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British Literature: Past and Present. British literature continues to be read
and analyzed because the themes, motifs and controversies ...
... uncommon to find a female character in literature that is ... because in the gender-biased
world of British poetry there is ... pain she caused him in the past, in the ...
... uncommon to find a female character in literature that is ... because in the gender-biased
world of British poetry there is ... pain she caused him in the past, in the ...
... read AS Byatt's novel Possession without having had British Literature, a lot ... and
situations, serves also to connect the past to the present, the Victorian ...
... read AS Byatt's novel Possession without having had British Literature, a lot ... and
situations, serves also to connect the past to the present, the Victorian ...
Submitted by Bulldogs25 on July 22, 2005
Category: English
Words: 2334 | Pages: 10
Views: 232
Popularity Rank: 44,217
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British literature continues to be read and analyzed because the themes, motifs and controversies that people struggled with in the past are still being debated today. The strongest themes that were presented in this course related to changing governments, the debate about equity between blacks and whites, men and women and rich and poor, and the concern about maintaining one’s cultural identity.
The evolution of governments was a constant theme throughout the course, beginning with the lesson on the Introduction to Romanticism, where Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin debated the equity between rich and poor that was tearing France apart. The theme continued through the lesson about the Impact of Industry.
Burke was too close to his political sources to acknowledge the atrocities that were happening to France’s poor. He argued in favor of keeping the current political system, fearing that corruption would fill the vacuum of power if the monarchy was dissolved. This fear is still prevalent today after the United States ousted Iraq’s Sadaam Hussain. In both situations, people are concerned with the vacuum of power, fearing that someone more corrupt than the current administration would fill the void.
Wollstonecraft countered Burke’s debate and trumpeted the plight of the poor. She argued that to turn a deaf ear to the cruelty was a vote for tyranny.
“The rich and the weak, a numerous train, will certainly applaud your system, and loudly celebrate your pious reverence for authority and establishments - they find it pleasanter to enjoy than to think; to justify oppression than correct abuses (The Longman Anthology of British Literature, The Rights of Man, p. 82).”
She added that, “They (the poor) have a right to more comfort than they at present enjoy; and more comfort...
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