ENGL200 Summative Entry

This unit has enabled me to reflect on the similarities and differences between human experience in the 19th and 21st centuries.

Through poetical, prosaic, and theatrical mediums, the literary zeitgeist of the 19^th Century was defined by capturing the reality of the human condition and critiquing a dehumanising class system. It is the evolutionary nature of 19^th Century literary texts studied throughout this unit that has engendered an introspective and enlightening journey for me during this semester.

Much of the 19^th century touches our 21^st century attitudes. Poets and authors such as Keats, Mary Wollstonecraft, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Mary Shelley explore the dangers, limitations and expectations of our Western society, critiquing a human competitiveness which drives individuals incessantly toward power, capital and materialistic achievement. However, unlike our 21^st century evaluation of the human experience, early 19^th century authors were deeply interested in the feelings of the inner self and opposed the 18^th century’s deep-rooted classical rationalism and unfeeling politics. These issues and concerns are both personal and lyrical; they evoke human experiences that are still essential to the contemporary individual, the inner life and soul of the 21^st Century human experience. This was especially highlighted through my first and best blog inspired by Wordworth’s transcendental appreciation of the natural realm: (Link: https://mebsliterature.art.blog/2021/03/07/engl200-blog-1-creative/).

By comparison, the end of the 19^th Century saw the prominence of playwright Oscar Wild and The Importance of Being Ernest. Historically, those of the aristocratic Victorian age viewed themselves with grandiose gravitas and could not tolerate Wild’s undermining of social structures and façade. In our present-day postmodernist era of literature, this sort of Victorian dedication to the “earnest” veneer of social etiquette is markedly different to the way in which contemporary literature captures the 21^st Century human experience.

Similarly, 19^th Century European literary voices, such as Chekhov and Tolstoy, aided in locating an understanding of the human condition. Chekhov’s theatricalised quest for meaning and certainty reflected the struggles of the Russian Revolution and articulates an incredible sense of insecurity and loss of identity. This uncertainty indeed parallels our own sociocultural confusion during the COVID-19 crises. Personally, Tolstoy and Chekhov’s literary explorations of the human condition allowed me to comprehend a need for acceptance of our inevitable end, especially in current times of technological modernity and instantaneous, global information. Such a departure from the material world enables an appreciation and respect for the interconnectedness and equality of all living things; this is highlighted especially in my last blog: ‘My Life is a Book Borrowed’ (Link: https://mebsliterature.art.blog/2021/03/07/engl200-blog-4-creative/).

The 19^th Century is a mosaic of moral uncertainties, replete with politicised poeticisms and evolutionary voices teetering upon the turn of the century. Perhaps the most wondrous remnant of the past is its degree of divergence from the present. Through 19th Century literary figures such as Wollstonecraft, Wordsworth, Dickens, Wild, Tolstoy, Chekhov, these differences from 21^st Century experiences ultimately remind us of the afflictions and tribulations endured by those who strove for the reformation and progress we live amidst today.

Works Cited