THE NEOCLASSICAL PERIOD th -18 th Century

The Neoclassical Period = Age of Reason = Enlightenment  After the Renaissance--a period of exploration and expansiveness--came a reaction in the direction of order and restraint.  The period is called neoclassical because its writers looked back to the ideals and art forms of classical times, emphasizing even more than their Renaissance predecessors the classical ideals of order and rational control.  The classical ideals of order and moderation which inspired this period, its realistically limited aspirations, and its emphasis on the common sense of society rather than individual imagination, could all be characterized as rational. And, indeed, it is often known as the Age of Reason.

‘From the head, not the heart’ The Age of Enlightenment has been crucial for developments and advances in human rights, education, and modern democracy. One of the principal objectives of the Age of Enlightenment was to rebel against the authorities. The philosophers and artists insisted that the individual use reason and logic instead of accepting what the Monarchy (King), law, and the Church presented as truth.

‘From the head, not the heart’ The neoclassic poetry differs from that of the Elizabethan Age, the climax of Renaissance, in three ways: First, it is more formal, with its demand to follow exact rules; Second, it is more artificial, polished, straightforward, dull and lacks the creative liveliness of the Elizabethans; Third, the chief poetic form is heroic couplet which replaced the variety of forms in the Elizabethan Age.

The Neoclassical Period  The Restoration = Age of Dryden  The Augustan Age = Age of Pope  The Age of Sensibility = Age of Johnson

The Restoration = The Age of Dryden  This period takes its name from the restoration of the monarchy (Charles II) to the English throne and the triumph of reason and tolerance over religious and political passion.

The Restoration = The Age of Dryden  Writing should be well structured, emotion should be controlled, and emphasize qualities like wit. This is in sharp contrast to the high seriousness and sobriety of the earlier Puritan regime.  The theaters came back to vigorous life after the revocation of the ban placed on them by the Puritans, and new dramatists therefore appeared.

John Dryden: poet & dramatist  Dryden identified himself with official opinion and regards himself as the chronicler of the age.  The tragic drama of this period was made up of Heroic Plays or Heroic Drama.  Heroic Plays: Men are splendidly brave; The women wonderfully beautiful; There is a lot of shouting and a good deal of nonsense; The plays are written in Heroic Couplets using Satire: The midwife placed her hand on his thick skull, With this prophetic blessing: Be thou Dull. (MacFlecknoe)

John Dryden: literary critic  The first great age of English literary criticism.  Dryden’s philosophy is clearly stated in the Essay on Satire: The purpose of literature is to give a picture of truth and imitate nature in the manner of the ancient Greeks and Romans; Literature must satisfy the reason; Blank verse suggests disorder, so he insists on rhyme; Dryden’s prose is logical; he is never carried away by the sound of words or the lure of a metaphor or simile.

The Restoration Philosophy  John Locke ( ) had many views on government, especially the importance of the contract. Religion  John Bunyan ( ) knew the Bible very well and his style is based on it, as well as his imagery. His Pilgrim’s Progress is about Christian travelling to the Eternal City. It is an allegorical story popular for its narrative skill and humor.

The Augustan Age This period takes its name from the original Roman Augustan Age (27 B.C.-14 A.D.), which the leading writers of this period greatly admired its figures. The new Augustans drew parallels between the two ages, and deliberately imitated their literary forms and subjects, their emphasis on social concerns, and their ideals of moderation, decorum, and urbanity.

The Augustan Age = Age of Pope  Alexander Pope ( ) is the greatest poet of this period.  He followed Dryden by using the couplet in verse.  When he was young, he wrote his Essay on Criticism, which contains sayings often remembered today: A little learning is a dangerous thing. True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, As those move easiest who have learned to dance.

The Augustan Age = Age of Pope  Pope’s delightful poem The Rape of the Lock [the stealing of the hair] takes a light subject and treats it as important.  He also translated the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer.  His other famous Essay on Man shows his perfection of the heroic couplet: Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to be blest.

The Augustan Age  The new century threw aside the strange plots and ideas of heroic tragedy and turned to reasonable things.  Daniel Defoe ( ) described the Great Plague of London in his Journal of the Plague Year (1722).  His Robinson Crusoe (1719) is a better and more famous book. This story is based on a real event.

The Augustan Age  The greatest prose writer of the whole century is Jonathan Swift ( ). He was a great humorist and a bitter satirist.  Swift’s most famous satire, Gulliver’s Travels (1726) is in four books. As a story it is popular with the young, who usually read the first two books: Gulliver’s voyages to Lilliput (where the people are 6 inches high) and Brobdingnag (where they are immense). The Lilliputians fight wars (as the English do) which seem foolish. King of Brobdingnag thinks that people in Gulliver’s country must be the most hateful race of creatures on earth.

The Augustan Age  The greatest novelist of the century is Henry Fielding ( ). He started his novel-writing career almost by accident.  His Tom Jones is his masterpiece. It has picaresque elements – the theme of the journey occupies the greater part of the book – but it would be more accurate to describe it as a mock-epic. We appreciate Tom Jones for its boisterous humor, its good sense, and its vivid characterization.

The Age of Sensibility = Age of Johnson  The man whose personality seems to dominate the whole of the Age of Sensibility is Dr. Samuel Johnson ( ).  He was a kind of literary ruler, giving judgments on books and authors like a god. Late in life he wrote his Lives of the Poets ( ) with decision and clear expression.  His own writings are less important than what he said, and a record of his conversations has been preserved in the Life of Johnson (1791).  His name as a scholar will live chiefly because of his Dictionary of the English Language (1755).

The Age of Sensibility = Age of Johnson  Here are a few of Johnson’s statements: A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair. Let me smile with the wise and feed with the rich. It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.

The Renaissance vs. The Neoclassical The RenaissanceThe Neoclassical The literature had been passionate, concerned with the relationship between man and man, man and woman as seen from the viewpoint of feeling and imagination. Feeling and imagination were mistrusted: feeling implied strong convictions, and strong convictions had produced a Civil War and the harsh rule of the Commonwealth. Imagination suggested the mad, the wild, the uncouth, the fanatical. It was best to live a calm civilized life governed by reason. Such a life is best lived in the town, and the town is the true center of culture; the country estates are impoverished, and little of interest is going on there; the country itself is barbaric.

The Renaissance vs. The Neoclassical The RenaissanceThe Neoclassical Shakespearian nature-pieces, poems smelling of flowers or telling of shepherds and milkmaids. Themes of the new literature are town themes-politics, the doings of polite society, the intellectual topics of men who talk in clubs and coffee-houses. The heart is in complete control.The human brain has taken over and is in complete control. PassionGood manners EloquenceWit The heart is worn on the sleeveThey do not speak their mind Literature is moving and emotionalThe literature is neither moved nor moving

Permission Acknowledgment My sincere appreciation goes to Ms. Ashwaq Basnawi for her generous permission to use her slides for LANE 341 course.