1 Literatura Inglesa II (2022-23)

2 Prof. Jessica Aliaga Lavrijsen

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2 Handout for Unit 2: The Restoration Period (1660–1689)

4 2.0. Introduction to the Restauration

5 You can watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEfWiok_sfQ

6 Did you like her video? ……………………………

7 Is there something that you found especially appealing?

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11 Is there something that you think could be improved?

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15 Now, watch it again and try to take some notes about the content, focusing on
16 those aspects that you think will be most relevant for this unit. You can ask
17 yourself first if you will focus more on the historical, cultural or literary
18 elements.

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27 In class we shall also see a brief introduction to the period. Feel free to take
28 notes.

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37 2.1. The Baconian Method
38
39 Watch the following video: https://youtu.be/UdQreBq6MOY
40 What are the most interesting ideas?
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47 The Baconian method is the methodical observation of facts as a means of
48 studying and interpreting natural phenomena. This essentially empirical
49 method was formulated early in the 17th century by Francis Bacon, an English
50 philosopher, as a scientific substitute for the prevailing systems of thought,
51 which, to his mind, relied all to often on fanciful guessing and the mere citing of
52 authorities to establish truths of science. After first dismissing all prejudices and
53 preconceptions, Bacon’s method, as explained in Novum Organum (1620; “New
54 Instrument”), consisted of three main steps: first, a description of facts; second,
55 a tabulation, or classification, of those facts into three categories—instances of
56 the presence of the characteristic under investigation, instances of its absence,
57 or instances of its presence in varying degrees; third, the rejection of whatever
58 appears, in the light of these tables, not to be connected with the phenomenon
59 under investigation and the determination of what is connected with it.
60
61 From: https://www.britannica.com/science/Baconian-method
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63

64 The method consists of procedures for isolating and further investigating the
65 form nature, or cause, of a phenomenon, including the method of agreement,
66 method of difference, and method of concomitant variation. [5]

67 Bacon suggests that you draw up a list of all things in which the phenomenon
68 you are trying to explain occurs, as well as a list of things in which it does not

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69 occur. Then you rank your lists according to the degree in which the
70 phenomenon occurs in each one. Then you should be able to deduce what
71 factors match the occurrence of the phenomenon in one list and don't occur in
72 the other list, and also what factors change in accordance with the way the data
73 had been ranked.

74 Thus, if an army is successful when commanded by Essex, and not successful

75 when not commanded by Essex: and when it is more or less successful
76 according to the degree of involvement of Essex as its commander, then it is
77 scientifically reasonable to say that being commanded by Essex is causally
78 related to the army's success.

79 From this Bacon suggests that the underlying cause of the phenomenon, what
80 he calls the "form", can be approximated by interpreting the results of one's
81 observations. This approximation Bacon calls the "First Vintage". It is not a final
82 conclusion about the formal cause of the phenomenon but merely a hypothesis.
83 It is only the first stage in the attempt to find the form and it must be scrutinised
84 and compared to other hypotheses. In this manner, the truth of natural
85 philosophy is approached "by gradual degrees", as stated in his Novum
86 Organum.

87 From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baconian_method
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89 However, this has been criticized by contemporary thinkers, such as
90 Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno observe that Bacon shuns "knowledge
91 that tendeth but to satisfaction" in favor of effective procedures. [12] While the
92 Baconian method disparages idols of the mind, its requirement for effective
93 procedures compels it to adopt a credulous, submissive stance toward worldly
94 power. As they put it in Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947):
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96 Power confronts the individual as the universal, as the reason which
97 informs reality.
98 Knowledge, which is power, knows no limits, either in its enslavement of
99 creation or in its deference to worldly masters.

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100 Horkheimer and Adorno offer a plea to recover the virtues of the "metaphysical
101 apologia", which is able to reveal the injustice of effective procedures rather
102 than merely employing them.

