1. NEOCLASSICISM and THE ENLIGHTENMENT
Literature from the Age of
Reason and Satire

2. Transitional Period
Neoclassicism began around the 1660s, reacting from the religious influence in Renaissance philosophy
Themes from the Renaissance that the Enlightenment avoids
Imagination
Invention
Mysticism
Religion
Goodness and Beauty of Man
The Enlightenment emphasized the opposites:
Skepticism (We can know nothing absolutely)
Order and restraint
Tolerance of various ethnicities/cultures
Individual > Society
Logic and the powers of Reason (like Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, the scientific theory development, etc.)

3. Characteristics
Imitates the classical styles of the ancient Greeks and Romans
Focused on certain qualities:
Logic/Reason (as in, scientific process)
Order
Skepticism
Individualism / The study of Man
Propriety (eg appropriateness)
Designed to support Neoclassicism’s ultimate goal:
Delighting, instructing, educating, and correcting Man and his social interactions
Placed emphasis on the intellect over emotions

4. Enlightenment Styles Elevated several particular styles of writing:
Satire: The use of humor, irony, or ridicule to expose or criticize the vices of others
In other words: Showing the discrepancy between how things are and how things should be
Essay: Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Addison and Steele, Jonathan Swift (even some John Milton), John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant
Moral Fable: A short story designed to teach a moral lessons
Rarely: The Heroic Drama: A play composed with floral, vibrant language, generally set in an exotic setting with exaggerated characters and stories.
See Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand
In poetry, Alexander Pope mastered the heroic couplet, a pair of rhyming iambic pentameter lines.

5. Neoclassicists We Will Read
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels and “A Modest Proposal”
Known for: Satire
Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac
Known for: Heroic couplets, Heroic drama
John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises On Government
Known for: Order, Logic, Emphasis on Intellect over Emotion
Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince
Known for: Extreme Order and Logic, Probable Satire