Industrial & Agricultural Revolution made the economy booming. New inventions made manufacturing process quicker.

British trade enormously & world-widely grew. Consequently urbanization grew. The prosperity of the middle class grew, and it enabled them to enjoy entertainment and the printed matters.

Queen Anne died in 1714, and the German House of Hannover took over the throne. Charles II Catholic son and grandson tried to rebel in 1715 & 1745 but they failed. Aided by the growth of mass media, the Parliament & Prime Minister could form public opinion. Thus, their power grew. American Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Revolution (1789) grew a new mood of freedom but British society disliked any revolution to threaten its stability.

The name AUGUSTAN refers to Emperor Augustus, not British king or Queen, because English writer of this era aimed to copy the Latin literature produced when Augustus ruled Rome.

Due to the taking of Latin works as models, this era is also called Neo-Classical.
BACKGROUND CAHARACTERISTICS

Classicism Vs Romanticism (next slide) Heroic Couplet became the standard form of poetry.

AUGUSTAN PERIOD
( 1700-1750)

GENRES

See slide 6

Scientific Revolution Caused Industrial and Agricultural Revolution

Emphasis on experimentation and inductive reasoning Scientific Method New methods of observation: the microscope and the telescope 1662: Charles I chartered the Royal Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge. New inventions made manufacturing process quicker. British trade enormously & worldwidely grew.

The Rise of the Middle Class Increased Literacy Leisure Time International Trade Empire Building

Leisure time nurtured middle class womens interest in fashion, society, the arts and even literature.

CLASSICISM
1. 2.

ROMANTICISM
1. 2.

3.

4.

COPYING & EMULATING THE PRINCIPLES & CHARACTERISTICS OF GREEK & ROMAN LITERATURE EMPHASIZING ON FORM, PRECISION, OBJECTIVITY, RATIONAL THINKING, AND TECHNICAL PERFECTION ACTUALIZING THE BELIEF THAT THE HEAD CONTROLS THE HEART, BECAUSE FEELINGS & IMAGINATIONS ARE DANGEROUS DEALING WITH REALITIES AND PROBLEMS FACED BY THE SOCIETY, E.G. POLITICS, EMANCIPATION, HEROIC DEEDS, CORRUPTION, ETC. Swifts Gullivers Travel Drydens Heroic Stanza USING LITERAL, PLAIN, SHORT, AND DIRECT LANGUAGE.

3.

4.

5.

5.

REJECTING TRADITIONS AND CONVENTIONS, ESPECIALLY THOSE RELATED TO CLASSICAL ARTS EMPHASIZING ON CONTENT, INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSIVENESS, IMAGINATIVE FANTASSY, AND EXPERIMENTATION. ACTUALIZING THE BELIEF THAT THE HEART CONTROLS THE HEAD, BECAUSE REASON & INTELLECT ARE DANGEROUS DEALING WITH THE NATURE, SIMPLE LIFE; OR UNFAMILIAR, REMOTE, MYSTERIOUS, UNNATURAL (EVEN SUPERNATURAL) AND HORRIBLE LIFE. E.G. COUNTRY LIFE, WATERFALL, HORROR STORY, SCIENCE FICTION, ETC. Goldsmiths The Deserted Village Shelleys Frankenstein USING ARTISTIC EXPRESSIONS.

LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGUE She is the best woman poet of the era. She was also a friend, and later an enemy, of Pope

MARY LEAPOR She is also a popular woman poet who wrote under Popes influence.

POETRY

ALEXANDER POPE (1688-1741) He is the major poet of the era. Like Dryden he wrote poems as satire. But unlike Dryden who satirizes the society, Pope satirizes individual character. Thats why his satire is called MOCK HEROIC. His Dunciad, like McFlecnoe, attacks his literary rivals. His The Rape of the Lock is his masterpiece. It mocks a family quarrel triggered by a mans cutting and stealing a girl (Belinda)s hair. He also translated Homerus Illiad and Odyssey.

DRAMA

See next slide

Drama was not prospered, esp. after the legislation of STAGE LICENSING ACT in 1737. It introduced censorship for avoiding controversial political & moral themes. Approval of plays was required from the Lord of Chamberlain, a royal official.

DANIEL DEFOE Formerly a journalist, he published Robinson Crusoe, s very popular novel written by using 1st person narrator. His other notable works are: A

Journal of the Plague Year and Moll Flanders.

JONATHAN SWIFT He is the first novelist writing novels as an allegory. His best works: The Battle of the Books, Gullivers Travel, and a Modest Proposal.

APHRA BEHN She wrote about 30 novels, including Love Letters Between a Noble Man and His Sisters,an epistolary novel. Her masterpiece is Oroonoko, inspired by her visit to Surinam, and concerns the African Royal Prince Oroonoko who is captured and sent as a slave to the English colony.

NOVEL

MARY DE LA RIVIERE MANLEY Her novels show the struggle between women & men. Her best works: The Secret History of Queen Zarah, and The New Atlantis, a political satire.

P.S. Although THOMAS NASH who wrote the 1st imaginative prose (The Unfortunate Traveler) in the Renaissance is claimed as the inventor of modern narrative, the novel began to rise in Augustan era. The economic booming caused JOURNALISM & middle class people CRITICISM have so much leisure time that magazine, journals, and other printed matters are needed. SAMUEL JOHNSON. He is the major critic of the 18th century. He began writing newspaper, some tragedies, and Dictionary of the English Language (1755). His The Lives of the English Poets is the origin of literary critic.

The Rise of the Novel

Samuel Richardsons Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740)

Epistolary Realistic detail Morality tale Servant resisting seduction by her employer

Henry Fieldings Joseph Andrews (1742) and Tom Jones (1749)

Picaresque protagonist comic epic in prose Parody of Richardson First to acknowledge the novel as pure fiction Wide range of social classes

Novels in which the narrative is told in letters by one or more of the characters Allows author to present feelings and reactions of characters, brings immediacy to the plot, allows multiple points of view Psychological realism Contemporary epistolary novels: Alice Walkers The Color Purple; Nick Bantocks Griffin and Sabine; Kalisha Buckhanon, Upstate
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Letter Writer

Picaresque Novels

Derives from Spanish picaro: a rogue A usually autobiographical chronicle of a rascals travels and adventures as s/he makes his/her way through the world more by wits than industry Episodic, loose structure Highly realistic: detailed description and uninhibited expression Satire of social classes Contemporary picaresques: Saul Bellows Adventures of Augie March; Jack Kerouacs On the Road

Swift is an exceptional writer of the Augustan age due to his satirical works.
Swifts The Battle of the Books (written 1697, published 1704), in which some books put in a book-case discuss whether the Ancients make space for the newer Modern writers in the library. It actually describes the differences between the Ancients (the classical writers) and the Moderns in the literary tastes of the Augustan period. Swifts Gullivers Travels is a very angry use of satire against what he saw as being wrong with the world. The novel is in four parts. In the first part Gulliver travels to Lilliput, where he meets the very small inhabitants. This parts satirizes England which underestimates other nations. In book two, Gulliver arrives at Brobdignag, where the people are enormous. Religion and politics in particular are satirized

 in the third book Gulliver arrives at a place looking like a flying saucer. In this part all the new learning of the Royal Society is the victim. The Royal Society was founded in I662 and 1663 `for the Improving of Natural Knowledge.' It was a centre for science and culture, but, as Swift saw it, all the wisest men have no practical sense of how to live in the real world. In the fourth book, Gulliver meets the cultured horses, the Houyhnhnms, and compares their ways with the nasty monkey-like Yahoos, who represent humanity. Swift's satire is particularly strong because Gulliver observes another world in which ordinary human actions are criticized when performed by extraordinary characters.

1. The American Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Revolution (1789) with the slogan `Liberty, Equality and Fraternity' grew a new mood of freedom in England, but why did British society prefer to keep the monarch? 2. Mention two reasons why women became leading novelists in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. 3. Swifts Gullivers Travels was written in 4 four books. Explain the story of each book and what he satirizes in each it. 4. What does Swift propose in A Modest Proposal, and what does he satirize in it? 5. Laurence Sterne is the inventor of the Stream of Consciousness technique. What is meant by this technique? 6. What are the special characteristics of a Gothic novel? Mention the title of the first Gothic novel in English literature