Celtic Landscapes
Celtic Landscapes
The research for this presentation, and ultimately, the essay for this subject will be based on the different ways that the landscapes were represented during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century throughout Britain. Defining the term ‘Celtic landscape’ is integral to the understanding of the subject. Much like the term ‘borders’ that we came across earlier in the term, landscape is a constructed term, borders are created by identities: regional identities and national identities, much the same way as landscapes are depicted and represented by certain elements. Not only are landscapes based on the topography of a certain area, by its mountains, lakes, or valleys, but they are also affected by cultural representation. The period in which these representations were most prevalent, and in which much of the reading list is based is later on in the early modern period. However, the influences of these accounts, in some respects, remained through to the modern period. Poetry, fiction and non-fictional stories, art, music, tourist materials and later on, photographs and film were all responsible for the way in which landscapes were being represented.
There are a number of factors that are important to take into consideration when explaining why ‘landscapes’ were depicted in the way they were. (1) As Britain approaches the second half of the eighteenth century, tensions due to the Napoleonic wars meant that foreign travel was impossible. Travel within the British island became the pass time of many individuals who were eager to explore outside of their own microcosms. (2) With the rise of the Industrial revolution, so came the anxieties of the middle class over industrialization, urbanization, and political change. This provoked changing attitudes towards nature and nostalgia for the past. (3) This era had also seen the rise in the middle/upper class trend of collecting, art, curiosities and exploration, with this in mind the English, who
The research for this presentation, and ultimately, the essay for this subject will be based on the different ways that the landscapes were represented during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century throughout Britain. Defining the term ‘Celtic landscape’ is integral to the understanding of the subject. Much like the term ‘borders’ that we came across earlier in the term, landscape is a constructed term, borders are created by identities: regional identities and national identities, much the same way as landscapes are depicted and represented by certain elements. Not only are landscapes based on the topography of a certain area, by its mountains, lakes, or valleys, but they are also affected by cultural representation. The period in which these representations were most prevalent, and in which much of the reading list is based is later on in the early modern period. However, the influences of these accounts, in some respects, remained through to the modern period. Poetry, fiction and non-fictional stories, art, music, tourist materials and later on, photographs and film were all responsible for the way in which landscapes were being represented.
There are a number of factors that are important to take into consideration when explaining why ‘landscapes’ were depicted in the way they were. (1) As Britain approaches the second half of the eighteenth century, tensions due to the Napoleonic wars meant that foreign travel was impossible. Travel within the British island became the pass time of many individuals who were eager to explore outside of their own microcosms. (2) With the rise of the Industrial revolution, so came the anxieties of the middle class over industrialization, urbanization, and political change. This provoked changing attitudes towards nature and nostalgia for the past. (3) This era had also seen the rise in the middle/upper class trend of collecting, art, curiosities and exploration, with this in mind the English, who