103 The metaphysical apologia at least betrayed the injustice of the

104 established order through the incongruence of concept and reality. The
105 impartiality of scientific language deprived what was powerless of the
106 strength to make itself heard and merely provided the existing order with
107 a neutral sign for itself. Such neutrality is more metaphysical than
108 metaphysics.
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110 Some questions for discussion:
111 Do you believe science is objective?
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117 Do you believe the scientific method will change in the future?
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123 How do the humanities differ from science?
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130
131 2.2. Margaret Cavendish and The Blazing World
132 You can watch a video about Margaret Cavendish:
133 https://youtu.be/NXeZk1umylo
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135 What information did you find the most relevant?
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141 Is there anything that you might skip?
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147 Did you find her nickname “The Mad Madge” (1’03”) somehow problematic?
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151 Do you think her gender somehow influenced her production and/or success?
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155
156 Watch this video to learn more about proto-science fiction and Cavendish’s
157 The Blazing World: https://youtu.be/TbpxIhE7B4E
158
159 What are the most relevant ideas in the video?
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166 In class we will analyse some fragments from The Blazing World, but you
167 should read the whole novel (it is quite short and very entertaining).

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168 You will find the work HERE:
169 https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/newcastle/blazing/blazing.html
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171 Also, as you know, downloading books is not legal in Spain, but you can always
172 have a look at books before deciding if you want to purchase them or not at sites
173 such as: https://es.z-lib.org/
174
175 Before the analysis, I will give you an introduction to the book in class.
176 Notes:……………………………………………………………………………………
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209 We will also see the article “Margaret Cavendish on Gender, Nature, and
210 Freedom”, by Deborah Boyle

