Neo classical literature

A.M.CK.ABEYSEKARA

SSH/11/12/006

SH/2656

UNIVERSITY OF RAJARATA

SRILANKA

NEO CLASSICAL AGE

• The Renaissance (c. 1485-1660)

• Neo classical (c.1660-1790)

• Romantic era. (c. 1790-1830)

NEO CLASSICAL(1660-1790)

• “Neo” + “classical”(New) (Roman & Greek classics)

• Thus the combination of the terms 'neo,' which means 'new,' and 'classical,' as in the day of the Roman and Greek classics.

period of enlightenment age of reason era of logic

Three stages

• Three distinct stages :

(1).Restoration period

(2).The Augustan period

(3).Age of Johnson

Restoration Period

• 1660 to 1700 - the period of Restoration.

• Because restoration of monarchy in England.

• Its symptoms include the dominance of French & classical influence on literature (poetry & drama)

Famous Writers of Restoration Age.

• John Dryden

It is called the Age of Dryden, because Dryden was the dominating and most representative literary figure of the Age.

• John Milton

Absalom and Achitophel• "Absalom and Achitophel" is one of Dryden's great

political satires.

• In "Absalom and Achitophel," Dryden comments on

(a) the Popish Plot

(1678: an alleged plot by Catholics to kill the king and make England Catholic again)

-the Exclusion Crisis

(to keep Charles' Catholic brother, James, from inheriting the throne after Charles' death)

(b)Monmouth Rebellion

(1685: an attempt to put the king's illegitimate son James, Duke of Monmouth on the throne)

Cont.

• He frames these contemporary events in terms of the

biblical story of King David and his rebellious son

Absalom.

• Biblical narratives would have been very familiar to

contemporary audiences.

Augustan Age

• literary period of Virgil, Horace and Ovid under the Roman emperor Augustus.

• self-conscious imitation of the original Augustan writers

• has been called,

- the Augustan Age

-the Neoclassical Age

-the Age of Reason.

Famous Writers

• Alexander Pope

• He is the dominant figure who associated with the epoch known as the Augustan Age,

• Jonathan Swift

Gulliver’s travel

A modest proposal

• Daniel Defoe

Pop’s Literary Work

• The Rape of the Lock (1714)

• translated the Iliad and the Odyssey

• Essay on criticism

• Prologue of wife of bath

The Rape of the Lock

• Mock –heroic Masterpiece (1714)

– = speaks of a trivial matter

– epic poems → the effect is comical.

A nobleman cut a lock of hair from the head of LadyArabella Fermor. This caused an argument betweenthe two respective families and Pope, who was afriend of both of them wrote this poem to makethem laugh and reconcile.

15

Robinson Crusoe By De-Foe

• form of fictional autobiography or diary

• who manages to survive for years without anyhuman companionship.

• different ways that men cope with reality whenhardship comes.

• creating his own reality, rescuing a savage.16

The Age of Johnson

• “The Age of Sensibility”

• middle of the eighteenth century until 1798.

• Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)-

poet, critic, and author of fiction,

Cont.

• William Collins

• William Cowper

• Thomas Gray

• Christopher Smart

are also attributed to the Age of Sensibility.