FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE

1. The role of ratio and order in Neoclassicism?

 Unity of outlook, consistency of ideas, moral certainty
2. The revival of ancient Roman and Greek literature (Virgil, Horace, Ovid) in Neoclassicism
 They were thought to have achieved excellence and established the enduring models in all the major
literary genres
3. The role of plain reason, common sense, understanding
 Social order and moral norms, as well as unity of outlook, consistency of ideas, moral certainty
4. John Locke, “An Essay on Human understanding”; “Two Treaties on Government” (about?)
 Empiricism, all knowledge comes through the senses, human mind is “tabula rasa” and the freedom of
conscience and religion
5. Locke’s concepts: judgement/wit
 Wit is the assemblage of ideas put together with quickness and variety, and judgement is separating
the ideas so that there is certainty that one will not be misled by similitude
6. Religious scene: Protestants, Dissenters
 Dissenters are members of religious body who were separated from the Established Church;
Protestants do not believe in works but in faith; struggle between them in the 17th century
7. Political scene: Bloodless Revolution, constitutional monarchy, Jacobite invasion, The Whigs/The
Tories, The French revolution
 Bloodless revolution 1688 – the rise of the middle class, the absolute power of the king diminished
and the Parliament assumed new importance and role; The French revolution 1789 – quitted with
aristocracy forever
8. Philosophy: rationalism, materialism, empiricism, determinism, utilitarianism
 Rationalism - any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification; materialism -
holds that the only thing that exists is matter; empiricism - asserts that knowledge comes via the
sense's experience; determinism - conjectures that every type of event is causally determined by
previous events; utilitarianism - the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome
9. Sir Joshua Reynolds: the role of the Royal Academy of Arts
 One of the founders and the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts; RAofA is founded through a
personal act in 1768; the role was to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation and
interest in the public based on recognised canons of good taste
10. Enlightenment
 An era in Western philosophy, intellectual, scientific and cultural life, centered upon the 18th century,
in which reason was advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority
11. “The Age of Sensibility”
 Literature reflected the worldview of the Age of Enlightenment; led by the philosophers who were
inspired by the discoveries of the previous century (Newton) and the writings of Descartes, Locke and
Bacon; Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility”
12. Diderot and encyclopaedism
 A French philosopher, art critic, and writer, was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is
best-known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of and contributor to the “Encyclopédie”
13. The role of science and scientific discoveries
 Literary form (details of the form)
14. The Christian frame as the basic frame
 Still remained as the basic frame; the scientific discoveries only proved that the coherent universe was
created by God
15. The role of Nature
 Universal, permanent, representative; intuitive knowledge in the cosmic order (the Ancients)
16. The Royal Society
 1660; its primary purpose was to carry out the practical scientific experiments but the preoccupation
to develop a more featured prose which ordinary reader would be able to comprehend more easily
17. The rise of the middle class and of economics
 Several factors: trade with America, economical/colonial expansion of England, self-confidence gained
to rise at last
18. The Bank of England 1694
 “Money brings power”, banks helped the middle class rise to its fullest; was set up to supply money to
the King for the navy
19. The trade with America
 “Money brings power”, one of the factors of the rise of the middle class
20. Economical/colonial expansion of England
 “Money brings power”, one of the factors of the rise of the middle class
21. Sir Richard Steele
 One of the founders of journalism
22. The new reading public
 Works are written for the large public, not for a small group of educated people
23. Coffee shops
 People met in coffee shops and discussed public matters and literature
24. The rise of the novel
 Established as a new literary genre when the new reading public appeared; “Clarissa” or “Pamela”;
mirror of the society
25. Daniel Defoe (main novels), Samuel Richardson (epistolary novel, the titles of his main novels),
Henry Fielding (picaresque novel, “Tom Jones”, “Joseph Andrews”, the subgenre of these novels)
 Founders of English European novel; DD: “Robinson Crusoe”, “Captain Singleton”, “Moll Flanders”; SR:
“Pamela”, “Clarissa”, “Grandison”; HF: TJ – comic novel, JA – ‘comic romance’ (by Fielding himself)
26. Neoclassicism poetry
 Rational, social, didactic, polemical; abstract themes, noble language
27. The beginnings of journalism (John Addison, Richard Steele), first English journals, periodical essay
on moral and social topics, changes concerning language, Samuel Johnson, the first English
dictionary (the year of publication), Nathaniel Bailey as the author of the “Universal Etymological
English Dictionary”
 First English journals: the Daily Covrant, the Tattler, the Spectator, the Guardian; Chaucer and the
need for simple/plain language; Johnson’s “Dictionary” 1755
28. Theatre: sentimental comedy, William Congreve, William Wycherley, Oliver Goldsmith, Richard
Brinsley Sheridan, John Gay (“The Beggar’s Opera”)
 SC: a dramatic genre of the 18th century, denoting plays in which middle-class protagonists
triumphantly overcome a series of moral trials; WC: “The Old Bachelor”, “The Double Dealer”, “Love
for Love”, WW: “The Country Wife”, “The Plain Dealer”, OG: “The Vicar of Wakefield”, RBS: “The
Rivals”, “A Trip to Scarborough”, JG: “The Beggar’s Opera”
29. The key concepts of neoclassical criticism (Nature, the Ancients (creative imitation), wit, rules,
genius)
 Nature – universal, permanent, representative; the Ancients – the cult of imitation, imitation is the
ultimate standard for taste; wit - the assemblage of ideas put together with quickness and variety;
rules – rules of decorum, behaviour, how to write; genius – the question of the authority of Ancient
Greece and Rome
30. Horace, “Poetics”
 An epistle presented as an informal letter to members of the Piso family; originally written in dactylic
hexameter, the piece is typically translated into prose
31. Dryden’s translation of Nicolas Boileau’s “L’Art Poetique”
 1674; dwells into composition of verses
32. Relationship between poetry and painting (Horace, “ut picture poesis”)
 How one paints a painting, so should one write poetry (using the same devices)
33. Lessing, “Laocoon”
 He argues against the tendency to take Horace’s ut pictura poesis (as painting, so poetry) as
prescriptive for literature; he objected to trying to write poetry using the same devices as one would
in painting; instead, poetry and painting each has its character
34. Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Criticism”: concepts, the canon of taste, the verse form, the role of the
critic, the imitation of Nature, the role of the poet, language, poetic expression, the Ancients
 A compilation of Pope’s various literary opinions; concept of skill of writing vs. skill of criticism and
poet as a natural genius vs. the artificial one; the canon of taste of the English Augustan age; the verse
form – heroic couplets; criticism is a servant of the Muses, ‘be skilled’ to write easier; Nature seemed
itemized, tested; imitation of the Ancients is the ultimate standard for taste
35. Pope’s polemics, satire, invective, imitation of Horace, Juvenile, Virgil; facts from biography (Roman
Catholic, Twickenham, The Pastorals)
 The Pastorals – an imitation of Virgil’s “Eclogues”, literary echoes, highly stylized landscape (“An Essay
on Criticism”, “The Rape of the Lock”, “Windsor Forest”); imitated the Ancients because of the rule of
decorum; satire – “The Dunciad
36. Pope’s translation of Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey” (the first English translator – Chapman)
 Authored the original heroes-people; characterized why they are carefully selected, “errors in many”
37. What’s Pope’s satire “The Dunciad” about?
 Comments authors and personalities, complicated symbols, obscure people; the poem celebrates the
goddess Dulness and the progress of her chosen agents as they bring decay, imbecility, and
tastelessness to the kingdom of Great Britain
38. What’s “An Essay on Man” about?
 A poem published by A. Pope; a rationalistic effort to use philosophy in order to “vindicate the ways of
God to man”; concerned with the natural order God has decreed for man
39. The satire, the mock-heroic poetry, double scale, allusions, the pun, irony, parody, periphrasis
 The satire - usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose is constructive social criticism, using wit as a
weapon; the mock-heroic poetry - inserts the heroic work by either putting a fool in the role of the
hero or by exaggerating the heroic qualities; allusion - a brief reference, explicit or indirect, to a
person, place or event; the pun - a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings for an
intended humorous or rhetorical effect; irony - conveys a meaning exactly opposite from their literal
meaning; parody - work created to mock, comment on, or make fun at an original work; periphrasis -
the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter form of expression
 IDENTIFICATION QUESTIONS

