13

13.19th century English culture and its critics.

19th c. time of the greatest empire when the ruler was Queen Victoria (rules 1837-1901). GB after Industrial Revolution was almost completely industrialised.

→ rapid development & growth of the cities, huge buildings made of iron and glass (Crystal Palace)

steam engine & Stephenson's Locomotive (1820) → completely changes the life of the society; big department stores → growth of consumerism, the main value is social status; bourgeois class of people.

Criticism: 1st half of the 19th c: Romanticism: William Blake: bitter observer of his reality, very radical critic of industrialised world; the modern town as a sign of imprisonment;

hypocrisy of the bourgeois system; the institution of marriage; marriage is not about love, but an economic transaction;

joy was eliminated; human life is a routine of hard-working; people make mistakes when despising their bodies and desire.

joy was eliminated; human life is a routine of hard-working; people make mistakes when despising their bodies and desire.

Second half of the 19th c: John Ruskin (a philosopher, art&social critic): sees serious crisis in the society; art → cheap copies pretended to be real art; clash between kitschy semi-art (Crystal palace)

and lack of interest to genuine art, people lost the sense of genuine beauty; vain celebration of goods, economic potential; society forgot about exploitation of workers → kind of slavery;

economic/mental slavery; inability to distinguish what is and what is not beautiful; absence of creativity.

economic/mental slavery; inability to distinguish what is and what is not beautiful; absence of creativity.

Matthew Arnold (Culture and Anarchy - a series of periodical essays): main question: Haven't we become overcivilised?; too much significance of technology and economic progress;

she was expected to be devoted and submissive to her husband. The Angel was passive and powerless, meek, charming, graceful, sympathetic, self-sacrificing, pious, and above all—pure).