Flashcards on British Literature: Anglo-Saxon to Romanticism
British Literature: Anglo-Saxon to Romanticism - A Student Guide
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Romanticism
18 cards
Card 1
Question: What time period broadly defines Romanticism in this content?
Answer: Approximately 1770–1840.
Card 2
Question: What was Romanticism reacting against?
Answer: The Age of Reason: rationalism, science, urbanisation and Enlightenment ideals.
Card 3
Question: List key value shifts Romantics favored over Enlightenment/Classicism.
Answer: Feeling and emotion > reason; originality > imitation; mysticism > science; rural/ordinary > urban; aloneness/individualism > togetherness/conformity.
Card 4
Question: How did Romantics view nature compared with Enlightenment thinkers?
Answer: Nature was seen as uncorrupted, superior, original and morally pure, unlike society which was artificial; contrasted with Enlightenment views that saw
Card 5
Question: What metaphors does M. H. Abrams use to contrast Romantic and earlier views of the artist?
Answer: The mirror (art as imitation/reflection) versus the lamp (the artist as source of light/creativity); Romantics emphasize the lamp—inner emotion and cr
Card 6
Question: How did Romanticism change ideas about the role of the writer and art?
Answer: It stressed subjectivity, the writer as privileged/gifted with inner voice, writing as creative and expressive of emotion rather than merely mimetic.
Card 7
Question: What are typical traits of the Romantic hero or voice?
Answer: Lonely, outcast, expelled from community, often experiencing unrequited love and embodying individualism and aloneness.
Card 8
Question: What genres did Romantics favor and why?
Answer: Lyrical poetry and educational prose that awaken emotions and emphasize inner feeling, aiming to make readers feel and reconnect with humanity.
Card 9
Question: How did the Romantic movement relate to political ideas like equality and freedom?
Answer: Romanticism intersected with revolutionary ideas asserting equality and rights (e.g., influence of Paine), and many Romantics revolted against authori
Card 10
Question: Name some key Romantic poets associated with the 'Lake Poets'.
Answer: William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, Robert Southey, and Dorothy Wordsworth.