1. Mock/-heroic epic poem!

 Satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature; works to
insert the heroic work by either putting a fool in the role of the hero or by exaggerating the heroic
qualities to such a point that they become absurd
2. “The Rape of the Lock” as a mock-heroic epic!
 The strategy of Pope’s mock-epic is not to mock the form itself, but to mock his society in its very
failure to rise to epic standards; a poem in which every element of the contemporary scene conjures
up some image from epic tradition or the classical world view; the heroic couplet – rhymed iambic
pentameter
3. The content of “The Rape of the Lock”, characters and their references!
 Summary: Belinda arises to prepare for the day’s social activities after sleeping late; Ariel warned her
in a dream that some disaster will befall her; she travels to Hampton Court Palace; among the people
is the Baron, who has already made up his mind to steal a lock of Belinda’s hair; after a game of cards,
the Baron takes up a pair of scissors and manages, on the third try, to cut off the coveted lock of
Belinda’s hair; Belinda is furious and sad; the poet consoles the bereft Belinda with the suggestion that
it has been taken up into the heavens and immortalized as a constellation; characters: Belinda (based
on Arabella Fermor, a Roman Catholic), the Baron (based on Lord Petre), Caryl (based on Pope’s friend
John Caryll); origin of names: Ariel (Shakespeare), Uranus’s moons are named after characters by
Shakespeare or Pope (Umbriel)
 FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE – titles

