The world of imagination : gothicism and romanticism

littérature anglaise, 1ère L

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Séquence "the world of imagination"

I am going to talk about the sequence « The world of imagination », which includes gothic genre and romanticism.

The gothic novel appeared towards the end of the 18° century in England. It was influenced by the sentimentalism and Rousseau. Gothic literature was considered like women's literature because heroines were women and the novels were written by women autors. One of the pioneers of Gothic novel in England was Ann Radcliffe who wrote The mysteries of Udolpho in 1794. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a famous English romantic poet and philosopher who was influenced by the gothic genre. He wrote The Rime of the ancient mariner in 1798. Mary Shelley, RL Stevenson and Bram Stocker were three famous gothic writers. The gothic genre evolved in the 20° century, it took on a variety of forms like science fiction, horror tales, fantastic literature, magic realism. The genre has become particularly successful in the cinema with for example Twilight or Harry Potter.

The romanticism started in the 1780's and ended with the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. This period was turbulent and an age of controversy marked by three revolutions : the American revolution, the French revolution and the industrial revolution.

Romanticism was not only about literature but about painting too with two painters like Turner and Constable. Jane Austin who wrote Pride and prejudice and Scott were two famous novelists and Wiliam Wordworth and Coleridge were two romantic poets.

Romantics reacted against reason which had marked the early 18° century, they prefered imagination, idealism, passion, rebelion and nature.

We can think that romance and romanticism are similar but love is the sole link between the two.

Romanticism and gothicism are two different genres, the first can be described by romantic landscapes and a divine nature, with a romance quest. Romanticism privileges instincts and passion. Gothic genre can be used to describe desolate landscapes with a violent nature, it's about horror and terror. But we can see that nature is very important in romantic and gothic worlds.

In class, we have studied two novels, first it's The castle of Otranto written by Horace Walpole in 1764. He inspired of his neo gothic mansion, which helped him to give a gothic dimension to the text. This scene is about a life-threatening pursuit between Isabella who tries to escape and Manfred, the prince of Otranto. The atmosphere of the novel is fearful, we disturb for Isabella because we don't know if she will turn out to escape.

There are gothic elements in the text because there are labyrinths,

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