19th Century Literature: Societal Shifts and Artistic Response

Historical Changes

After the French Revolution (1789) and the end of the Old Regime aristocracy, the following century was marked by political tensions that established constitutional monarchies and republics as methods of government. This climate of confusion and insecurity manifested in the cultural and artistic movement of Romanticism, which had a lasting impact on nineteenth-century artistic expression.

The bourgeoisie, a social class, affirmed its powerful individualism. The British Empire, driven by the British bourgeoisie, influenced the world with economic changes. This industrialization process also impacted literature. Scientific and technological development was significant in literature's search for truth, reality, and respect for the individual and society. Therefore, movements such as Realism and Naturalism gave the impression of following the path of scientific research.

The Writer and the Book Industry

Publishers viewed literature as a business; losses were not permitted. Poetry did not generate significant income, but the narrative form did. The nineteenth century saw the momentum of the novel, often published in installments in the press. The new economic context shaped the writer: accepting the editorial structure meant potentially being restricted by public tastes and censorship. However, this economic structure also helped professionalize the writer (allowing them to live under market laws). Key forms included the serialized novel, bourgeois theater, vaudeville, and journalistic activity.

If a writer refused to accept these rules, survival became an issue: they became outcasts and bohemians (preferring their craft and living poorly, separated from social conventions).

Alternatively, the writer secured funding elsewhere while continuing to write. This disconnection from society fostered the 'wrong century' artist, expressing displeasure with the world, which could lead to despair, madness, or suicide. The word that best translates this feeling is Spleen: an indefinite and shadowy sadness, the boredom of the urban man. Baudelaire captured this in his book Les Fleurs du mal. In contrast to this attitude, the artist emerged as a committed intellectual: one who sought to change society and politics.