Lecture 10
VICTORIAN PERIOD IN THE UK
Plan
1. The Queens’ Victoria Personal Life.
2. The Irish Famine.
3. War, Rebellion and Politics in Victorian era.
4. Growth of the Empire.
5. An Age of Science.
6. Social Changes, Education and learning.
7. Language.
8. Literature.
Literature
1. Гапонів А.Б., Возна М. О. Лінгвокраїнознавство. Англомовні країни. Підручник для студентів та викладачів вищих навчальних закладів. – Вінниця: НОВА КНИГА, 2005. – 464 с.
2. Козикис, Д. Д. Страноведение. Великобритания = British Studies: учебное пособие по специальности "Современ. иностр. яз." учреждений, обеспечивающих получение высш. образования / Козикис, Дмитрий Дмитриевич; Д. Д. Козикис, Г. И. Медведев, Н. В. Демченко. - 2-е изд.; испр.и доп. - Минск: Лексис, 2005. - 120 с.
3. Маркушевская Л.П. Учебное пособие по страноведению: Великобритания. - СПбГУ ИТМО, 2008. - 130 с.
4. Михайлов Н. Н. Лингвострановедение Англии = English cultural studies: учебное пособие для студентов высших учебных заведений, обучающихся по специальности "Иностранный язык" / Михайлов, Николай Николаевич; Н. Н. Михайлов. - 3-е изд.; стер. - М.: Академия, 2010. – 205c.
5. Кузьменкова Ю. Б. От традиций культуры к нормам речевого поведения британцев, американцев и россиян / Кузьменкова, Юлия Борисовна; Ю. Б. Кузьменкова ; Гос. ун-т Высшая шк. экономики. - Москва: МАКС ПРЕСС, 2008. - 314с.
6. Леонович, О. А. Страноведение Великобритании: [учеб. пособие для лингвист. вузов и фак.] / Леонович, ОлегАнатольевич; О. А. Леонович. - 3-е изд. - М.: КДУ, 2005 (Киров: Дом печати - ВЯТКА). - 252, [1] с.
Victorian period in Britain is the years of Queen Victoria’s reign in Britain (1837-1901). Victoria was born at Kensington Palace, London, on 24 May 1819. She was the only daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III. Her father died shortly after her birth and she became heir to the throne because the three uncles who were ahead of her in succession - George IV, Frederick Duke of York, and William IV - had no legitimate children who survived.
Warmhearted and lively, Victoria had a gift for drawing and painting; educated by a governess at home, she was a natural diarist and kept a regular journal throughout her life. On William IV's death in 1837, she became Queen at the age of 18.
Victoria was crowned Queen at the age of 18. She was a Hanover. Aged 21 Victoria married her German cousin Albert in 1840. On her marriage to Albert, Victoria stopped calling herself a Hanoverian and became a Saxe-Coburg after her husband’s family.
In the early part of her reign, she was influenced by two men: her first Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, and her husband, Prince Albert, whom she married in 1840. Both men taught her much about how to be a ruler in a 'constitutional monarchy' where the monarch had very few powers but could use much influence.
Albert took an active interest in political life of the country as well as in the arts, science, trade and industry; the project for which he is best remembered was the Great Exhibition of 1851, the profits from which helped to establish the South Kensington museums complex in London. Victoria was deeply in love with her husband and their marriage was blessed with 9 children. Most of her children married into other Royal families of Europe. After Albert died she sank into depression, aged 42, in 1861. She had lost a devoted husband and her principal trusted adviser in affairs of state. For the rest of her reign she wore black for which Victoria was nicknamed “the Widow of Windsor”.
The Victorian era witnessed changed in politics, social life, great progress in medicine and public health, which helped to improve the lives of working people. It is associated with Britain’s great age of industrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, empire. At her death, it was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set.