Lc 6

1. Literary Criticism
Dr. Abdel-Fattah Adel
Class (6)

2. Class (6) Items
•17th - 18th Centuries Critics
➢Neoclassicism
• John Dryden
• Joseph Addison
• Alexander Pope

3. 1. Realize the importance of the critic in literary
theory and criticism.
2. Explain the main ideas of the critic.
3. Discuss some ideas of the critic.
4. Explore the application of the critic’s ideas to
literature.
5. Relate the critic’s ideas to critical practice.
6. Criticize the critic’s ideas and critical practice.
7. Describe the main features of the Neoclassical
Critical Ideals.
Class (6)
Objectives
By the end of this part, you will be able to:

4. Class (6)
Questions
1. Write abut Neoclassicism and the main features of the
Neoclassical Critical Ideals.
2. How important is John Dryden in literary criticism and theory?
3. What are the elements of the Neoclassicism in John Dryden’s
critical writings ?
4. What was the contribution of John Dryden to literary criticism
and theory?
5. How important is Joseph Addison in literary criticism and
theory?
6. What are the elements of the Neoclassicism in Joseph Addison’s
critical writings?
7. What is the work of the critic according to Joseph Addison ?
8. How important is Alexander Pope in literary criticism and
theory?
9. What are the elements of the Neoclassicism in Alexander Pope’s
critical writings ?
10. How did Alexander Pope merge mimetic and rhetoric theories?

5. Neoclassicism
• Neoclassicism in England started around 1660 and ended
around 1798 when William Wordsworth published his
book Lyrical Ballads.
• It is inspired by the rediscovery of classical works of
ancient Greece and Rome.
The
Neoclassical
Critics
Tried to restore the classical taste and sensibility.
Emphasized refinement, balance, restraint, and order.
Espoused reason over passion.

6. John Dryden
1631-1700

7. Read and
Answer
P. 30-32
What are the main
points about John
Dryden?

8. Importance
John Dryden was a poet laureate, dramatist, and
critic.
More than any other English writer, he embodies the
spirit and ideals of the Neoclassical period.
He was the most prolific writer of the Restoration
(the name given to that period of English literature
from 1660 to 1700).
Dryden excelled in almost all genres, including
literary criticism.

9. • Samuel Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language (1755), attributes to
Dryden:
"the improvement, perhaps the completion of our meter,
the refinement of our language, and much of the
correctness of our sentiments."
• T. S. Eliot considered Dryden:
"the first serious literary criticism in English by
an English poet."

10. An Essay of Dramatic Poesy
• An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668).
• Dryden's lasting contribution to literary criticism.
• This essay highlights his genius.

11. Imitation
• Dryden discussed the Platonic and
Aristotelian debate concerning the
nature or inherent condition of art as
an imitation of nature itself.
• Dryden presents the benefits of both
positions.
Nature must be imitated directly
Writers should imitate the classical authors
such as Homer because such ancient writers
were the best imitators of nature.

12. The Three Units
• Dryden supports the Aristotelian concept of the three
unities of time, place, and action within a drama.
Unity of
Time
The drama should take place during
one twenty-four-hour cycle.
Unity of
Place
• The drama should take place in one
location
Unity of
Action
• The drama should be only a single
plot, with no subplots.

13. Literary Elements
1. The language or diction of a play, with the concluding emphasis being placed on "proper" speech
2. Issues of decorum, that is, whether violent acts should appear on the stage, with the final speaker
declaring it would be quite "improper"
3. The differences between the English and French theaters, with the English drama winning out for its
diversity, its use of the stage, and its Shakespearian tradition
4. The value of rhymed as opposed to blank verse in the drama, with rhymed verse the victor—although
Dryden later recanted this position and wrote many of his tragedies in blank verse.
5. A reflection of his age in his life and works, Dryden sides with politesse (courteous formality), clarity,
order, decorum, elegance, cleverness, and wit as the controlling characteristics of literary works.

14. • First, Dryden develops the study of literature in and of itself, not obsessing over its
moral and theological worth.
• Second, Dryden creates a natural, simple prose style that still guides and affects
modern criticism and writing in general.
• Third, by making use of a variety of critical perspectives—from Greek to French—
Dryden brings all of these critical perspectives' best insights into the still infant
discipline of English literary criticism.
• Finally, Dryden advocates for the establishing of objective principles of criticism,
while simultaneously moving the emphasis of criticism away from the construction
of a work into its more modern emphasis on how readers and critics appreciate
texts.

15. Joseph Addison
1672-1719

16. Read and
Answer
P. 32-33
What are the main
points about
Joseph Addison?

17. Importance
• Addison was an essayist, poet, dramatist,
politician, and literary critic.
• Addison highlights the concept of the
"greatness of literature" in his essays and
newspaper articles, appealing to the common
readers of England.
• Unlike his contemporary critics and authors
such as John Dryden and Alexander Pope,
Addison aimed to enlighten the common British
citizen by giving to each of them the writings of
the classical authors presented in simple, clear
prose that could and would be discussed in the
coffeehouses and at the tea tables throughout
Great Britain.

