1.

Explaining concepts
1. An Age of Transition
It is the Victorian era, from 1830 until the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. In this
period the British Empire went through dramatical changes regarding the social,
cultural and political life within it. Railways were built, printing presses were
established, education became compulsory, the era brought an overall improvement to
living conditions.
2. A Time of Troubles
It is the era within the age of transition from 1830 until 1848. The early period of
the Victorian era still had its problems. There were bad harvests, unemployment
was high, living and working conditions were awful, for example child labor was
still present. The potato famine in Ireland in 1845-46 brought the repeal of the corn
laws in 1846, which was a move towards free trade. The era ended with the
revolutions in 1848.
3. An Age of Improvement
In this period from 1848, until 1870 improvement really began partly due to
rationalist challenges to religious belief, and philosophers and writers publishing
works that challenged the age’s popular beliefs. The Great Exhibition in 1851 was
a great event to help familiarize the common people with the industrial and
cultural improvements of the time. Queen Victoria and Prince albert represented
moral responsibility, earnestness, domestic propriety, the main Victorian values.
4. Decay of Values
In the late period of Queen Victoria’s reign from 1870 until her death in 1901 the
prosperity and security began to fade. The strength of the empire is undermined by
wars and rebellions. Gaiety is replaced by melancholy in the 1890s, social and
moral values are rapidly changing due to the aesthetic movement and modernism
takes shape. The role of women in society also rapidly changes from housewife to
the modern “new” woman.
5. Dramatic monologue
It is a hybrid genre that matches lyric expression but is dramatic in principle, the
poet gives voice to an imaginary person, psychological representation of the mind
of the individual. For example, My Last Duchess by Robert Browning.
6. Pre-Raphaelite Movement
A group founded by young painters in the Victorian period (2p). They aimed to
modernize painting by turning to the directness of Italian artists before Raphael
(2p). Their art was inspired by medieval iconography and legends (2p). One of the
leading members was: Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
7. Aestheticism
A cult of beauty remembered by the life of Oscar Wilde or the illustrations of
Aubrey Beardsley, it was not only a literary movement. Its importance lies in a
 new idea: that literature was an art, and worth living for. They separated art from
morality. The movement shaped the life of multiple modernists later on like
Virginia Woolf, Joyce, Yeats or Eliot.
8. Decadence
In Britain the main figures associated with the movement are Oscar Wilde and
Aubrey Beardsley. Wilde’s Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray describes
decadence, meaning that the artist is the creator of beautiful things, and that the
artist can express anything without being morbid or having ethical sympathies.
Also, Beardsley’s illustrations represent decadence.
9. Bildungsroman
It is a novel of personal development with an emphasis on the social values of self-
control, loyalty and responsibility. For example, Great Expectations by Charles
Dickens or Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.
10. Condition of England novel
A novel written about social problems, the widening gap between the social
classes and the damaging effects of industrialization. For example, Oliver Twist or
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
11. Popular fiction
They can be ghost stories or supernatural tales like that of Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll
and Hyde, or Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Fantasy literature such as Dracula by
Bram Stroker. Detective fiction also belongs to this category mainly Arthur Conan
Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Science fiction and adventure stories are also
considered to be popular fiction such as The Island of Doctor Moreau or The
Jungle Book by H. G. Wells and Rudyard Kipling respectively.
12. Victorian theatre
Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Wilde reunited theatre and literature
- After Sheridan the theatre fell into the hands of stock companies and
became vehicles for actors such as Edmund Kean and William Macready.
- Acting came first, staging second, writing last.
13. Empire within Britain
In 1536 Wales was joined with England by the Act of Union, in 1707 Scotland
was joined with by an Act of Union creating Great Britain. In 1800 Ireland was
also joined with Great Britain, but in 1922 Ireland left the United Kingdom.
14. Empire outside Britain
During the late Victorian era there was large scale migration. In 1876 Queen
Victoria became Empress of India. Hobson’s Imperialism written in 1902 reveals
the economic benefit of colonization but also criticizes imperialism.
15. Irish cultural nationalism
The late 19th century resistance movement looks for a distinctive national identity
by means of literature and culture through rediscovering distinctive Irish native
traditions. Revives Gaelic literature with the help of translations, adaptations and
the rewritings of myths and folk tales. 1904 Abby Theatre, artistic freedom and
experimentation in style. The new drama produces Irish plays on Irish themes,
with European influences. Prominent figures of the movement are W. B. Yeats,
Lady Augusta Gregory, J. M. Synge.
16. Bloomsbury Group
A group of modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, John Maynard
Keynes.
17. Modernism
It means new, fashionable ideas and innovation against traditional values.
Modernist artists believe that modernity and changing traditions are necessary for
their art.
18. Modernist characteristics of the novel
The main modernist characteristic of the novel is the way in which the narrative
unfolds through the consciousness of the main character or characters, the narrator
makes no comments. There are new and experimental modes of representation like
interior monologue, such as the flow of memories or feelings and perceptions
through the mind. There are changes in perspective, plurality of vision – the story
is shaped by individual histories, memories and desires. It often represents
individual perception and the everyday strangeness of life. In the modernist novel
art itself becomes the topic the artist examines him or herself. Awareness of word
and language usage is also important in the modernist novel.
19. Modernist poetry
Regarding form and style in modernist poetry symbols and intense images play a
major role in order to convey private experience. They focus on aesthetics, on
verbal precision. Free verse is frequently used, epic forms are revived. Themes are
often addressing the central questions of the era, discuss existential anxieties, loss
of faith or traditions, values and norms. The tone of modernist poems are usually
skeptical and ironic.
20. Theatre of the Absurd
Dramatic presentation of the absurdity of the human condition by the use of
nonrealistic forms. Characterized by perplexity and spiritual anguish, portrays a
pattern of images representing man as a bewildered being in an incomprehensible
universe.
21. Dystopia
Imaginative literature that constructs flawed fictional societies the shortcomings of
which satirize ideal utopian societies, or specific real-world societies or both. In a
dystopia individual needs are in opposition with the demands of an oppressive
regime. Usually set in a world distant in space and time. It represents experiences
about the obstacles of true individuality. Realism is used to imagine a nightmarish
future, Eastern European dictatorships are used as a source.
22. Post-modernism
Post refers to what follows modernism, emerged as a reaction against established
forms of high modernism. In the postmodern the traditional boundaries between
high and popular culture are eroded. The economic background is characterized by
postindustrial or consumer society, multinational capitalism and computerization.
The era is characterized by theoretical discourse such as feminism or
postcolonialism.
23. Metafiction
A text that emphasizes its status as a text, self-consciousness of writing
characterizes it. It calls attention to the processes of writing and reading, provides
critical commentary of the literary text, art is about itself
24. Intertextuality
Everything is rewriting, the author is dead, the plot is dead