Introduction to Neoclassicism

• After the Renaissance --a period of exploration

and expansiveness-- came a reaction in the
direction of order and restraint.

• Generally speaking, this reaction developed in

France in the mid-seventeenth century and in
England thirty years later; and it dominated
European literature until the last part of the
18th century
 The New Restraint

• Mystery and obscurity are considered

symptoms of incompetence rather than signs
of grandeur.

• The ideal style is lucid, polished, and precisely

appropriate to the genre of a work and the
social position of its characters
Influence of the Classics

• The period is called NEOCLASSICAL

because its writers looked back to the
ideals and art forms of classical times.
• Their respect for the past led them to
be conservative both in art and politics.
• Always aware of the conventions
appropriate to each genre, they
modeled their works on classical
masterpieces and heeded the "rules"
thought to be laid down by classical
critics
 Neoclassical Assumptions and
Their Implications
• Neoclassical thinkers could use the past as a guide for the
present because they assumed that human nature was
constant--essentially the same regardless of time and
place.

• Art, they believed, should express this essential nature:

"Nothing can please many, and please long, but just
representations of general nature")Samuel Johnson.

• Neoclassical writers aimed to articulate general truth rather

than unique vision, to communicate to others more than to
express themselves
 Social Themes
• Neoclassical writers saw themselves, as well as their readers and
characters, above all as members of society.
Renaissance -> Fascinated by rebels
Later Romantic artists -> Often glorified them.
Neoclassical artists -> Expected people to conform to established social
norms.

• Individual opinion was far less likely to be true than was the consensus
of society, developed over time and embodied in custom and tradition.

• As the rules for proper writing should be followed, so should the rules
for civilized conduct in society.

• Order and moderation inspired the period.

• Emphasis on the common sense of society rather than individual

imagination
 THE AUGUSTAN AGEA.D
1702-1714
1714-1760
 Emperor Augustus
 Oliver Goldsmith to draw a parallel
between the golden age of latin
culture under emperor Augustus
and the reign of Queen Ann

 The new Augustan Age becomes identified with the reign of Queen
Anne (1702-14), though the spirit of the age extends well beyond her
death.

 Augustan Age was characterized by the spirit of the Enlightenment.

 Age of Reason
 The Enlightenment contrasts with the darkness of irrationality
of
the Middle Age.
 Belief in progress, the power of reason.
 For the Enlightenment thinkers all men are equal in respect of
their rationality and the tolerance and individual liberty must be
granted by the law. Enlightenment thinking that tended to atheism
was the bases of French Revolution.
 During the Augustan Age the wealth of the State, based on trade
with the colonies, increased dramatically and Britain’s position as
a world power was confirmed by the victory in the Seven Years’
War against France, for the supremacy in the colonies.
 THE SOCIAL
SITUATION

 Britain was still a rural country and the life

expectancy was low.

 Middle Class or Middle Sort

 Rise of a new working class as a result of

a series
of Enclosure Acts.
9
 LIFE DURING THE AUGUSTAN AGE

A new reading public: the middle class

connected to it are:
The rise of Journalism & The rise of
the Novel.

As a consequence of the advent of

coffee from the colonies, clubs and
coffee houses flourished in
towns. They were intellectual and
social centres for debates.

Satire became the major output.

1
0
 EARLY NEWSPAPERS &
MAGAZINES
Daily Courant in 1702, The Tatler (1709) and
The Spectator (1711)
Daily Courant  also gossips  2 years only
The Tatler (=Il chiacchierone)  mainly essays.
The Spectator  politics, literature art.
The editors: Joseph Addison & Richard Steele.
Aimed at middle class readers!
Circulated mainly in the new coffee-houses of the
big cities.

10
12 DRAMA

 It was infertile period for drama

John Gay (1685 – 1731): The



Beggar’s Opera (1728):

satire towards Italian opera
 Augustan authors
 Richard Steele
 Tatler

 Richard Steele with frequent

contributions from his friend
Joseph Addison, turns the
relaxed and informal essay into
a new journalistic art form. In
1711 Steele and Addison
replace the Tatler with the daily
Spectator.
 Alexander Pope
14
 The Augustan Age poetry was dominated by Pope.
 Became a master in the use of rhymed heroic
couplets (= verso alessandrino) for the purposes of
satire.
 Wide culture based on the study of the classics.
 Founded the Scriblerus Club with Swift and Gay.

 In 1711 he shows his paces with the brilliant Essay on

Criticism + the translation of Homer’s epic poems.

 Mock –heroic Masterpiece: The Rape of the Lock (1714)

 = speaks of a trivial matter in the language and style
usually reserved for epic poems → the effect is comical.
15
THE RAPE OF THE
LOCK

 A nobleman cut a lock of hair

from the head of Lady Arabella
Fermor. This caused an
argument between the two
respective families and Pope,
who was a friend of both of them
wrote this poem to make them
laugh and reconcile.
 16
 Jonathan Swift first makes his
mark in 1704 with:
 The Battle of the Books
 A Tale of a Tub

 These two works,

respectively about literary
theory and religious
discord, reveal that there is
a new prose writer on the
scene with lethal satirical
powers.
THE
17 RISE OF THE NOVEL
 The word comes from the Italian “novella” = a long
prose narrative.
 Period of experimentation → no dominant form

I. Defoe and the Realist Novel

II. Swift and the Literature of the Fantastic
III. Richardson and the Sentimental Novel/ Epistolary
Novel
IV. Fielding and the Comic Novel
V. Sterne and the Experimental Novel.
 DE-FOE AND THE REALIST
NOVEL
 Defoe's works are written in the
form of fictional
autobiography or diary to
make them more realistic.

 The protagonist must struggle

to overcome a series of
misfortunes, using only his/her
physical or mental resources.

 No psychological
development of characters.
 DEFOE’S ROBINSON CRUSOE
 Inspired by the real story of Alxander
Selkirk
 Divided into 3 sections

 Hero of the middle class → values

o of hard work, self improvement, belief in
God’s providence.
 Interpreted as a religious allegory
→ redemption from sins through hard work
 Economic Allegory of merchant
capitalism
 Imperialist allegory (more recently) →
of the British Colonizer who is
convinced of hi superiority over the
savage.
 20
DANIEL DE-FOE
 Born into a middle class family of Dissenters.
 Educated at a Dissenting Academy.
 Merchant and interest in politics.
 Journalist (correspondent)  contribution
to contemporary newspaper: editorial & interview
 1719 Crusoe  a sailorman who was
Robinson
deserted at uninhabited island in the Pacific
 an
1722 Moll Flanders → poor girl seduced by a
Ocean
rich forced to become a prostitute and a thief,
man,
managesi n the end to lead a respectable life,
repenting for her sins..
SWIFT AND THE LITERATURE OF THE
FANTASTIC
 Gulliver’s Travels
 He used to criticize the
political situation of the
time.
 Yet, first regarded as a children‟s
story and only later appreciated
for its satirical value.

 About the experience of dr.

Lemuel Gulliver, a ship doctor, in
the dream countries of Liliput,
Brobdingnag, Laputa and
Houyhnhnm.  written in fluent,
clean & simple language 
enforced the realism.
 THE AGE OF JOHNSON

 “Samuel Johnson is one of those

figures whom everyone quotes and no
one reads.”
 When a man is tired of memes, he is
tired of life. 
 “What is written without effort is in
general read without pleasure.”
 Johnson once characterized
DA HELL DID
literary biographies as “mournful
narratives” Orator by excellence. 
I JUST READ?