2
The long and winding road
The Enlightenment
also called
the Age of Reason
or
the Augustan Age
Defoe
Robinson Crusoe
1719
objectivity
realistic description
of reality
importance given to facts rather than feelings
Romanticism
The Victorian Age
The Preface
to Lyrical ballads
1800
Daffodils
nature
imagination
feelings
The Solitary Reaper
emotions recollected
in tranquillity
peace
and tranquillity
solitude
My heart leaps up
pantheism
childhood
ordinary world
simplicity of language
Wordsworth
symbolism
loneliness
nature
Victorian society is criticised
realistic description of the society of the time
novels published in instalments
sublime
imagination
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Lyrical ballads
1798
supernatural
a ballad
willing suspension of disbelief
the dark hero
improbable coincidences
flat characters
suspense
eventful plots
pantheism
I want some more
Oliver Twist 1837
autobiographical elements
Coleridge
comic effects
humour
Use of irony and melodrama
sublime
horror
gothic novel
the moral: the rich should help the poor
prejudice
science fiction
feelings
Victorian education
utilitarianism
Dickens
What is a horse?
Hard Times 1854
the dark hero
society as corruptive
the creation of the monster
Frankenstein
1819
the overcoming of human limits
the ethical problems
of science
Mary Shelley
a mixture of different literary genres: detective story, gothic, epistolary, thriller, horror
a complicated structure: beginning in medias res, three narrators, wide use of flashbacks
critique of Victorian hypocrisy tending to hide and suppress inappropriate feelings or instinscts
good and evil are part of the same person
themes: the struggle between good and evil but from a new psychological point of view
Jekyll's experiment
The Strange case of Dr jekyll and Mr Hyde 1886
who wins in the end? an open question
the dangers of scientific progress
a forerunner of Freud's theories
Stevenson
the aim of art is just beauty
art for art's sake
Aestheticism
art is useless
morality or didacticism is not the aim of art
beauty is artificial
a gothic novel
the faustian influence
the importance of sensations
Dorian's death
The Picture of Dorian Grey 1890
the scandal
aphorisms
the dandy
wit and humour
the pun in the title. earnest Ernest
a farce with a very complicated plot and improbable coincidences
I was found in a bag
he criticizes the hypocrisy of Victorian society
The Importance of being Earnest 1895
Oscar Wilde
The twentieth century
Modernism
indirect interior monologue
sense of duty
fear of the unknown
Eveline
Dubliners 1914
paralysis
epiphany
the stream of consciousness
symbolism
the use of mythology
direct interior monologue
Joyce
Molly's monologue
Ulysses 1922
a satire of the Russian revolution
an allegorical satirical fable
Old Major's speech
power corrupts
Animal farm 1946
dystopian novels
a nightmarish world
against dictatorships
Wnston Smith's at home in London
Winston Smith: an anti-hero
Nineteen-eighty-four 1948
Orwell
the Theatre of the Absurd
lack of plot
desolate setting
no characterization for the protagonists
charming spot
metaphorical meaning
lack of certainties
aimless existence
difficulty of communication
does it hurt?
Waiting for Godot 1952
monotony of human life
difficulty of understanding reality
Godot: a mysterious name
pull up your trousers
Beckett
a circular structure
a tragi-comedy
humour
tragic situation