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234 If you want to take the practical part of the exam by doing two tasks (each will
235 count 20% of your final grade), this is your first task.
236 We will decide a deadline and you will send me your tasks via moodle.
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240 Task 1: Read the article “Margaret Cavendish on Gender, Nature, and
241 Freedom”, by Deborah Boyle, and write an essay (800 words aprox) about the
242 ideas exposed in the article and the discussions we had in class about the
243 representation of gender in Cavendidish's The Blazing World (1666)?
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246
247 2.3. John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667)
248
249 I will give you some information about John Milton in class.
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281
282 You can also watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
283 v=YQTxBPNDDH4
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285 What did you find the most ideas in the video?
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290 ……………………………………………………………………………………………
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292 Is there anything that you did not enjoy about the video?
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298
299 Do you know anything about Paradise Lost?
300 This poem has had a profound impact on writers, artists and illustrators, and, in
301 the twentieth century, filmmakers.
302 You can see some here:
303 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost_in_popular_culture
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305 Why do you think it might have such an impact?
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311
312 Now you can watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
313 v=JgD92i5HFW0
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315 What information did you find the most relevant?
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322 I will give you some information about this work in class (context, themes,
323 stylistic features:
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356  We will also analyse some fragments in class from Book 4 (see below)
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358  You can watch a summary of Book 4 here:
359 https://youtu.be/O8zVYmMjZYw
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370 To whom thus Eve repli'd. O thou for whom
371 And from whom I was formd flesh of thy flesh,
372 And without whom am to no end, my Guide
373 And Head, what thou hast said is just and right.
374 For wee to him indeed all praises owe,
375 And daily thanks, I chiefly who enjoy
376 So farr the happier Lot, enjoying thee
377 Preeminent by so much odds, while thou
378 Like consort to thy self canst no where find.
379 That day I oft remember, when from sleep
380 I first awak't, and found my self repos'd
381 Under a shade on flours, much wondring where
382 And what I was, whence thither brought, and how.
383 Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound
384 Of waters issu'd from a Cave and spread
385 Into a liquid Plain, then stood unmov'd
386 Pure as th' expanse of Heav'n; I thither went
387 With unexperienc't thought, and laid me downe
388 On the green bank, to look into the cleer
389 Smooth Lake, that to me seemd another Skie.
390 As I bent down to look, just opposite,
391 A Shape within the watry gleam appeerd
392 Bending to look on me, I started back,
393 It started back, but pleasd I soon returnd,
394 Pleas'd it returnd as soon with answering looks
395 Of sympathie and love, there I had fixt
396 Mine eyes till now, and pin'd with vain desire,
397 Had not a voice thus warnd me, What thou seest,
398 What there thou seest fair Creature is thy self,
399 With thee it came and goes: but follow me,
400 And I will bring thee where no shadow staies
401 Thy coming, and thy soft imbraces, hee
402 Whose image thou art, him thou shall enjoy
403 Inseparablie thine, to him shalt beare
404 Multitudes like thy self, and thence be call'd
405 Mother of human Race: what could I doe,
406 But follow strait, invisibly thus led?
407 Till I espi'd thee, fair indeed and tall,
408 Under a Platan, yet methought less faire,
409 Less winning soft, less amiablie milde,
410 Then that smooth watry image; back I turnd,
411 Thou following cryd'st aloud, Return fair EVE,
412 Whom fli'st thou? whom thou fli'st, of him thou art,
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413 His flesh, his bone; to give thee being I lent
414 Out of my side to thee, neerest my heart
415 Substantial Life, to have thee by my side
416 Henceforth an individual solace dear;
417 Part of my Soul I seek thee, and thee claim
418 My other half: with that thy gentle hand
419 Seisd mine, I yeilded, and from that time see
420 How beauty is excelld by manly grace
421 An, which alone is truly fair.
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423
424  Other quotations from Paradise Lost for discussion:
425 1)Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall,
426 Godlike erect, with native Honour clad,
427 (Book IV, 286-7)
428
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430 Not equal, as thir sex not equal seem’d;
431 For contemplation hee and valor form’d,
432 For softness shee and sweet attractive Grace,
433 Hee for God only, shee for God in him:
434 His fair large Front and Eye sublime declar’d
435 Absolute rule; and Hyacinthine Locks
436 Round from his parted forelock manly hung
437 Clust’ring, but not beneath his shoulders broad:
438 Shee as a veil down to the slender waist
439 Her unadorned golden tresses wore
440 Dishevell’d, but in wanton ringlets wav’d
441 As the Vine curls her tendrils, which impli’d
442 Subjection, but requir’d with gentle sway,
443 And by her yielded, by him best receiv’d,
444 Yielded with coy submission, modest pride,
445 And sweet reluctant amorous delay.
446 (IV, 296-307)
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452 2) Was she [Eve] thy [Adam] God, that her thou didst obey
453 Before his voice, or was she made thy guide,
454 Superior, or but equal, that to her
455 Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place
456 Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,
457 And for thee, whose perfection far excelled
458 Hers in all real dignity: adorned
459 She was indeed, and lovely to attract
460 Thy love, not thy subjection, and her gifts
461 Were such as under government well seemed,
462 Unseemly to bear rule, which was thy part
463 And person, hadst thou known thyself aright.
464 (X, 145-156)

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470 3) I now see
471 Bone of my Bone, Flesh of my Flesh, my Self
472 Before me; Woman is her Name, of Man
473 Extracted; for this cause he shall forgo
474 Father and Mother, and to his Wife adhere;
475 And they shall be one Flesh, one heart, one Soul.
476 (VIII, 494-99)

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482 4) As I bent down to look, just opposite
483 A shape within the wat’ry gleam appear’d,
484 Bending to look on me: I started back;
485 It started back: but pleas’d I soon return’d;
486 Pleas’d it return’d as soon; with answering looks
487 Of sympathy and love: there I had fixt
488 Mine eyes till now, and pin’d with vain desire.
489 (IV, 460–466)
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497
498 2.4. John Bunyan's The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)
499
500 Watch this video: https://youtu.be/5uKnrnbci7Y
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508 I will give you some information about this work in class (context, themes,
509 plot, etc):
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529 And now we will analyse the following fragment I class.
530
531 You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czuOalW0-TQ
532
533 As I walk’d through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place
534 where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep; and as I slept, I
535 dreamed a Dream. I dreamed, and behold I saw a Man cloathed with Rags,
536 standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a Book in his
537 hand, and a great Burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the Book,

