Literature of Neoclassic Era and Age of Enlightenment, its Historical and Literary Context. Samuel Johnson and Alexander Pope as prominent figures. About Essay on criticism

1. Nikki Akraminejad
NEOCLASSICAL ERA

2. Historical Context
Age of Enlightenment
Literary Context
Samuel Johnson
Alexander Pope
NEOCLASSICISM ERA

3. The Neoclassical period covers 1660-1785.
It is divided into 3 subperiods:
1-The Restoration (1660-1700)
2-The Augustan Age/Age of Pope (1700-1745)
3-The Age of Sensibility/Age of Johnson (1745-
1785)

4. Takes its name from the restoration of
the Charles II to the English throne in
1660, at the end of the
commonwealth.
THE RESTORATION
1660-1700

5. people called themselves Augustans, after the
Roman Emperor Augustus (27 BC-AD-14), who
stabilized and expanded the Roman Empire.
The men of the 18th century looked upon their
Puritan and cavalier forefathers as barbarians and
upon themselves as the first civilized Englishmen
THE AUGUSTAN AGE
1700-1745

6. • Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), poet, critic, and author of
fiction
• His works focused on Neoclassical aesthetics (the study of
natural and artistic beauty with an eye on the great classical
writers).
• Placed great emphasis on the values of the Enlightenment:
 Using knowledge, not faith and superstition
 Led to the expansion of many social, economic, and cultural
areas including astronomy, politics, and medicine.
THE AGE OF SENSIBILITY/AGE
OF JOHNSON
1745-1785

9. • A movement of intellectuals
• Began in eighteenth century Europe
• Its center was in France
• Had its primary goal as using reason to reform science
and advance knowledge.
• It opposed abusive, intolerant practices that took place in
the church and state
• Was set in motion by philosophers such as Isaac Newton,
Pierre Bayle and John Locke.
The Age of
Enlightenment
1688 - 1798

10.  Rise of the Middle Class,
 Significant rise in literacy,
 Rise of the newspaper and
journalism,
 The return of the public
theatre, and
 The birth of the novel.
In This Age…

11. THE FIRST MONARCH OF
RESTORATION
The first monarch of the period is
Charles II. He professed to support
the Church of England but was
secretly Roman Catholic

12.  After the religious Puritan
revolution, most Britons
were terrified of another
religious takeover of
government
 the rumors about Charles’
Catholicism >>
 fears of a Catholic conspiracy
>>
 the 1680 Bill of Exclusion and
the 1700 Act of Settlement >>
 It permanently prohibited a

13. The Glorious Revolution or the Bloodless
Revolution
 James II inherited his brother’s
throne >>
 imposing Catholic tolerance
and Catholic ministers on
England >>
 the government rebelled >>
 imported James’ Protestant
son-in-law, William, from
Holland >>
 William and Mary took the
throne in the "glorious
revolution" of 1688

14. *

15. *Literature was characterized by a highly
increased questioning of religion and a rise in
empiricism.
*Relied on the classic styles of the ancient
Greeks and Romans
*Largely a response to the previous chaos of
the Renaissance

16. *
This period in literature, was largely a response
to the Renaissance.
*Renaissance: Roman Catholic Church >>
primary source of information.
*Neoclassic: People focused on invention and
experimentation, using science to explain the
world around them.

17. *
*Novel
*Diary
*Essay
*Satire
*Poetry

18. *
*The content of Neoclassical poetry was
an imitation or revision of classical
works
*It was important for Neoclassical authors
to focus on generalities as opposed to
specifics
*Poets had to adhere strictly to the meter
and rhyme of the specific type of verse
*Wit, irony and satire were common
contents in poetry

20. A translator, poet, wit
and satirist
Was born in London in
1688
Pope is the only
important writer of his
generation
Alexander Pope

21. Major Poems
1. An Essay on Criticism
2. An Essay on Man
3. Celia
4. Summer
5. Couplets on Wit
etc.

22.  Pope's "Essay on
Criticism" is a didactic
poem in heroic couplets,
begun as early as 1705,
and published,
anonymously, in 1711.
Essay on Criticism

23.  The poetic essay was a
relatively new genre,
and the "Essay" itself
was Pope's most
ambitious work to that
time.
 It was in part an attempt
on Pope's part to
identify and refine his
own positions as poet
and critic.
Essay on Criticism

24.  In this poem one meets the
key words of Neoclassical
criticism: wit, nature,
ancients, rules, genius.
Essay on Criticism

25. 'Tis hard to say if greater want of skill
Appear in writing or in judging ill;
But of the two less dangerous is th'offence
To tire our patience than mislead our sense:
Some few in that, but numbers err in this;
Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss;
A fool might once himself alone expose;
Now one in verse makes many more in prose.

