The Victorian period : the intellectual and cultural context of English literature, 1830-1890
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The Victorian period : the intellectual and cultural context of English literature, 1830-1890
(Longman literature in English series)
Longman, 1993
- : hbk
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [262]-273) and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: hbk ISBN 9780582493469
Description
This provides students of literature with a critical introduction to the major genres in their historical and cultural context. The Victorian years were a time of unprecedented and profound social, cultural and intellectual change. This is a synthesis of the period, focusing on the themes of science, religion, politics and art. It examines the developments that radically changed the intellectual climate and illustrates for the modern reader how their manifestations permeated Victorian literature. The book establishes the social and institutional framework in which intellectual and cultural life operated, assessing Victorian historiography, religion and science and politics both in their own terms and in relation to the larger, cultural politics of the middle-class challenge. It discusses aspects of the period which have only recently received sympathetic study - the ethical societies, as well as the Oxford movement, the politics of gender and "Englishness", as well as politics of reform, photography as well as Pre-Raphaelitism. Prominence is given to the contemporary preoccupation with time.
From the remote time of geology and evolution, to the discovery of pre-history in anthropology, the Victorians' time-hauntedness emerges as the defining feature of their civilisation and this is the central theme of this book.
Table of Contents
- The sense of time and the uses of history
- religion - reform
- rejection
- reconstruction
- science - re-imagining the Universe
- the life of ideas and the culture of politics
- the arts of an industrial age.
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780582493476
Description
This is a thought-provoking synthesis of the Victorian period, focusing on the themes of science, religion, politics and art. It examines the developments which radically changed the intellectual climate and illustrates how their manifestations permeated Victorian literature.
The author begins by establishing the social and institutional framework in which intellectual and cultural life developed. Special attention is paid to the reform agenda of new groups which challenged traditional society, and this perspective informs Gilmour's discussion throughout the book. He assesses Victorian religion, science and politics in their own terms and in relation to the larger cultural politics of the middle-class challenge to traditionalism. Familiar topics, such as the Oxford Movement and Darwinism, are seen afresh, and those once neglected areas which are now increasingly important to modern scholars are brought into clear focus, such as Victorian agnosticism, the politics of gender, 'Englishness', and photography. The most innovative feature of this compelling study is the prominence given to the contemporary preoccupation with time. The Victorians' time-hauntedness emerges as the defining feature of their civilisation - the remote time of geology and evolution, the public time of history, the private time of autobiography.
Table of Contents
List of Plates Acknowledgements Preface Introduction 1. The Sense of Time and the Uses of History 2. Religion- Reform, Rejection, Reconstruction 3. Science- Re-Imagining the Universe 4. The Life of Ideas and the Culture of Politics 5. The Arts in an Industrial Age Postscript Chronology General Bibliographers Individual Authors Index
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