1. The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason H. Dhaliwal
American Literature
The Enlightenment and the
Age of Reason
H. Dhaliwal

2. What is “reason”?
To think logically

3. The Age of Reason

4. They applied reason to the “human world” not just the natural world!
The Human world includes government and law
Natural World: Scientists applied reason to it using the scientific method

5. THE AMERICAN ENLIGHTENMENT
American Revolution
American independence seen as a divine sign that America and her people were destined for greatness. Military victory fanned nationalistic hopes for a great new literature. Yet except for political writing, few works of note appeared during or soon after the Revolution.
1790 American Copyright Law: American books were harshly reviewed in England. The search for a native literature became a national obsession. The copyright law of 1790, which allowed pirating, was nationalistic in intent. Drafted by Noah Webster, the great lexicographer who later compiled an American dictionary, the law protected only the work of American authors; it was felt that English writers should look out for themselves.
Although there is not one particular cause that started the American Revolutionary period, colonists were abused by Great Britain in may different ways and saw revolution as the only way to break free.

6. Causes of the American Revolution
The 13 English Colonies
Growing Discontent
Early Clashes
Part of British global trade
Mercantilist policies
Navigation Acts: regulated colonial trade
Colonists felt entitled to the rights of English citizens
French and Indian War drained British treasury.
Britain passed and enforced new tax law on the colonists
“No taxation without representation.”
Boston Massacre
Boston Tea Party
Punitive laws passed by British to punish colonists
Continental Congress with representatives from all 13 colonies

7. Connections…
How would Americans of today react if our freedoms were threatened?
Recently American soldiers were occupying Iraq. These American soldiers were meant to enforce laws. American soldiers met much opposition from Iraqi people, which resulted in the death of many American soldiers. Consider this quote, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” when comparing this present day situation with America’s past with Britain.
How do other nations react when Americans try to “police” the world? Real world connections?

8. Let’s Party Like It’s 1699!
18th century was a period of major change in American ideas and ideals…
As with beliefs of Puritans, changes originated in England, but took on new spirit and meaning in colonies.
What factors help explain the movement away from the severe faith of the Puritans?

9. Say What?!?!
Enlightenment thinkers de-emphasized “grace” and “pre-destination” in favor of “moral choice” and scientific inquiry.
“virtue,” “order,” “reason,” “sympathy”
How do you think religious figures felt about this changing view of the universe and how people should function within it?

10. But What About Providence?
Enlightenment brought a new, exciting way of seeing the universe…
universe as an orderly system
With application of reason, humanity would comprehend universe (think of Newton’s Laws).
How might this change the way the common man felt about religion and God?
Not necessarily a rejection…

11. “Benjamin Franklin Drawing
Down Electricity from the Sky”
(Benjamin West, ca. 1816)

12. Deism
Many of these thinkers (including Jefferson and Franklin) called themselves “Deists.”
Man can deduce the existence of a supreme being from the fact that the universe exists rather than because of what the Bible says.

13. Take Your Buckled Shoes and Shove ‘Em!
Humankind is naturally good. (What was the Puritan stance on this, again?)
“Tabula Rasa”
The more we understand and sympathize with each other, the richer our social and spiritual lives will be.

14. And Furthermore…
“Our business here on Earth is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct.” (Locke)
So are these people entirely different from the Puritans? What’s similar?
Founders and Faith?
“Nature’s God,” “natural rights” and “public religion”

15. Rhetoric Reason Logic Socratic Method
Today this term means “the art of speaking or writing effectively (especially persuasive speaking or writing).” In Franklin’s time the term meant the same thing, but more precisely it stood for “the study of principles and rules of composition formulated by critics of ancient times.”
Reason
If one is “rational,” then he has the ability “to reason.” What does it mean to reason? Reasoning is a type of thinking used to seek a truth through cause and effect and through drawing conclusions.
Logic
A system of rules used to express reasoning
Socratic Method
A technique in which a debater does not argue directly but instead asks a series of questions, with the result that the opponent comes either to the desired knowledge by answering the questions or to a deeper awareness of the limits of his knowledge.

16. Those Greeks Had It Right…
These writers saw the lit. of the ancient Greeks and Romans as the ideal to which all must aspire.
Emulation of these “classical” styles and traditions
Restraint rather than emotion
Dignified, refined and decorous language

17. Order and Virtue
We should organize our lives into an ordered sequence of reasoned and virtuous thoughts and behaviors
Aim is “human perfection”
How would the Puritans have felt about the concept of humans perfecting themselves for themselves and by themselves?

18. The Literature

19. Declaration of Independence
Drafted by Thomas Jefferson
People had the right to “alter or abolish unjust governments.”
Popular sovereignty
All government power comes from the people
King had trampled the peoples’ natural rights.
Colonists now had the right to rebel

20. LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS
emphasis on logic and rational thought, not emotions; emphasis on the social/good of the community, not the individual
presence of numerous classical allusions; use of satire; use of elevated diction; formal style that adhered to set rhyme schemes, such as couplets; two-dimensional characters or stock types that represent a class or vice
Influence of Drama-comic satires
rise of literary magazines
novel in various forms, including picaresque, gothic, and novel of manners

21. John Trumbull (1756 –1843): Declaration of Independence (1817)

22. Key Writers of the Age of Reason

23. Ben Franklin ( )
“The First American” for his early and indefatigable campaigning for the colonial unity.
1st U.S. Ambassador to France.
Exemplified the emerging American Nation.
“Poor Richard’s Almanack” annual Almanack published by Ben Franklin from

24. Patrick Henry ( )
American attorney who became a politician and an orator during the movement for independence.
Led the opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765
“Give me Liberty, or give me death” speech

25. Thomas Paine ( )
Wrote highly influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution.
Ideas reflected Enlightenment era rhetoric of transnational human rights.
Wrote “Age of Reason” which advocates deism and promotes reason and free thinking.

26. Philip Freneau (1752-832): “Father of American Poetry”
Poet of American Independence: Freneau provides incentive and inspiration to the revolution by writing such poems as "The Rising Glory of America" (1771) and "Pictures of Columbus.“ (1774) (patriotic verse)
first American poet to write about the Indians:
“The Indian Burying Ground” (1788); “The Dying Indian” (1784)
anti-slavery poetry: “To Sir Toby” (1792)

27. Phillis Wheatley ‘The first African-American to print a book
On Being Brought from Africa to America
'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
Their colour is a diabolic die.
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd and join th'angelic train.
(1773)
‘The first
African-American
to print a book
(of poetry)’