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538 and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled; and not being able
539 longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying What shall I do?
540
541 In this plight therefore he went home, and refrained himself as long as he could,
542 that his Wife and Children should not perceive his distress, but he could not be
543 silent long, because that his trouble increased: Wherefore at length he brake his
544 mind to his Wife and Children; and thus he began to talk to them: O my dear
545 Wife, said he, and you the Children of my bowels, I your dear friend, am in
546 myself undone by reason of a Burden that lieth hard upon me; moreover, I am
547 for certain informed that this our City will be burned with fire from Heaven;
548 in which fearful overthrow, both myself, with thee my Wife, and you my sweet
549 Babes, shall miserably come to ruin, except (the which yet I see not) some way
550 of escape can be found, whereby we may be delivered. At this his Relations
551 were sore amazed; not for that they believed that what he had said to them was
552 true, but because they thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his
553 head; therefore, it drawing towards night, and they hoping that sleep might
554 settle his brains, with all haste they got him to bed: But the night was as
555 troublesome to him as the day; wherefore, instead of sleeping, he spent it in
556 sighs and tears. So, when the morning was come, they would know how he did;
557 He told them Worse and worse: he also set to talking to them again, but they
558 began to be hardened: they also thought to drive away his distemper by harsh
559 and surly carriages to him; sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would
560 chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect him: Wherefore he began to
561 retire himself to his chamber, to pray for and pity them, and also to condole his
562 own misery; he would also walk solitarily in the fields, sometimes reading, and
563 sometimes praying: and thus for some days he spent his time.
564
565 Now, I saw upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was, as he
566 was wont, reading in his Book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and as he
567 read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, What shall I do to be saved?
568
569 I saw also that he looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood
570 still, because, as I perceived, he could not tell which way to go. I looked then,

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571 and saw a man named Evangelist, coming to him, and asked, Wherefore dost
572 thou cry?
573
574 He answered, Sir, I perceive by the Book in my hand, that I am condemned to
575 die, and after that to come to Judgment, and I find that I am not willing to do
576 the first, nor able to do the second.
577
578 Christian no sooner leaves the World but meets
579 Evangelist, who lovingly him greets
580 With tidings of another: and doth shew
581 Him how to mount to that from this below.
582
583 Then said Evangelist, Why not willing to die, since this life is attended with so
584 many evils? The Man answered, Because I fear that this burden that is upon my
585 back will sink me lower than the Grave, and I shall fall into Tophet. And, Sir, if I
586 be not fit to go to Prison, I am not fit to go to Judgment, and from thence to
587 Execution; and the thoughts of these things make me cry
588
589 Then said Evangelist, If this be thy condition, why standest thou still? He
590 answered, Because I know not whither to go. Then he gave him a Parchment-
591 roll, and there was written within, Fly from the wrath to come
592
593 The Man therefore read it, and looking upon Evangelist very carefully, said,
594 Whither must I fly? Then said Evangelist, pointing with his finger over a very
595 wide field, Do you see yonder Wicket-gate? The Man said, No. Then said the
596 other, Do you see yonder shining Light? He said, I think I do. Then said
597 Evangelist, Keep that Light in your eye, and go up directly thereto: so shalt thou
598 see the Gate; at which, when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt
599 do.
600
601 So I saw in my Dream that the Man began to run.
602
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604
605 2.5. Aphra Behn's Oroonoko (1688)
606
607 Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btp8UFiYKEs
608 ……………………………………………………………………………………………
609 ……………………………………………………………………………………………
610 ……………………………………………………………………………………………
611
612 Here you can read some information about the novel:

613 Oroonoko was a ground-breaking prose fiction piece published by Aphra Behn
614 at the end of her career. It achieved remarkable public success and is to this day
615 one of Behn’s best-known works.

