Concetti Chiave
- Pre-Romantic poets favored subjective, emotional themes over intellectual ones, contrasting with the Augustan poets' style.
- They emphasized rural origins and melancholy, using nature's wildness as a backdrop for emotional expression.
- Gothic novels emerged as a response to industrialization, highlighting social issues and the loss of individual significance.
- Key Gothic elements included terrifying settings, supernatural beings, and complex plots that emphasized mystery and fear.
- Gothic literature often featured themes of forbidden knowledge and individualism, critiquing societal norms.
New trends in poetry (pre-Romanticism)
In the second half of the 18th century poets established new trends in poetry which managed to pave the way for the Romantic age.Later poets showed a tendency to use subjective, autobiographical material. They were less intellectual and more emotional than the Augustan poets. The poetry was traditionally reflective for the sake of generalized reflections, flowing from a balanced presentation of a variety of emotional states. There is also a re-evaluation of rural origins and a sense of melancholy and sadness.
Pastoral poetry expressed the idyllic pleasure shown by Cowper in its simplicity, free from the corruption of urban life which is seen as an aberration of true nature. Many pre-Romantic poets dealt with a detailed description of nature (Goldsmith, Thomson). Thomson saw nature as not static but in motion, he sought wild sceneries in contrast with civilized man. These poets were appealed by the melancholy and suffering produced by war or by unrequited love and especially by the description of a wild, gloomy nature.
The Gothic novel
The adjective gothic was not invented in this period but it can have various meanings:- Medieval, because it was related to a model of architectonic art.
- Irregular and barbarous, as opposed to Classicism
- Wild and supernatural
But the deepest meaning of Gothic, used in Romanticism, was linked to social problems: the industrialisation had destroyed the importance of the single human being and man had become a slave to forces he could not control. Therefore Gothic was used to denounce the problem represented by these problems.
The concept of Sublime influenced the gothic novels linked to the celebration of terror shown by Burke.
The main Gothic features were:
- Terrifying descriptions.
- Ancient settings, like old and isolated castles.
- A sense of mystery pervading everything.
- Supernatural beings like bats, monsters and ghosts.
- Heroines persecuted or stricken by unreal terrors.
- Terrifying male characters.
- Exaggerated reactions of main characters.
- Very complicated plots.
In gothic novels the motive of the frequent insertions of gloomy creatures like vampires was that of seeking forbidden knowledge, going beyond God, Nature and human limits. These creatures stood for the individualist man who was not satisfied with society.
Domande da interrogazione
- ¿Cuáles fueron las nuevas tendencias en la poesía pre-romántica?
- ¿Qué significado tenía el término "gótico" en el contexto de las novelas góticas?
- ¿Cuáles son las características principales de las novelas góticas?
En la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII, los poetas comenzaron a usar material subjetivo y autobiográfico, mostrando una tendencia menos intelectual y más emocional que los poetas augustos. Se revalorizaron los orígenes rurales y se expresó una melancolía y tristeza, con descripciones detalladas de la naturaleza y un contraste con la vida urbana.
El término "gótico" tenía varios significados, incluyendo medieval, irregular y bárbaro, pero en el Romanticismo se vinculó a problemas sociales, como la industrialización que esclavizaba al hombre. Las novelas góticas usaban este término para denunciar estos problemas y estaban influenciadas por el concepto de lo Sublime.
Las novelas góticas se caracterizan por descripciones aterradoras, escenarios antiguos como castillos aislados, un sentido de misterio, seres sobrenaturales, heroínas perseguidas, personajes masculinos aterradores, reacciones exageradas de los personajes principales y tramas muy complicadas.
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