1. Performer - Culture & Literature Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella, Margaret Layton © 2012 Shaping the English character Bartholomew Dandridge, A Lady reading Belinda beside a fountain, 1745. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

2. Shaping the English character Queen Anne (1702–1714) had succeeded her brother- in-law, William III, and her sister Mary. After her death, her cousin, the Duke of Hanover, became King George I. During his reign: 1. the powers of the monarchy diminished; 2. Ministers met without the King in the cabinet led by the Prime Minister; 3. the actual power was held by Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first prime minister. 1. The first Hanoverian king Performer - Culture&Literature George I, c. 1714

3. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature 2. The House of Hanover

4. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature The majority of Scots accepted their new role in a kingdom united under the title Great Britain. A renewal of Scottish nationalism must await the 20th century. 3. 1707: The Act of Union It abolished the Scottish Parliament It gave the Scots a proportion of the seats at Westminster The Act of Union became official during Queen Anne’s reign

5. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature 4. The Whigs and the Tories The Whigs Descendants Parliamentarians Supported by the wealthy and commercial classes Fought for  commercial development  a vigorous foreign policy  religious toleration The Tories Descendants Royalists Supported by the Church of England the landowners Fought for the divine right of the king The first political parties in Britain

6. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature The 18 th -century key concepts were: political stability; individualism; liberal thought and free will; optimism; reason and common sense; desire for balance, symmetry, refinement. 5. A golden age

7. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature 6. The reading public The increase of the reading public in the Augustan Age was due to The growing importance of the middle class The individual’s trust in his own abilities The practice of reason and self-analysis Most readers were middle-class women They used to borrow books from circulating libraries Coffee-houses allowed the circulation of news, opinions

8. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature 6. The reading public Coffee-houses 1.were attended by fashionable and artistic people; 2.became gathering points where people exchanged ideas and gossip; 3.let public opinion and journalism evolve; 4.were exclusively attended by men.

9. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature 6. The reading public where the belief in the power of reason and the individual’s trust in his own abilities found expression ‘The Tatler’and‘The Spectator’  the first English newspapers Their style  simple, lively Their aim  didactic The interest of middle-class people in literature gave rise to journalismthe novel

10. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature 7. The novelist 1.The spokesman of the middle class. 2.The fathers of the English novel: Daniel Defoe the realistic novel Samuel Richardson the sentimental novel Henry Fielding the mock-epic novel Jonathan Swift the satirical novel

11. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature 8. The novelist’s aim To be understood widely He wrote in a simple way. Realism not only linked to the life presented, but to the way it was shown. Speed and copiousness His most important economic virtues since it was the bookseller and not the patron who rewarded him.

12. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature 9. The characters The hero A bourgeois, self-made, self-reliant man The reader is expected to sympathise with him The mouthpiece of the author They struggle for survival or social success have contemporary names and surnames Robinson Crusoe All the characters

13. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature 10. The setting Chronological sequence of events. References to particular times of the year or of the day. ‘I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York’ Robinson Crusoe Specific references to names of countries, towns and streets. Detailed descriptions of interiors to make the narrative more realistic.

14. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature 11. The narrative technique 1ST-PERSON NARRATOR 3RD-PERSON NARRATOR PATTERN Daniel Defoe Fictional autobiographies Samuel Richardson Letters exchanged between the main characters Henry Fielding The mock-epic style

15. Shaping the English character Performer - Culture&Literature 12. Themes 1. Real life. 1. Everything that could alter a social status. 1. The sense of reward and punishment linked to the Puritan ethics of the middle class.