period, artists began to develop their own individual styles
New technology and the horrifying events of both World Wars (but specifically
World War I) made many people question the future of humanity: What was becoming of the
world? Writers reacted to this question by turning toward Modernist sentiments. Gone was
the Romantic period that focused on nature and being. Modernist fiction spoke of the inner
self and consciousness. Instead of progress, the Modernist writer saw a decline of civilization.
Instead of new technology, the Modernist writer saw cold machinery and increased
capitalism, which alienated the individual and led to loneliness. To achieve the emotions
described above, most Modernist fiction was cast in first person. Whereas earlier, most
literature had a clear beginning, middle, and end (or introduction, conflict, and resolution),
the Modernist story was often more of a stream of consciousness, creating the feeling that the
story is going nowhere. Irony, satire, and comparisons were often employed to point out
society's ills.
Postmodernism (1950 - )
(Golding 1954)
The text belongs to postmodernism, a postwar cultural movement, started around
1950, that reacted against tendencies in modernism, and was typically marked by revival of
historical elements and techniques. Postmodernist society is characterized by changes to
institutions and creations and with social and political results and innovations, globally but
especially in the West.
2
Postmodern authors tend to depict the world as having already undergone countless
disasters and being beyond redemption or understanding. Postmodern literature reflects late
modern society by showing the individuals inability to establish a personal identity based on
a historical or social background, let alone family and work. Postmodern literature is, to a
great extent, a play on words which reflects the meaninglessness of the late modern world,
which is seen as fragmented, disoriented, chaotic, but this leads neither to despair nor to any
wish to re-establish order. The binary contrasts of good/evil, true/false, real/unreal and
order/chaos have been abolished. The world is pure surface, it is what it appears to be. Hence
each individual creates his or her own world and identity through the pictures which he or she
sees in literature and other art forms or in the so-called world. The Great Narratives, which
began to be questioned in Modernism, are rejected in Postmodernism. There is no
acknowledgment of a universal truth.
Po Golding, Lord of the Flies- WWI
Expr ONeil-Mourning WWI
Mo J.Co Dark heart, Lord Jim - WWI
J.Joice A Portrait, Ulysse WWI
W.Woolf- Mrs. Dalloway - WWI
T.S.E Waste Land Idem Woolf
Fitz WWI
Faulkner WWI
Hemingway- WWI
Na T.Hardy
G.B Shaw-
Rea Dickens Victorian Era
Leis Carol mid- Victorian era
Henry James - > Civil War
Mark Twai- Idem H. James
Trans. N. Hawthorne - < Civil War, Dark Romanticism
H. Mellville Idem Hawthorne
Emily Dickinson Idem
Walt Whitman tot cam la fel

3

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What are some of the major literary periods discussed in the document?

What are some of the major literary periods discussed in the document?

How did modernism differ from previous literary periods in its style and themes?

How did modernism differ from previous literary periods in its style and themes?

The Renaissance 1485 - 1649

Enlightenment 1650 - 1800

Victorian Age (1837-1901)

Realism (1861 1914 , 65 90 pt Am.)

Modernism (1914 1950)

Po Golding, Lord of the Flies- WWI

Expr ONeil-Mourning WWI

Mo J.Co Dark heart, Lord Jim - WWI

J.Joice A Portrait, Ulysse WWI

W.Woolf- Mrs. Dalloway - WWI

T.S.E Waste Land Idem Woolf

Rea Dickens Victorian Era

Leis Carol mid- Victorian era

Henry James - > Civil War

Mark Twai- Idem H. James

Trans. N. Hawthorne - < Civil War, Dark Romanticism

H. Mellville Idem Hawthorne

Emily Dickinson Idem

Walt Whitman tot cam la fel

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