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The 18th Century English Literature
First Part: The Age of Johnson
1744-1784
Second Part: 18th Century Novel and Drama
(The 18th Century Literature)
Lecture 11
History of English Literature
MA ENGLISH
COMSATS Virtual Islamabad
Introduction to the previous sessions• 18th Century Literature• Division of Age• Novel in 18th century (Introduction)• Drama in 18th century (Introduction)• The age of Pope
– Poetry– Prose– Eminent figures during this age
The age of Johnson
1750-1784
After his death, the Classical spirit in English literature began to give place to the Romantic spirit
Officially the Romantic Age started from the year 1798 when Wordsworth and Coleridge published the famous Lyrical Ballads.
(a) Poets of the Age of Johnson
• An age of transition and experiment which ultimately led to the Romantic Revival
• Johnson broke the classical tradition and followed the romantic trends
Classicism
• Product of intelligence• Deficient in emotion and imagination• Town poetry• No love for mysterious supernatural elements• Didactic• Insisted writers to follow the prescribed rules and imitate
the standard model of writing
Romanticism
• Encouraged emotions, passions and imagination• Nature• Romantic spirit– love of the mysterious, the supernatural• Simple and natural forms of expression• Liberty of the poet in terms of choosing themes and
manners of writing
Goldsmith• Believed that classical standards of writing
poetry were the best• Works:
• The traveller• The Deserted Village
Classical in spirit
Didactic
Last work of artificial 18th century Literature
Touches of new age Romanticism
Treatment of nature and rural life
Poets of the Age of Johnson• James Thomson• Thomas Gray• William Collins• James• Macpherson• William Blake• Robert Berns• William Cowper• George Crabbe
Thomas Gray 1. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard– Manifestation of deep feelings of the poet and emotions
– Theme of death
2. The Progress of Poesy3. The Bard (more original and romantic…Independence of the
poet
His poems--- follow the classical model in form but their spirit is romantic
William CollinsOriental Eclogues
Romantic in feeling but written in classical tradition
Ode to simplicity
Ode To fear
Ode To the passion
How sleep the Brave
Ode to Evening
Focus on nature
James Macpherson
Works of Ossian
Translations of Gaelic folk literature
William Blake
Complete break from classical poetry
His works:
Songs of Innocence
Songs of Experience
Contains poems ---- Little Lamb who made thee?
Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright
The book of The
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Robert Burns• Greatest song writer in English
language• Great lover of nature• Works:
– The Cotter`s Saturday Night– To a mouse– To a Mountain Daisy– Man was Made to Mourne
Elizabethan touch in most of his songs
William Cowper
• Works:– The Task– On the Receipt of My Mother`s Picture– Alexander Selkirk– Translation of Homer in blank verse
Natural elements
George Crabbe
Between the Augustans and RomanticsIn form----classicIn temper----romantic
Works:The VillageThe Parish RegisterThe BoroughTales in Versetales of the Hall
Prose of the age of Johnson
The tradition made by the writers of the earlier part of the 18th century-----Addison, Steele and Swift—was carried out.18th century is called the age of aristocracy
Well known writers: JohnsonBrukeGibbon
Literary dictator of this age
Struggled against poverty and ill-health
Very kind helpful to the poor
Works:
Dictionary and Lives of Poets
The Rambler
The Idler
Rasselas
Samuel Johnson
• Member of Parliament for 30 years• Political philosopher• Works:
– Thoughts on the Present Discontent– On American Taxation (Speech)– On Conciliation with America (Speech)– The Reflection on the French Revolution
Universality
Full of enthusiasm
Fearless
Edmund Burke
Edward GibbonFirst historian in England who wrote in literary manner.
Works:
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Authoritative and well-documented history
Letters and DiariesLady Mary Wortley Montagu`s Letter.
Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his son
The diaries of Samuel Pepys (Describing the period between 1660 and 1669)
John Evelyn`s diaries
Summary of the Lecture (First Part)
• The age of Johnson• Poets in the age of Johnson• Prose in the age of Johnson• Letters and Diaries
• Transition period from Classical thoughts to Romantic thoughts
Introduction to the previous Part (The age of Johnson)
• The age of Johnson• Poets• Prose writers• Diaries and Letters
Second part of Lecture18th Century Novel and Drama
• Background• The age of enlightenment• 18th Century Novel• 18th Century Drama• Important figures
The Age of Enlightenment
18th Century England:
• After the tempestuous events of the 17th century, England entered a period of comparatively peaceful development. The“Glorious Revolution" of 1688 ended and England became a constitutional monarchy.
• The 18th century England witnessed unprecedented technical innovations which equipped industry with steam, and new tools, and rapid growth of industry and commerce. This is called the Industrial Revolution.