18. Ancient
• Throughout his essays, Addison more frequently than not acknowledges
the superiority of the ancient critics compared with the modern ones, paying
homage to Aristotelian and Longinian ideas, among others.
"It is impossible for us who live in the later Ages of the World to
make Observations in Criticism, Morality, or in any Art or Science,
which has not been touched upon by others."
• In short, the past critics have already said all there is to say, and to write
after them is to expound upon and justify their past criticism.

19. Greatness of Literature
• Whereas other English criticism of the time focuses on the author and the rules of literature, Addison
highlights the sublime or what he calls the greatness of literature:
"By greatness I do not mean only the Bulk of any single Object, but
the Largeness of the whole View, considered as one entire Piece"
• For Addison, greatness in literature is not mechanical superiority, but the prowess to display the
immensity of life in a way that transcends imagination.
• Greatness, or the sublime, comes from both "great ideas and vehement passions.“
• Avoiding lofty or pious language in his criticism, Addison's literary goal was "to endeavor to enliven
morality with wit and to temper wit with morality".

20. The work of
the Critic
• The aim of the literary critic, attests Addison, is not to
dissect the writer of genius, but to look at what occurs in
the interaction of literature and its audience.
• Our curiosity, says Addison, is one of the strongest and
most lasting appetites implanted in us.
• Because of such curiosity, a critic's writings must be
necessarily broad, touching on politics, sciences, arts,
society, and any other concern pertinent to humanity.
• And the audience of such writings should be the general
public, enlightening ordinary people with well-written
prose combined with wit while simultaneously introducing
them to the study of genius, the sublime, greatness, and
audience response over the mechanics of a text.

21. Alexander Pope
1688-1744

22. Read and
Answer
P. 33-34
What are the main
points about
Alexander Pope?

23. Importance
• Born at the beginning of the Neoclassical age (English literature from 1660 to
1798) and becoming its literary voice by age twenty, Alexander Pope embodies
in his writings eighteenth-century thought and literary criticism.
• His early poems such as "Pastorals" (1709), The Rape of the Lock (1712), and
"Eloisa to Abelard" (1717) establish him as a major British poet, but with the
publication of his Essay on Criticism (1711), he becomes for all practical pur-
poses the "literary pope" of England.

24. Mimetic and Rhetoric
• Pope grounds his criticism in both mimetic (imitation) and rhetoric
(patterns of structure) literary theories.
Mimetic Theory
• By affirming the
imitation of the classical
writers and through
them of nature itself.
Rhetoric Theory
• By establishing the
acceptable or standard
criteria of poetic
language.

25. The
Ancient
Critics
• According to Pope, the golden
age of criticism is the classical
age, the age of Homer, Aristotle,
Horace, and Longinus.
• These are the writers who
discovered the truth about
"unerring Nature."
• It is the critic and the poet's task
first to know and then to copy
these authors and not nature
because "To copy nature is to
copy them [the classical
authors]."

26. The Requirement of a Good Poet/Critics
• Pope asserts that the chief requirement of a good poet is natural
genius, coupled with a knowledge of the classics and an understanding
of the rules of poetry (literature).
• Such knowledge must be tempered with politeness and grace
• To be a good critic or poet, one must follow the established traditions
as defined by the ancients.

27. The Requirement of a Good Poet/Critics
• Pope spells out what these rules are and how they should be applied to eighteenth-century
verse.
1. Great concern for poetic diction
2. The establishment of the heroic couplet as a standard for verse
3. The personification of abstract ideas
4. Emotional outbreaks and free verse are extraordinaire and considered unrefined.
• Governed by rules, restraint, and good taste, poetry, as defined by Pope, seeks to reaffirm
truths or absolutes already discovered by the classical writers.
• The critic's task is clear: to validate and maintain classical values in the ever-shifting flux of
cultural change.
• In effect, the critic becomes the custodian and defender of good taste and cultural values.

29. Discuss This poem
from the neoclassical
critical standards
Poets themselves must fall, like those they sung,
Deaf the prais'd ear, and mute the tuneful tongue.
Ev'n he, whose soul now melts in mournful lays,
Shall shortly want the gen'rous tear he pays;
Then from his closing eyes thy form shall part,
And the last pang shall tear thee from his heart,
Life's idle business at one gasp be o’er,
The Muse forgot, and thou belov'd no more!
BY ALEXANDER POPE
Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady
A poem for the spirit of an unnamed woman who committed suicide due
to loving too well. The speaker eulogizes her sacrifice. There follows a
description of her foreign burial in a "humble grave" unattended by
friends and relatives.

30. Class (6)
Questions
1. Write abut Neoclassicism and the main features of the
Neoclassical Critical Ideals.
2. How important is John Dryden in literary criticism and theory?
3. What are the elements of the Neoclassicism in John Dryden’s
critical writings ?
4. What was the contribution of John Dryden to literary criticism
and theory?
5. How important is Joseph Addison in literary criticism and
theory?
6. What are the elements of the Neoclassicism in Joseph Addison’s
critical writings?
7. What is the work of the critic according to Joseph Addison ?
8. How important is Alexander Pope in literary criticism and
theory?
9. What are the elements of the Neoclassicism in Alexander Pope’s
critical writings ?
10. How did Alexander Pope merge mimetic and rhetoric theories?