Eras in Lit: Restoration and 18th Century Ap english lit

Restoration and 18th Century (1660-1798) What can fix society’s problems? Can science tell us how to live? What topics are newsworthy? What is a woman’s role in public life?

Restoration and 18th Century (1660-1798) Social Observers Economic stability leads to broadening of literate audience and the rise of journalism Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) first English novel (verisimilitude - appears like a newspaper account of a real person’s experiences when shipwrecked

Restoration and 18th Century (1660-1798) Satirical Voices Polished, witty, formal – these neoclassical authors aimed for a more elite audience Used biting or whimsical satire to point out aspects of society that they felt needed to be changed – holdover from Rome where both Horace and Juvenal were poets who used satire to criticize Roman culture You should know Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels, “A Modest Proposal”) writes Juvenalian satire (biting, angry) and Alexander Pope (The Rape of the Lock) write Horatian satire (laughing, mocking)

Excerpt from Canto V of “The Rape of the Lock” "To arms, to arms!" the fierce virago cries,         So when bold Homer makes the gods engage,  And swift as lightning to the combat flies.  And heav'nly breasts with human passions rage;  All side in parties, and begin th' attack;  'Gainst Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes arms;  Fans clap, silks rustle, and tough whalebones crack;  And all Olympus rings with loud alarms.  Jove's thunder roars, heav'n trembles all around;  Heroes' and heroines' shouts confus'dly rise,  Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing deeps resound;  And bass, and treble voices strike the skies.  No common weapons in their hands are found,  Earth shakes her nodding tow'rs, the ground gives way;  Like gods they fight, nor dread a mortal wound.  And the pale ghosts start at the flash of day!   

Restoration and 18th Century (1660-1798) Age of Johnson (prime territory for AP Language) Nonfiction writing focused on biography and history philosophy Politics and economics literary criticism natural history Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language extremely influential Athle-tick. Strong of body; vigorous; lusty; robust. Science distinguishes a man of honor from one of those athletick brutes, whom undeservedly we call heroes. Dryden. Bu’ffleheaded. A man with a large head, like a buffalo; dull; stupid; foolish.

Restoration and 18th Century (1660-1798) Rise of Women Writers French style salons become popular with wealthy ladies, who are barred by gender to attend university, intellectual women come to be known as bluestockings

Restoration and 18th Century (1660-1798) Rise of Women Writers cont. Aphra Behn – first woman to earn a living as a professional author Women novelists seek to enter a market where male authors had been aiming at female readership, but “female novelists” came to be criticized as overly sentimental and moralistic Mary Wollstonecraft – openly challenged status quo on education and property rights, using her novel to argue her political philosophy