I hope everyone is having a restful and restorative break and that you are ready to dive into the second half of our semester. Here is the plan for next week. Please reach out to me if you have any questions!
- I have recorded an introduction to Literary Realism, the literary movement that dominates the second half of the 19th century. This is the next period in literary history that we will be exploring. You can access the video HERE, using the Password: 5M=ei3UA In a comment on this post, please share one idea from the video that stuck with you.
- Please take a look at the Frederick Douglass Group’s Presentation. You can find it here on the blog. Leave a comment for the group with any feedback you’d like to share.
- Read Acts I and II of Hedda Gabler. Then, using the link below, watch the opening scene of the film version of the play, made for television in 1963, starring Ingrid Bergman.
Watch until Thea Elvsted enters. In a blog entry of 250-350 words, compare the written and film versions of the opening of the play. How might we view the film as an interpretation of Ibsen’s original text? Where has the filmmaker made changes to Ibsen? To what effect? What do we notice when we watch the film that we may have missed upon first reading the play? Please share your post by Wednesday, April 7th.
- Please try to finish Hedda Gabler before our Zoom call on Wednesday, April 7th. (If you haven’t finished the play, our conversation will definitely include spoilers!). You will have a second Hedda Gabler related assignment that will arise out of Wednesday’s call.
- Office Hours: You can sign up HERE to meet with me during my regular Monday office hours.
- Mid-Semester Reflection: Before Spring Break, I asked you to complete a short questionnaire reflecting on how the first half of the semester has gone for you. If you haven’t yet completed your form, please do it ASAP. (It is REQUIRED!). You can access the form HERE.
My takeaway from the video was that in Romanticism, the literary pieces focus more on fantasies and making problematic stuff pretty, it focuses more on making everything look positive and nice to the reader. On the other hand, Literacy Realism paints a picture with facts, no matter how gruesome they might be, it focuses on details and paints a 3-dimensional picture. It creates a detailed setting and and the description of characters.
After watching the video I have a brief understanding as to what Literacy Realism is and how it differs from Romanticism. The Literary Realism texts express or depict a picture in a more realistic way just like the example given in the video of how a dead body in a romantic novel might be perceived as beautiful person having rest after a long life and smelling like flowers, however in a literacy realism novel, the body would be rotting and having the most horrible smell, they might even get into how the person died because realism novels focus on facts, details and a wider picture.
Right – you can think about this in relation to Hedda Gabler. Hedda has a Romantic idea about Lovborg’s death and is then horribly disappointed with it doesn’t unfold the way she envisioned it.
After watching the video, I noticed the terminology used to distinguish the different literary styles presented throughout history. It’s notable that flat characters are drastically different from round characters, and it’s interesting that the more one-dimensional characters like Orgon in Tartuffe were designed in an earlier point in history, and more round characters have their presence in works that appear later in history. In my mind, this shows how mankind has grasped a deeper understanding of their characteristics, tendencies, nature, and habits through time. This could have been done through experiences such as global events and significant periods (like the Black Death, or slavery), and the subsequent realization from this overflows into how they portray their fictional characters.
Kaicy – Your comment itself reflects an idea that became popular beginning in the Enlightenment and then thrown into question periodically in later generations – the idea that as time goes on, our understanding of the world gets deeper and deeper and more and more evolved. The idea of progress being inevitable is itself an ideological position.
Now that we are moving from Romanticism to the Literary Realism era we see the shift in which ideas are expressed. Now, we will see how it will have a focus on reality and real life. Characters will now be more rounded compared to Romanticism where they were “flat” meaning these characters will now have a back story and be more complex and flawed. The text will not only be based on what they say but also what goes on in their head and the idea of where they come from and what is around them. In addition, the texts in the Literary Realism era will be greatly detailed which will have us understand a lot better what is going on in the reading and what it looks like.
After watching the video, I know the difference between Romanticism and Literacy Realism, the Romanticism is more forward straight, not like Literacy Realism is more detail to talk about, you have write much detail as you want, but romanticism is just go as normal, there is no wonderful point that really stand out.
Zijie, I’m not sure I would agree with this assessment. Romanticism will actually tend to be less straightforward than Realism in many cases. The most important distinction is that Romanticism emphasizes the subjective, emotional experience of the individual, while Realism attempts to show an “objective” truth.
One idea from the video that stuck with me was how Literary Realist were influenced by Charles Darwin’s theories of human behavior which reflected in the behaviors of characters. The essence of Literary Realism was to capture the truth. The literary realists wrote about contemporary subjects such as social, gender issues which goes back to the idea of being influenced by one of Darwin’s theory that human behavior is the product of heredity and environment put together.
One of the ideas that really stuck with me is how Literary Realism will not glorify events such as death. The scene we will read in the future about sprinkling saw dust to negate the smell of a decomposing body shocked me. Often times, when I read different types of text, I’ll think to myself that it cant be real and this isn’t whats going to happen in real life. Another thing that stuck with me is how authors might not complete a sentence in order to keep the characters as life like as possible since we sometimes don’t complete our thoughts too.
After watching the video, I understand more clearly the difference between literary realism and romanticism. Literary realism expresses the text in much more of a realistic manner. While romanticism depicts in more of fantasy like way. Also, I was intrigued about how literary realist drawn inspiration from Charles Darwin. Darwin’s idea that humans are based off heredity and their environment. I think it’s very interesting that some literary realists started writing with this idea in their texts.
After watching the video, It shows the differences of Romanticism and literary realism. Romanticism goes straight to the point while Literary realism is goes into more detail.
I’m not sure that this is really the case. Can you think of an example from our reading that would support this way of characterizing Romanticism?