26.  The poem starts with a discussion of the
rules of taste which should govern
poetry, and which enable a critic to make
sound critical judgments.
 He concludes that the rules of the
ancients are in fact identical with the
rules of Nature.

27.  True Art, in other words, imitates Nature
 Only God, can appreciate the harmony of the
universe, but the intelligent and educated critic can
appreciate poetic harmonies which echo those in
nature.
 Because his intellect and his reason are limited, he
finds it helpful or necessary to employ rules which
are interpretations of the ancient principles of nature
to guide him
 in "The Essay on Criticism" Pope is frequently
concerned with "wit"

28.  the tone is straight-forward and
conversational. It is a discussion of what good
critics should do; however, in reading it one
gains much wisdom on the qualities poets
should strive for in their own work.
 In Part I of “An Essay on Criticism,” Pope notes
the lack of “true taste” in critics, stating:
“’Tis with our judgments as our watches, none /
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.”
Pope advocates knowing one’s own artistic
limits:
“Launch not beyond your depth, but be
discreet, / and mark that point where sense and
dullness meet.”
Essay on Criticism

29.  He stresses the order in nature and the value of
the work of the “Ancients” of Greece, but also
states that not all good work can be explained
by rules:
“Some beauties yet, no precepts can declare, / for
there’s happiness as well as care.”
 In Part II, Pope lists the mistakes that critics make,
as well as the defects in poems that some critics
shortsightedly praise. He advocates looking at a
whole piece of work, instead of being influenced
by some of its showier or faulty parts:
“As men of breeding, sometimes men of wit, / T’
avoid great errors, must the less commit.”
Essay on Criticism

30.  He advises against too much ornamentation in writing,
and against fancy style that communicates little of
merit. In his description of versification, his lines act out
the effects of clumsy writing:
“And ten low words oft creep in one dull line,” and “A
needless Alexandrine ends the song, / that, like a
wounded snake, drags its slow length along.”
 In Part III, Pope characterizes the good critic and
praises the great critics of the past. He discusses what
critics should do, holding up the “Ancients” as models,
including Aristotle (the “Stagirite”) who was respected
by the lawless poets:
“Poets, a race long unconfin’d and free, / Still fond and
proud of savage liberty, / Receiv’d his laws; and stood
convinc’d ‘twas fit, / Who conquer’d nature, should
preside o’er wit.”
Essay on Criticism

31. The final section of the
poem discusses the
moral qualities and
virtues essential in the
ideal critic, who is also
the ideal man — and
who, Pope laments, no
longer exists in the
degenerate world of the
early eighteenth century.

33. SamuelJohnson • Johnson was a poet, biographer,
lexicographer, and an essayist on criticism
and morals
• Major author of the third period of
Neoclassicism, age of Johnson.
• Ending the Age of Johnson, the Romantic
Period arrived in 1798 with the publication
of Lyrical Ballads by poets William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

34.  Johnson wrote poetry
throughout his life, from the
time he was a schoolboy
until eight days before his
death.
 They were composed in
Latin and Greek as well as
English.
 His works include a verse
drama, some longer serious
poems, several prologues,
many translations, and much
light occasional poetry.
SamuelJohnson

35.  Johnson is the last important
critic of the Neoclassicism.
 In his time, pre-Romantic ideas
were more widely accepted than
Neoclassicism.
 Johnson is usually less dictatorial
and more heterogeneous than
Pope in his declaration of the
Neoclassical values.
SamuelJohnson

37. • One of Johnson’s most lasting
legacies is his Dictionary of the
English Language (1755).
• While this huge undertaking of
Johnson’s was neither the first
dictionary in existence, nor
exceptionally unique, it was
the most used and admired
until the appearance of the
Oxford English Dictionary in
1928.
One of Johnson’s most passionately held
beliefs was that the language of the people
should be used in literature, and that a writer
should avoid using grammar and vocabulary
that did not appeal to the common reader.

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