Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(JSF) LIT501 - Contemporary Lit
(JSF) LIT501 - Contemporary Lit
Contemporary Literary
Theories and Critical
Approaches
Judith S. Fetalver – Master of Arts in English
Major in Language and Literature
Topics Covered:
2 Introduction to Neoclassicism
He then says about relationships that “if the concept of half is not known,
never will double be known, and the same with the others.” However, thi
s may also be applied to other things.
Dante explains that “there are six things to be looked at at the beginning
of any doctrinal work, viz. subject, actor, form, purpose, title, and the t
ype of philosophy. Of these there are three in which this part, which I
meant to dedicate to you, is different from the whole, that is, the subje
ct, the form, and the title; in the others it does not differ, as is obvious
to anyone who looks; and therefore, in the consideration of the whole,
these three ought to be looked at separately: this having been accompl
ished, the way will be open for the introduction of the part.”
Dante says his work is “polysemantic, that is, of many senses; the f
irst sense is that which comes from the letter, the second is that of t
hat which is signified by the letter. And the first is called the literal,
the second allegorical or moral or anagogical.”
He talks about form, saying that “the exposition of the letter is nothing but the revela
tion of the form of the work.”
The last interesting thing he says is that “rhetors often tell ahead of time what they ar
e going to say, so that they may make the mind of the listener receptive. But poets
not only do this, but also make some kind of invocation after this.”
Introduction
to
Neoclassicis
m
NEOCLASSICAL
“neo” (new) + classical
“period of Enlightenment”
“age of reason”
“era of logic”
• Famous writers are John Dryden, John Milton, Sir William Temple, John L
ocke,
Jean Racine, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin(Moliere).
• Famous compositions are All for love and A Prologue and an Epilogue
by John Dryden.
Augustan Period (1700 – 1750)
It is called Augustan because King George I wanted people to think
he was like Augustus Caesar.
This period is marked by the imitation of Virgil and Horace’s literatu
re in English letters.
• Famous writers are Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, Fran
cois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire.
• Famous compositions are Gulliver’s Travel by Jonathan Swift and Rape of
Locke
by Alexander Pope
Age of Johnson (1750– 1790)
This period marks the transition toward the upcoming Romanticism
through the period is still largely Neoclassical. Much was happening around
the world politically, such as both the American and French Revolutions.
This time marked a transition in English literature from the structure and
formality of the Neoclassical writers to the emotional, ungoverned writings
of the Romantics.
• Famous writers are Samuel Johnson, Edward Gibbon, George Crabbe, Rob
ert Burns, William Cowper, Thomas Gray, Thomas Paine, Thomas, Jefferso
n, and Benjamin Franklin.
Famous compositions are Lives of Poets by Samuel Johnson, The Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, and Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard b
y Thomas Gray.
Sydney:
An
Apology
Stephen Gosson is best known for his attack on plays, poetry, and other arts
in The School of Abuse (1579), which evoked in reply a defense from Thomas
Lodge and Sir Philip Sidney's Apology for Poetry.
To the second charge, Sidney answers that poet does not lie because he never
affirms that his fiction is true and can never lie. The poetic truths are ideal a
nd universal. Therefore, poetry cannot be a mother of lies.
Sidney rejects that poetry is the source of abuses. To him, it is people who abus
es poetry, not the vice- versa. Abuses are more nursed by philosophy and histor
y than by poetry, by describing battles, bloodshed, violence etc. On the contrar
y, poetry helps to maintain morality and peace by avoiding such violence and bl
oodsheds. Moreover, it brings light to knowledge.
Sidney views that Plato in his Republic wanted to banish the abuse of poetry n
ot the poets. He himself was not free from poeticality, which we can find in his
dialogues. Plato never says that all poets should be banished. He called for bani
shing only those poets who are inferior and unable to instruct the children.
For Sidney, art is the imitation of nature but it is not slavish imitation as Plato views. Rather
it is creative imitation. Nature is dull, incomplete and ugly. It is artists who turn dull nature i
n to golden color. He employs his creative faculty, imagination and style of presentation to de
corate the raw materials of nature. For Sidney, art is a speaking picture having spatiotemporal
dimension. For Aristotle human action is more important but for Sidney nature is important.
Artists are to create arts considering the level of readers. The only purpose of art is to teach a
nd delight like the whole tendency of Renaissance. Sidney favors poetic justice that is possibl
e in poet's world where good are rewarded and wicked people are punished.
Plato's philosophy on ' virtue' is worthless at the battlefield but poet teaches men how to beh
ave under all circumstances. Moral philosophy teaches virtues through abstract examples and
history teaches virtues through concrete examples but both are defective. Poetry teaches virtue
by example as well as by percept (blend of abstract + concrete). The poet creates his own wor
ld where he gives only the inspiring things and thus poetry holds its superior position to that
of philosophy and history.
In the poet's golden world, heroes are ideally presented and evils
are corrupt. Didactic effect of a poem depends up on the poet's po
wer to move. It depends up on the affective quality of poetry. Am
ong the different forms of poetry like lyric, elegy, satire, comedy e
tc. epic is the best form as it portrays heroic deeds and inspires h
eroic deeds and inspires people to become courageous and patriot
ic.
In this way, Sidney defines all the charges against poetry and st
ands for the sake of universal and timeless quality of poetry mak
ing us know why the poets are universal genius.
References
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/neoclassicalliterature-definition-characteristics-
movement.html#lesson
http://www.ruthnestvold.com/Augustan.htm
http://www.crossref-it.info/articles/398/An-introduction-to-Augustan-literature
http://neoenglishsystem.blogspot.com/2010/12/restorationperiod-1660-1700.html
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-age-ofjohnson.
http://neoenglishsystem.blogspot.com/2010/12/age-of-johnson-1744-1784.html
http://wwnorton.com/college/english/nael9/section/volC/overview.aspx