the “long” eighteenth century 1660-1815. restoration to waterloo the great plague to industrial...
TRANSCRIPT
The “Long” Eighteenth Century
1660-1815
1660-1815
Restoration to Waterloo The Great Plague to Industrial
RevolutionSamuel Pepys to Jane Austen
What’s in a Name?
Age of Reason(Neo)ClassicismEnlightenment
History: Civil War
1642-1651 Civil Wars 1649 Charles I executed 1649-1653
Commonwealth 1653-1658 Protectorate
(Cromwell in power) 1658-1659
Commonwealth, again
1660: Restoration of Charles II
James II
1688: Glorious Revolution
Tory vs. Whig
Tory Whig
Royalists Liberty of English subjects
High Church Anglican Toleration of Dissenters
Economics based on land ownership
Economics based on stock market and trade
Landed Gentry Urban merchant
NOTE: Only white male property owners in the Church could vote (small minority)
18th-century London
This?
Or this?
Literature 1660-1700
Courtly Poetry Religious autobiography Few ways to make $$ in print Theater
Aphra Behn
What happens after 1700?
Changing Times=More Stuff
Economic globalizationConsumer marketWorld travel Interior improvements more efficient
distribution (of food, luxury items, BOOKS)
Changing Times=New Values
Rise of the middle class Politeness/Social rules Discourse over violence “Self-made” instead of inherited
riches Changing gender roles
Let’s do the math...
More stuff pre-made+ More shopping venues
+ New class values
=More Leisure Time
(esp. for women)
Bible-based religion
+increase in print products
=Higher Literacy Rates
THE BOOK RULES!!
More leisure time
+ Higher literacy
=MORE READING
Novels, newspapers, poetry, conduct manuals, sermons, the Bible, novels
Literature after 1700
New media forms: journalism, periodical essay
Rise of the novel Professional authorship (incl. women!) Ancients vs. Moderns ~Classics vs. New &
novel ~Bee vs. Spider Satire
New Media Forms
Newspapers and periodicals (Addison and Steele, The Tatler, The Spectator and many more)
Pamphlets, ballads, broadsides Autobiographies Travelogues Plays in print and theater Romances NOVEL
Aphra Behn
• 1640-1689• Tory• Spy• Playwright• Novelist?• First woman to make a living by her pen
All I ask, is the Priviledge for my Masculine Part the Poet in me...to tread in those successful Paths my Predecessors have so long thriv’d in….If I must not, because of my Sex, have this Freedom, but that you will usurp all to your selves; I lay down my Quill, and you shall hear no more of me. . . .I shall be kinder to my brothers of the pen, than they have been to a defenseless woman; for I am not content to write for a Third Day only. I value Fame as much as if I had been born a hero; and if you rob me of that, I can retire form the ungrateful World, and scorn its fickle Favours.
--Aphra Behn, preface to
The Lucky Chance (1687)
"All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.” --Virginia Woolf
Oroonoko and the Triangular Trade
Slavery in Suriname – Stedman
The slides that follow do not apply to 3120
Early 18th Century
1702: Queen Anne Rise of parties1714: King George I (2nd cousin
and Protestant)Robert Walpole—first Prime
Minister
William III and Mary II
“Bloodless Revolution”William and Mary enthronedOnly joint appointment in British
history1689 Toleration Act1701 Settlement Act
Increase in Literacy
Number of readers doubled or tripled between 1600 and 1800: 25% 60-70%
Rose especially for women and lower classes Four times as many books were published in
1790 than in 1700. Nonetheless, 75% of the English population is
still rural farmers who do not need to read regularly.
Reign of Charles II
1666 Plague/Fire1673 Test Act1678 Popish Plot; Exclusion Crisis1685 King James II
Literacy
In a Protestant country it was important that everyone be able to read The Bible and devotional literature
Useful for servants especially in urban centers
Cause of much anxiety over WHAT and WHO should read
New Media Networks
Subscription publicationCirculating librariesCapital-intensive publishingEnd of guild controlEnd of aristocratic patronageNew authors, new readers
Public Sphere
Places where people read, shared and discussed media, art, values, politics, gossip
Coffee Houses Gentleman’s clubs Taverns Democracy of ideas
Resistance to the New
Swift, Battle of the Books: Spider vs. Bee, Ancients vs Moderns
Pope, Dunciad: anti-pop culture, anti-critic, anti-hack, anti-woman.
Values of an earlier day: neoclassicism
Literature 1660-1700
Pilgrim’s Progress vs. Charles II Print for an urban, urbane, educated
audience Heroic, ornate, neoclassical poetry (Dryden)
with an inflated tone and a topical bent French romances Bawdy theater (restored) Scandalous women
Literature 1700-1750
Satire, irony, social criticism Still engaging classicism in early years Clearer prose styles Rise of the novel Stage stars more heralded than authors.
Plays become more moralistic Domestic women writers
Literature 1750-1815
Novel takes off More diverse authors and audiences
(relatively) Debates over who should be included Rights and revolutions debated Gothic Romanticism