616 Genre and adaptation

617 Oroonoko is an important early example of the novel genre. Not only does it
618 employ a first person narrative from a female perspective, but it also tackles
619 some of the most controversial of the emerging political, social and economic
620 issues of the late 17th century. The injustices of the transatlantic slave trade are
621 exposed through Behn’s graphic and emotive account of the cruel realities of life
622 in English colonial settlements. Oroonoko, the eponymous hero, is an African
623 Prince who is captured, enslaved and transported by an English captain from
624 his home in Kormantse, West Africa, to the English colony of Surinam, South
625 America.

626 This short fiction is recognised as an originator of the ‘noble savage’ tradition,
627 which was a central literary concept in the campaign for the abolition of slavery
628 during the latter half of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th. The story
629 itself was kept at the forefront of public consciousness throughout the 18th
630 century by a succession of adaptations, of which Thomas Southerne’s
631 Oroonoko: A Tragedy, first published in 1696, was the most enduring.

632 In the ‘epistle dedicatory’ of the first edition, Southerne commented on Behn’s
633 innovative, if somewhat puzzling, choice of genre: ‘She [Behn] had a great
634 command of the stage; and I have often wonder’d that she would bury her
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635 favourite hero in a Novel, when she might have reviv’d him in the Scene’ (sig.
636 A2v).

637 Truth and fiction in Oroonoko

638 The title page boldly states that Oroonoko is ‘A True History’. Within the first
639 pages the narrator explicitly expresses that her story is ‘recommended by its
640 own proper merits, and natural intrigues; there being enough of Reality to
641 support it, and to render it diverting, without the addition of invention’ (p. 2).
642 The claim of truth in this work, which was likely a narrative devised to enrich
643 the emotional impact of the story, has confused biographers, critics and even
644 Behn’s contemporaries regarding the particulars of her life and relationship to
645 both colonial Surinam and her hero, Oroonoko.

646 One near contemporary biographer, ‘a Gentlewoman of her Acquaintance’,

647 incorporated the entire narrative of Oroonoko into her ‘Memoirs on the Life of
648 Mrs. Behn’ in The Histories and Novels of the Late Mrs Behn (1696), and went
649 to great pains to ‘assure the World, that there was no Affair between that Prince
650 and Astrea [Behn’s penname], but what the whole plantation were witness of’
651 (sig. B1r). Modern scholars are less willing to accept Oroonoko as a
652 comprehensive source for Behn’s life, though many do speculate that she may
653 have spent time in Surinam because of her detailed knowledge of the colony and
654 its native inhabitants (see p. 9).

655 Behn’s narrative is further grounded in fact by its use of real colonial figures.
656 Lieutenant-General William Byam, ‘the most fawning fair-tongu’d fellow in the
657 world, and one that pretended the most friendship to Caesar [Oroonoko]’ (p.
658 196), was in fact the deputy governor of English Surinam before it was taken by
659 the Dutch in 1677. Lord Willoughby of Parham was also the absentee proprietor
660 of the colony in real life. Other colonists such as Trefry, Marten and Bannister
661 were also based on real people. There is, however, no historical parallel for
662 Oroonoko or Imoinda.

663 From: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/aphra-behns-oroonoko-1688

664

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665  Did you find the information useful?
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669
670 Did the hyperlinks help you?
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675
676 Even nowadays, four centuries after its publication, the debate on the
677 controversial novella, Oroonoko or the Royal Slave (1688), keeps open. By
678 means of the heteroglossia and the double-meanings embedded in the story, the
679 text acquires an ambiguous nature. Aphra Behn seems to both commit to and
680 rebel against all the stances, this is what achieves to keep the enigma alive and
681 make her unconventionality to be everlasting. Thus, reading the work critically
682 and figuring out the real message that the author aims to transmit becomes a
683 difficult task, as there are many hybrids that occur in the narrative: Oroonoko,
684 as mixture of the Western and the African, Imoinda, both submissive woman
685 and heroine, or the narrator, who is an insider of the dominant culture, but at
686 the same time a powerless woman.
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690
691 Do you think she was successful in giving voice to the marginalised individuals
692 of the society of her time?
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696
697 Would this be ok nowadays or have thing changed?
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