18th century

18th Century
Neoclassical Age
Augustan Age
Age of Reason
Augustan Age
End of the English Civil War
Restoration of King Charles II
Peace (Pax Romana) prosperity, empire-building


Classicism
The culture of ancient Greece and Rome

In ideology (world view) that sees the universe as ordered, balanced, and harmonious
The Rotunda (UVA)
Neoclassicism
Literary movement in the 17th and 18th centuries which stressed order, harmony, restraint, balance, and the ideal.

“God is in His Heaven, and all’s right with the world.” – Robert Browning

Shakespeare
Great Chain of Being
Restoration of social order

John Milton
Paradise Lost – epic
Invocation to the Muse
In medias res
Long formal speeches
Elevated language
Epic similes

Jonathan Swift
“A Modest Proposal” – Roman (Ciceronian) model



Alexander Pope
“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.”

Whatever is, is right.
Pope’s The Rape of the Lock
Mock epic -. P. 532
Satire: manners and mores of the upper class
Trivial subject/ serious tone (c.f. The Importance of Being Earnest)

zeugma
Zeugma (from the Greek word "ζεύγμα", meaning "yoke") is a figure of speech describing the joining of two or more parts of a sentence with a single common verb or noun.
To take counsel and (to take) tea
We must hang together, or we will hang separately
You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit.
She stole my car and my heart.
Dr. Samuel Johnson
Lexicographer
Literary and social critic
Conversationalist (coffee houses)
Subject of James Boswell’s biography
A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) – p. 551

To traipse
TO walk in a low and sluttish manner
The Age of Reason
Enlightenment (scientific advancement) – Newton
Inductive reasoning - Scientific Method
Geographical exploration and discovery – The New World
The Novel
Nouvelle – (new) romance

Extended prose fiction
High degree of verisimilitude
Contemporary social setting
English novels
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
Pamela – Samuel Richardson
Epistolary novel
Tom Jones – Henry Fielding
Picaresque novel

Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
Persuasion