Romanticism

PrimitivismWaverley by Sir Walter Scott (the historical novel)

History – Faust – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Primitivism

Johann Gottfried von Herder(1744-1803)

German Philosopher

"the savage who loves himself, his wife and child with quiet joy … is in my

opinion a more real being than that cultivated shadow who is enraptured with the

shadow of the whole species"The BardJohn Martin

The Historical Novel

Zeitgeist (German) is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age.“

the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745• Waverley is centred areound the Jacobite

Reblleion of 1745

Jacobitism – political movement to the restoration of the Stuart Kings to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland.

• Most popular in the Scottish Highlands• In 1975, Jacobites attempted to restore

Charles Stuart to the throne, overthrowing British

Charles Stuart

Waverley by Sir Walter Scott

What makes it a historical novel?

A historical novel is one that takes real events and characters and integrates its own characters and details.

Eg - Titanic

Key questions to ask when looking at a historical novel:

1. What did the author know, historically? (How did they feel about what they knew?)

2. How did they represent this in the novel? (How did they form the reader’s opinion to agree with their own?)

3. What are they saying about the historical event/time?

4. How was the novel received? – was the text valued? Were its values valued???

QUICK LESSONHISTORY

SCOTT’S SCOTLAND

• In 1707, the Act of Union was passed, ending Scotland’s independence.• The loss of Scotland’s nationhood was problematic as its identity was now uncertain.• primitivism spirit they directed their attention to reviving their old culture:

Sir Walter Scott(1771-1832)

Idealising & Reviving Medieval Poetry

Folklores Ballads

language

What was Walter Scott opinion of Scottish History?

• Walter Scott valued the Romantic belief of equality. That all people, despite class or ancestry were equal and innately good.

• Member of the Tory party – sympathy for Jacobites

• Valued Scottish culture (folklores he had heard as a child etc)

• HOWEVER favoured the Act of Union of 1707

It naturally occurred to me, that in ancient traditions and high spirit of a people, who

living in a civilized age and country, retained so strong a tincture of manners belonging to

an early period of society, must afford subject, favourable for romance

2. How does Walter Scott convey these beliefs to the reader?

Written in 1804, 60 years since the Jacobite Rebellion

‘Tis sixty years since

1. CharacterisationHero - Waverley

• British held little knowledge or appreciation of Scottish Highlands – stereotype (unrefined, lived in past)

Waverley symbolic for the British reader/ non Scottish

Very knowledgeable /informed narrator (3rd person, past tense)

DESCRIPTION First seven chapters setting up family history and political views (Pure English

descent; Stuart sympathy) his interests “imagination and love of literature” ch3 – daydreamer, romantic

character cultural context Narrator builds trust with reader – “our hero” Establishes Waverly as a credible character, by British standards. Empathy for

Waverley = Empathy for Scotland

2. How does the reader learn and come to appreciate Scottish culture?

* Waverley goes through learning process & eventually embraces ScotlandForeshadowed when he visits his uncle’s friend who lives at the border of the semi-Anglicised lowlands and the barbaric- highlands. Waverley is about to cross the border.

Through Waverley’s learning experiences

“Edward gradually approached the Highlands of Perthshire, which at first had appeared a blue outline in the horizon, but now swelled into high gigantic masses, which frowned defiance over the more level country that lay beneath them. Near the bottom of this stupendous barrier, but still in the Lowland country…” (ch. 8)

Cultural barrier

Unrest in landscape– the Jacobite rebellion

3. Scott immerses Waverley and thus the reader with Scottish culture

Music is integrated into daily life“he heard the notes of a lively Gaelic song...he found the damsel...in arranging to

advantage a morning of repast of milk, eggs, barley-bread, and honey-comb” (singing while she is cooking)

Waverley is in the highlands

intertextual references and excerpts from songs and poems:

1) integrated: “the stamping of horses was now heard in the court, and Davie’s voice singing to the two large deer greyhounds,

His away, hie away,Over the bank and over brae,

.....”

2) stated: TO AN OAK TREE... (p231)

As Waverley falls in love with Flora, even proposing to her, Scott argues that an appreciation of past culture is a good thing and as Waverley ends up

changing his loyalty to the Jacobites, he conveys that past culture can be even better than the one that exists today

PRIMITIVISM

Flora (characterisation: daughter of the chieftain; Highlander but Parisian educated (thus authority to non-Scottish readers she is a testimony that one can retain an appreciation of past culture whilst having sophistication and intellect)Language “The Gaelic language, being uncommonly vocalic, is well adapted for sudden and extemporaneous poetry” (ch22)“... those family bards, whom the chieftains of more distinguished name and power retain as the poets and historians of their tribes.”Flora’s value of Scottish poetry gives it dignity – Waverley values it

How do we know Waverley embraces the Highlander culture?

He falls in love with Flora!!

3. What are they saying about the historical event/time?

4. How was the novel received?

Very popular around Europe Started the historical novel genre ‘The Waverley Novels’ Went on to wrote 26 historical novels

= appreciation of the past, as a popular Romantic theme

How do we, as students value it?ie. Can we use it as a related text?

* Primitivism* Patriotism* Scottish Romanticism* Interest in the past* Self determination* Link to French Revolution

(rebellion against government)

*history

* Individualism* The sublime• Subjectivity

But we can always look for the influence of history...

Faust-the revival of the past

The value of the past culture is also present in Faust, the play by Goethe.

Johann Gottfried von Herder(1744-1803)

German Philosopher

Valued medieval Germanic culture:

- Tribal- Folkloric- ‘Gothic’ elements

- Collected folk songs

“German Shakespeare” – revitalise German culture

Faust – part 1(1808)how is Faust useful?

Goethe revitalised German culture, rather than German history (as compared to Walter Scott and Scottish history)

Faust is actually a German legend about a man, Faust, who is tempted by the devil, and trades his soul for worldly knowledge and pleasure.

In Goethe’s version, he complicates it with not only Christian, but medieval, Roman and philosophical morals, making it appropriate for the Romantic audience. He also changes Faust to be a frustrated intellectual, in pursuit of the true essence of life (Romantic idea)

by altering the old German tale, suitable for the Romantic audience, Goethe contributed to the revival of German culture/history and thus promoting Romanticism.

Faust

Devil

Great Scott –

that’s the end!