“An Era of More Favorable Conditions”: Tides of Cultural Change and Defining the Victorian Age as a Paterian Renaissance

Abstract

Unprecedented societal change shaped the Victorian era as cultural foundations in every arena were shaken. Victorian artists and writers responded to this upheaval, separated by their diverse styles and creeds but united by a posture of cultural engagement. This paper examines the artistic and literary movements of the Victorian era and argues that the Victorian age could be labeled a Renaissance, as defined by Aesthetic critic Walter Pater in Studies in the History of the Renaissance. Pater’s concept of Renaissance evokes an era when artists are united by a common force, creating a singular and original cultural experience. In this way, during the Victorian age, figures as dissimilar as pro-temperance caricaturist George Cruikshank and flamboyant Aesthete Oscar Wilde shared a compulsion to respond to cultural turbulence through their art.