English Literature in the 18th Century (the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of
Reason)
Background
Some Important Terms
Three Stages in the Enlightenment
Politically
➢Glorious Revolution in 1688 ended the monarchy, replacing it with a constitutional monarchy.
➢The power passed from the king gradually to the parliament.
➢the Tory and the Whig dominated the parliament by turns
Socially
⏹the rapid growth of middle class
⏹The Puritan spirit of wisdom, diligence, honesty, and thriftiness, self-discipline ⏹better education was available
⏹more schools and social clubs were established
Economically
◆Industrial Revolution, the 1st powerful industrial country
◆continued to expand its colonies
Ideologically
Under the influence of scientific discoveries
( Galileo,Newton) and flourishing of philosophies, French enlightenment started.
Some Important Terms Enlightment:an intellectual movement beginning in France and then spread throughout Europe.
•a continuation of Renaissance in belief in the possibility of human perfection through education
•the guiding principle or slogan is
Ration/Reason, natural right and equality •Ration became standard for measurement of everything.
Some Important Terms Neoclassicism: Appeared in last decades of the 17th to the early of the
18th
•Modelled Greek and Latin authors •Stress on order, logic, proportion, restrained emotion, accuracy, good taste major exponents of the neoclassical school: John Dryden and Alexander Pope.
Sentimentalism:One of the important trends in English literature of the middle and later decades of the 18th century.
•A new vision of love, a new view of human nature : prized feeling over thinking, passion over reason, personal instincts of "pity, tenderness, and benevolence" over social duties. •Representives:
Edward Young and Thomas Gray (poetry) Laurence Sterne and Oliver Goldsmith (prose fiction )
Gothic Novel
•against the rationalism and commercialism •emphasis on the irrational and dark side of human nature; the imaginative, the supernatural, the discarded Medieval castle •Representative:
Horace Walpole--The Castle of Otranto
Some Important Terms
Pre-Romanticism:
•It was marked by a strong protest against the bondage of classicism, by a recognition of the claims of passion & emotion, and by a renewed interest in medieval literature.•Rrpresentatives:
William Blake & Robert Burns(poetry)
