The Victorian Era
The Industrial Revolution’s (1760-1840) impact regarding changes in society, economics, and politics results in an influx of writers, who responded to these rapid changes through different forms of literature, including essays, poems, plays, autobiographies, plays, journals, among several other publications to express their opinions.
During the Industrial Revolution, technological advancements began to dominate many industries. With the internal migration of citizens from outer suburbs and countrysides to the cities, writers became increasingly inspired by the state and changes of their current society, making for new ideas for novels and other forms of literature, ultimately using the revolution as a drive for new forms of literature to be created. However, writers were divided in opinion about the impact of the Industrial Revolution on publishing, with some expressing their content and inspirations for the change that new machines represented, and others being critical and openly rejecting the blatant exploitation of lower, middle, and working-class citizens that would be affected with the influx of technology.
A huge criticism came from Oliver Twist, a book written by Charles Dickens, which openly argued against the wealthy and their attitude towards the exploitation of the poor, resulting in workhouses being created after the passing of the Poor Law of 1835.
The Industrial Revolution amassed great wealth for the middle and upper classes but subjected the poor and working class to decreasing job opportunities and limited pay. Marx’s Das Kapital, written in 1867, responded to the crisis of the industrial revolutions and its impact on these lower classes. The Industrial Revolution had an immense impact on literature, including Modernism and Marxism. Urbanization skyrocketed as a result of the revolution, yet it was followed by an attitude of pessimism against the idea of technology and its advancements after World War I. As a direct result of the Industrial Revolution, people began to push back against tradition.
The Impact on Literature
The Industrial Revolution introduced hundreds of new words, concepts, and technology, all of which heavily impacted literature and the publishing industry. It influenced many literature movements and opened up a chasm of change within the industry. The revolution sparked concepts such as Romanticism, which was openly seen as a direct rejection of the rationalism of the Enlightenment, thus creating two separate yet equally used concepts that became a frequent foundation for literature. The impact of the revolution founded the term American realism, which emerged from the urbanization and industrialization of literature to explain the changes in American society as a result of the Industrial Revolution.
It was during the industrial revolution that inspired Charles Stanhope to create the first printing press. His innovative idea to switch from wood frames to iron made printing literature faster, increased durability, and allowed the sheets to be printed more largely than other printers.
Johannes Guttenberg (1440) invented the printing press which became important in the Holy Roman Empire. Friedrich-Auguste Gutenberg, a printer and goldsmith, created an efficient printing system at the time. However, technological advances and mechanical printing which allowed for mass communication debuted in the early 20th century. In addition to the introduction of a new and improved printing process, the importance of including the authors of these works became a prominent feature. The mass production of literature had a positive influence on adult literacy due to the increase in the production of books and other literary devices.
Books soon became a popular source of entertainment, education, and sources of opinion and discussion on important topics. The printing press played a big part in the Protestant Reformation and contributed greatly to the development of the democratic view (previously, the aristocratic views were the only source available through literature). During the Industrial Revolution, the rise of Romantic works became apparent, with authors like Wordsworth and Dickens’ writing literature that placed a heavy emphasis on the negative impacts that industrialization would have on humanity, including a detachment from human emotion and an increase of an asocial mindset, with technology becoming the forefront of human interaction.
Charles Dickens was the Industrial Revolution’s biggest critic, expressing his beliefs that industrialization was the cause of increased poverty and social injustices. Many of Dickens’ works included the conversation of the impact of industrialization on social class, arguing about the oppression against the poor class, and placing the middle class as the antagonist against them.
The Industrial Revolution, ironically, was inspired by a biography written by Elizabeth Gaskell. Her biography, a story about a girl named Margaret Hale, born in the country, who travels to a struggling industrial town, sparked the flame that soon became The Industrial Revolution. However, despite her biography being regarded as the inspiration behind industrialization, Elizabeth Gaskell was a critic against the revolution, as she believed that it led to social and economic injustices. In addition to being a social critic, she expressed her sensitivity to the changes in society that were being faced, including these feelings in many of her works.
Romanticism, the emphasis on nature and the country, can be traced back to 1978 in the lyric ballads of Mr. William Wordsworth. The discussion of nature and the country, although prominent in works of literature in the 18th century, also included discussions around mobility and development in urban settings.
Despite multiple criticisms from writers and authors alike, the Industrial Revolution is regarded as having an ultimately positive impact on the publishing industry. The introduction of industrialization inspired writers to incorporate these changes and progressions of society to be reflected in their literature, allowing for more flexibility in what was being written as opposed to the restrictive nature of literature being written only about nature (as it was in the era of Romanticism).
The Industrial Revolution introduced hundreds of new words that were added to the English language as a result of the progression of technological advancements. A new genre of literature also emerged from the revolution, known as industrial fiction.