• Great changes also took place in rural England. With the Enclosure Movement ,the majority of peasants were ruined, driven off their land, went to the cities and became workers.
The Enlightenment in Europe:
• The 18th century marked the beginning of an intellectual movement in Europe, known as the Enlightenment, which was on the whole, an expression of struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. The enlighteners fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual needs and requirements of people.
Classicism
• an attitude to literature that is guided by admiration of the qualities of formal balance, proportion, decorum and restraint attributed to the major works of ancient Greek and Roman literature. As a literary doctrine, classicism holds that writers must be governed by rules, models, or conventions, rather than by inspiration. Neoclassicism required the observance of rules derived from Aristotle’s Poetics and Horace’s Ars Poetica.
• Addison, Steele and Pope belonged to the school of classicism. The classicists modeled themselves on Greek and Latin authors, and tried to control literary creation by some fixed laws and rules drawn from Greek and Latin works. Rimed couplet instead of blank verse, the three unities of time, place and action. Poetry, following the ancient divisions.
The Rise of the English Novel
• The modern European novel began after the Renaissance, with Cervantes’s "Don Quixote" (1605-1615). The modern English novel began two centuries later, in the l8th century. The rise and growth of the realistic novel is the most prominent achievement of 18th century English literature.
• Swift’s "Gulliver’s Travels“, Defoe’s “ Robinson Crusoe”
• Richardson’s " Pamela”, "Clarissa" and "Sir Charles Grandison".
• Fielding’s novels unfold a panorama of life in all sections of English society. Fielding was the real founder of the realistic novel in England.
• Another 18th century novelist of the realistic school was Smollett, the author of “ Roderick Random". and "Humphry Clinker."
The new element of sentiment or sensibility was added to the novel by Sterne whose “Tristram Shandy" was the strangest novel in English Literature.
Introduction
Birth of the "Novel", with its associations of newness and originality, occurs in the eighteenth century. Before that there had been forms of long and continuous narrative prose, but it was only in the 1720s that we begin to see the emergence of a recognisable "Novel" form, i.e, concerned with the realistic depiction of middle class life, values and experience, showing the development of individual (and individuated) characters, over time.
Contrast with the forms of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama (concerned either with the Aristocracy, or with gratuitous investigation of low-life). In terms of the subsequent development of the novel, ie. the Realist 19th Century novel, the period of the eighteenth century is a mixture of consolidation and experimentation, either establishing foundations, or of experimenting with new possibilities. (epistolary form, confession, rogue biography, anti-romance, picaresque, moral tract, etc)
The major novelists
Daniel DefoeSamuel RichardsonHenry FieldingTobias SmollettLaurence Sterne
Daniel Defoe (Novelist)
3.1. Brief Introduction of Defoe Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) was born in London,
the son of a butcher. As a merchant, Defoe had seen ups and downs in his business. He became bankrupt in 1692. Within four years, he was doing well again, as the manager of a tile factory. He remained in fairly prosperous circumstances until he was ruined, in 1703, by his imprisonment. Defoe was a kind of jack-of -all -trades. He was a merchant, economist, politician, journalist, pamphleteer, publicist and novelist.
Daniel Defoe
Works:• Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great
Britain• Robinson Crusoe• A Journal of the Plague Year• Moll Flanders • Roxana
Samuel Richardson
Works:• Pamela• Clarissa: or, the History of a Young Lady• The History of Sir Charles Grandison
Henry Fielding
Works:• An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela
Andrews • The History of the Adventures of Joseph
Andrews• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling• The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great• Amelia
Tobias Smollett
Works:• The Adventures of Roderick Random • The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle • The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Laurence Sterne
Works:• Tristram Shandy• Sentimental Journey Through France and
Italy
Eighteenth Century Drama
Dramatic literature was not of high orderReason of decline:
Licensing Act of 1737 which curtailed the freedom of expression of dramatists
Good writers left theatre
Tragedy Influence of romantic and classic traditions
Romantic: Elizabethan way of writing Violence and horror on the open stage
Classical French traditions of writing tragedies Unfolding of a single action without any sub-plot
Works:Otway`s Venice PreservedAddison`a CatoJames Thomson`s SophonishbaDr. Johnson`s Irene
Comedy
Steele: The Funeral The Laying Lover The Tender Husband The Conscious Lovers
Goldsmith The Vicar of Wakefield The Deserted Village She Stoops to Conquer
Richard Brinsley Sheridan The Rivals The School for Scandal
REFERENCES
• A critical history of English literature by David Daiches
• A critical history of English literature by Dr. Mullik
• http://mural.uv.es/franrey/novel.html
Thank you!!!!
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