Romanticism in Literature: Edgar Allan Poe and the Literary Genres, Movements and Characteristics of Romantic Writing

Literary Genres and Literary Movements

1. Genres: Categories to classify the different literary texts, helping the reader to have a general idea of the text or what to expect.

2. What is literature?: Written works expressing human emotion and experience, representing the culture and language of a society.

3. Different genres of literature: Lyrical, narrative and drama.

The Three Main Genres

Lyrical Genre

4. Lyrical genre: Expresses feelings and emotions; hence its themes are subjective, sharing the author's point of view.

5. Lyrical subgenres: Song, ode, elegy and satire.

Narrative Genre

6. Narrative genre: Stories lived by the characters, told by a narrator, and including dialogue between the characters. They can be fictional or based on real-life events.

7. Narrative subgenres: Fairy tale, novel and epic poem.

Drama Genre

8. Drama genre: A story told through dialogue performed by actors in front of an audience.

9. Drama subgenres: Comedy, drama and tragedy.

Literary Movements

10. Literary movements: Different conceptual and aesthetic trends that define a moment in history, with specific characteristics depending on the cultural and social context of the time.

11. Different literary movements: Classicism, neoclassicism, romanticism, realism, modernism, magical realism and surrealism.

12. Characteristics of literary movements:

1. Shared ideas on how to write and on the role literature plays in society.

2. Changing the pre-established literary rules.

Neoclassicism

13. Neoclassicism: Part of a general revival of interest in classical cultures, neoclassicism was characterized by the use of themes and styles from ancient Greece and Rome.

Romanticism

14. Romanticism: A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity and the primacy of the individual.

15. Four factors prior to romanticism: Nationalism, democracy, the Industrial Revolution and social protests (labour protests).

Ideals of Romanticism

16. Ideals of romanticism:

• Feelings of dissatisfaction and defiance.
• It is a manifestation of an ideological, political, analytical and social crisis.
• A fulfilled life without limitations, against classism and the coldness of logic.

Characteristics of Romanticism

17. Characteristics of romanticism:

• Originality allowed by imperfection.
• Truth is subjective.
• Individualism.
• Value placed on the unconscious and dreams.
• Multiple directions and possibilities.
• Contradictions and dissonance are vital in romanticism.
• The idea of progress.
• The natural goodness of human beings.
• The creative process, motivation, morals, religion and politics are important.

18. Characteristics of romantic literature: Individualism, subjectivity, lyrical poems, overflowing emotions, freedom, contrasting aesthetics and themes, recovery of the past, religious topics, dark settings, death and anti-heroes.

Historical Context

19. Political context of romanticism: The fall of the French monarchy, which led to the French Revolution, and the American Revolution. The Napoleonic Wars expanded France's territory and made Napoleon the first Emperor of France.

Romantic Artists and Writers

20. Artists of romanticism: Chopin, Schubert, Goya, Delacroix, William Blake, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Wagner and Beethoven.

21. Writers of romanticism: The Brothers Grimm, the Brontë sisters, Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe, Nikolai Gogol, Leopardi and Bécquer.

Edgar Allan Poe

22. Who was Edgar Allan Poe?: Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most important and influential American writers of the 19th century. He was the first author to try to make a professional living as a writer.

23. What troubles did Poe have?: He was a gambler and an alcoholic.

24. When and where did Edgar Allan Poe die?: October 7, 1849, in Baltimore, Maryland.

31. When was Edgar Allan Poe born?: January 19, 1809.

25. Some of Poe's popular works: The Black Cat, The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, Berenice, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Masque of the Red Death.

26. What topics did Poe write about?: Death and grief, paranoia, the human psyche and guilt. He depicted the darkest corners of the human mind and its deterioration.

27. Which two aspects did Poe consider important in writing short stories?:

1. They should be read in one sitting.

2. Every word should contribute to the plot of the story.

Unreliable Narrators and The Tell-Tale Heart

28. What is an unreliable narrator?: Any narrator who misleads the reader, either intentionally or not, by withholding information, being placed in complicated circumstances, or because of psychological issues that affect their perception.

29. What is The Tell-Tale Heart about?: The story retells the narrator's execution of a terrible crime against an elderly neighbor who has a damaged eye. To the narrator, the eye resembles a vulture's eye, and this sets him against the old man.

30. Meaning of "tell-tale": Something that allows a secret to be known.

Key Concepts

32. What is nationalism?: A strong feeling of pride in and devotion to one's country.

33. What is democracy?: A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.

34. What is the Industrial Revolution?: A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods.