Daniel Defoe Richardson, samuel.pptVIP

English Literature in the 18th Century enlightenment? Enlightenment: The ~, progressive intellectual movement throughout Western Europe in the 18th century. Expression, struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. The enlighteners thought the means to make better the society was ____________ for the people. They held that ____________ were more important than religion and tradition Classicism Classicism, style or attitude “that reflects principles and concerns of the literature of ancient Greece and Rome” … emphasis on form, simplicity, universality, restrained emotion and balanced rationality. Classical writers emphasized common human characteristics over individual difference and aimed to articulate universality instead of unique vision, to communicate to others more than to express themselves, and to show rationality rather than feeling. Classicism Classicists modelled themselves on Greek and Latin authors, and tried to control literary creation by some fixed laws and rules drawn from Greek and Latin works. Their standards for drama : Rimed couplet instead of blank verse, the three unities of time, place and action. The presentation of types rather than individuals. Classicism found its exponents in Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson. Alexander Pope Representative writer of the classical school. Essay on Criticism: A manifesto of English classicism as Pope put forward his aesthetic theories in it. Comprehensive study of theories of literary criticism. (Representative poem) The Rape of the Lock(夺发记)：a quarrel between two aristocratic families; Pope satirized the triviality and silliness of high society with a delicate wit. The poem An Essay on Man indicates Pope’s political and philosophical views on human nature and relation with the universe, the society and himself. Pope’s position He popularized the classical literary tradition. He was one of the early representatives of the Enlightenment, who introduced into English culture the spirit of ration