Romantic fiction, Walter Scott e Jane Austen

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Data:	21.02.2006
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THE GOTHIC NOVEL

The Gothic novel developed during the end ofXVIIIcentury as a reaction against good sense and realism of writer such as Defoe, Richardson.
Gothic:
1.it refer to the architectural style of Middle Age.
2.means “barbarous” and “irregular” against the regularity of the Augustan Age.
3.means “wild” and “supernatural”. At the beginning G. stood for M. A.
Now it means “horror” or “noir”. The aim was to thrill the reader instead of amusing and educating. The G. n. is a novel concerned about horrible events, fantastic, supernatural facts.
Constant features:
1.great important to terrifying description.
2.setting:time:M.A..place:ancient setting, isolated, hunted, castles, convents, secret passage. Catholic countries this was due to the prejudice of protestants against the catholics.
3.atmosphere was know as the G. Gloomy, the elements which contributed this atmosphere are: ghastly moonlight, sublime landscapes, thick forests and fog.
4.Characters:Superntural creatures (ghosts,vampires,monsters,warewolf). Common people:female ch. Is a innocent and pure girl who is persecuted by the male ch. who is the villain.
The sentiments/feeling are exaggerated.The plot is complicated and improbable.
Walpole:1764”the castle of Otranto”,Arne Radcliffe:1797”the italian”1794”the Mysteries of Udolpho”,M.G.Shelly1818”frankestein”.
The Historical novel was a tipical british phenomenon because Walter Scott is considered the founder of this new literary genre. The H.N.is the combination of fictional and historical events(real elements).

WALTER SCOTT

Walter Scott(H.N.) was born in Edinburgh in 1771.The peculiar about W.S. is that is he loved his country passionately and he devoyed himself to the heroic times of Scottish History. He went on many trips to the wild and primitive districts of the Highlands, where he got in to touch with the people and local legends of his country.This trips were very important for his works because he collected a lot of information about customs of ancient people who would portray in his novels.Scott was very skilful in describing unknown/fictional characters,he was less convincing with real people.He has a great influence on the other autors such as Manzoni,Tolstoy,Hugo,Balzac.
Scott’s feature:in his novels we can find the following characteristics:1.the union of traditions and romans,the setting(British and France)is usually the18century.2.the union of historical events and imaginary heroes such as “Ivanhoe” who was a Saxon nobleman whose life evolved around king Richard the Lion Hearted.3.the vitality of the past.He wanted to celebrated the greatless of places and scenary filling them with men and women of the past.
Scott’s technique:S.’s novels are told in3th person and the narrator is omniscient.He used Historical documents,whether real or invented.Detailed descriptions,he used flashbacks to follow the adventures of different characters in different places.

THE NOVEL OF MANNERS AND JANE AUSTIN

The Novel of Manners(Domestic Novel).Jane Austin 1775 -1817.She was born in Steventon(a important country),the peculiarity is that she led a uneventful life.Her father was the reverend George Austin and ws the rector to the parish.He was a classical scholar,she was educated by her father.She belong to country gently(landowners).She lived in5cities Steventon,Bath(will be the setting of one of her novels),Southampton,Chowton(was a residence of a older brother and where she went with her mother and sister after the dead of the father)and Winchester(where she died).
Her works:she began to write when she was very young.She wrote for her pleasure and to entertain her family.She was able to describe very well the society.6novels:the first3novels(”sense and sensibility”1811;”pride and prejudice”1813;”northanger Abbey”posthumous1811)belonged to the first group because they were written when she was younger27.The last3novels(“monsfield Park”1814; ”Emma”1816; ”persuation”posthumous1818)were written when she was over35.During these10years she revised and corrected her previous novels.
Domestic novel:she wasn’t appreciated by her contemporaniers because she didn’t shake their excesses and she usually satirized about them.Chronologically she belonged to the Romantic period but she followed the Augustan vision.She was keen on the18th century masters.She detested G.N.because she considered it exaggerated.She didn’t refuse the sentiments but she thought that everything is governed by reason.
Her sources:the restricted world of English provincial life with its Middle class families and country gently is the society which she took as a raw material of her art.Like her characters J.A. enjoyed with all the small pleasures of the age:dancing,playing cards,singing,reading;that’s why her heroines in her novel have a lot of their author in them.The plots of J.A.novels are alway the same and consist of innocent love stories of virtuos ladies and wooers,generally with a happy end.Her novels are known as domestic novels or novels of manner because they described the society in a very detailed way but behind small provincial world of her novel we can find a very serious and skilful artist with a strict moral code deriving from the age of the reason.All her novels are about the love but there aren’t passionate love scenes,not even a single kiss.All problems had to be solved by mental reflection.
Her themes:1.no heroes and heroines no thrilling scenes but everything is regulated by social distintion.2.decorum.3.common sense.4.money and marriages(was a very important theme a major preoccupation because at the time,the women of the middle and upper class were totaly dependent on their husbands or fathers.If they didn’t marry they became old maids and they had to look after their parents or relative children).5.good manners.
Her narrative technique:was influenced from18th century tradition.She was greatly influenced by Richardson and Fielding.From R.she derived the use of the letters while from F.she derived the use of omniscient narrator but an unobtrusive one, and the ability of bringing the ch.into exsistens through the dialogue(showing tech.and telling tech.)
Limits:
1.the plots are the same.
2.the social classes are the same.3.the lock of an overall vision.
Qualities:
1.detailed descriptions(countryside and people).
2.dialogue.
3.she is wit,ironic but never sharp.
4.precise and clear style made up of well structure sentences,concrete and real words,irony especially in dialogue,use of letter writing.