1. Alexander Pope
 “Pastoral” 1709, “An Essay on Criticism” 1711, “The Rape of the Lock” 1712 > wit, pun; “The
Pastoral(s)” – most famous written in epistolary form
2. Jonathan Swift
 “Gulliver’s Travels” 1726, “A Modest Proposal” 1729
3. William Blake
 “Songs of Innocence” 1789, “Songs of Experience” 1794; “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” –
intellectual satire: dramatic presentation of having no faith neither in God nor in the cosmic(al) order
4. William Wordsworth
 “Lyrical Ballads” 1798, “Poems” 1807; “The Prelude” – longest autobiographical poem
5. S. T. Coleridge
 “Biographia Literaria” 1817, “Conversation poems” 1795-1807; “Frost at Midnight”, “Ode to a
Nightingale” – CPs
6. Lord Byron
 “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” 1818, “Don Juan” 1819-1824 > heroic couplets, ottava rima, Spenserian
stanza; “Childe Harold’ Pilgrimage” – intellectual travelogue – intellectual journey, to improve one’s
education on something or everything
7. P. B. Shelley
 “The Wandering Jew” 1810, “Ode to the West Wind” 1819; “Queen Mab” – political poem;
“Prometheus Unbound” – lyrical drama
8. John Keats
 “Adonais” 1820, “Ode to a Nightingale” 1819, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” > synaesthesia, negative
capability

FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE – verses/stanzas

1. Heroic couplet, alexandrine, terza rima, Spenserian stanza, ottava rima, ode, hymn
 HC: a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines (masculine rhyme, closed); A: a line of
poetic meter comprising 12 syllables, divided into two equal parts by a caesura between the 6th and 7th
syllables; TR: a 3-line stanza using chain rhyme in the pattern A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D, iambic
pentameter, Alighieri; SS: Spenser for “The Faerie Queene”, 8 lines in iambic pentameter followed by
1 Alexandrine line in iambic hexameter, A-B-A, B-B-C, B-C-C; OR: 8 iambic pentameters, A-B-A, B-B-C,
B-C-C, Italian origin; Ode: lyrical verse written in praise of someone special to the poet, originally
written by Horace, Spenser incorporated it in his odes, three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe,
and the epode; Hymn: written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer
 ESSAY TYPE QUESTIONS

1. Symbolism in Blake’s poetry

 Innocence symbols, energy symbols, sexual symbols, corruption symbols, oppression symbols
 Introduction to Songs of Experience > Bard: power of seeing present, past and future, has also been
symbolized as the Christ who asks the mankind to wake up from its slumberous sleep
 Earth’s Answer > Earth: woman, a mother, imprisoned and wants freedom
 Blake hated all kinds of restraints
 The Tiger and the Lamb > fearless, striking, dangerous, violent but beautiful, unlike the Lamb; also
symmetrical (created by God)
2. Coleridge’s definition of imagination (primary, secondary, fancy)
 Fancy – memory, collects images passively and mechanically
 Primary imagination – unconsciously; basic awareness; to synthesize meaningless things
 Secondary imagination – more conscious, less elemental, creates and projects new harmonious
meanings
3. The sublime
 refers to things in nature or art that affect the mind with a sense of overwhelming grandeur or
irresistible power
 landscape – Wordsworth – “The Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” – beauty/terror
Alexander Pope - “Pastoral” 1709, “An Essay on Criticism” 1711,
“The Rape of the Lock” 1712 > wit, pun;
“The Pastoral(s)” – most famous written in epistolary form
Jonathan Swift - “Gulliver’s Travels” 1726,
“A Modest Proposal” 1729
William Blake - “Songs of Innocence” 1789,
“Songs of Experience” 1794; “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”
– intellectual satire: dramatic presentation of having no
faith neither in God nor in the cosmic(al) order
William Wordsworth - “Lyrical Ballads” 1798, “Poems” 1807;
“The Prelude” – longest autobiographical poem
S. T. Coleridge - “Biographia Literaria” 1817,
“Conversation poems” 1795-1807: “Frost at Midnight”,
“Ode to a Nightingale” – CPs
Lord Byron - “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” 1818,
“Don Juan” 1819-1824 > heroic couplets, ottava rima,
Spenserian stanza; “Childe Harold’ Pilgrimage”
– intellectual travelogue – intellectual journey,
to improve one’s education on something or everything
P. B. Shelley - “The Wandering Jew” 1810,
“Ode to the West Wind” 1819; “Queen Mab” – political poem;
“Prometheus Unbound” – lyrical drama
John Keats - “Adonais” 1820, “Ode to a Nightingale” 1819,
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” > synaesthesia, negative capability
Heroic Couplet: a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic
pentameter lines (masculine rhyme, closed);
Alexandrine: a line of poetic meter comprising 12 syllables,
divided into two equal parts by a caesura between the 6th and
7th syllables;
Terza rima: a 3-line stanza using chain rhyme in the pattern A-
B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D, iambic pentameter, Alighieri;
Spenserian Stanza: Spenser for “The Faerie Queene”, 8 lines in
iambic pentameter followed by 1 Alexandrine line in iambic
hexameter, A-B-A, B-B-C, B-C-C; OR: 8 iambic pentameters, A-B-
A, B-B-C, B-C-C, Italian origin;
Ode: lyrical verse written in praise of someone special to the
poet, originally written by Horace, Spenser incorporated it in his
odes, three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the
epode;
Hymn: written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer