ENGL 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Fourth Wall, Deconstruction
Document Summary
William wordsworth: look at a particular world view, not something we can just take in, we have to get trained to see things that are hidden. Training our perception to things that are not wholly obvious, rather obscured. Related also to preoccupation with death/decay; mournful attitude. Romanticism: exploration of fantasy, an overblown imaginative enjoyment of things, why should it be preoccupied with death/tragedy -- critical skepticism as what the world and culture is presenting to us as desirable and worth enjoying. Something wrong with the way the world traditionally teaches us to perceive and enjoy. Something about tragedy that individuates, while happiness is usually unanimous. Something about the way we fail to do something that gives us individual character. Generic and impersonal quality of what is happiness or success that we should aspire for. Experience is what we get when we don"t get what we want.
