Scarica L'illuminismo nel XVIII secolo e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Enlightenment(1700) The XVIII century was called the period of Marry England, still very much alive even in the rural area with its untapped and unpolluted countryside. As for the cities, it was characterized by the upper middle class(which was enriched in the Middle Ages with the reign of Henry II, in fact they offered money to the king and then enjoyed political power, attending the Parliament). The middle class also included landowners who left the company to trade in the city, but not being so cultured and refined are not entirely accepted and were teased, for this reason that the figure of the journalist will be born to guide all this bourgeoisie that does not know how to behave and how to dress, in fact articles are written also on fashion and gossip(for example, there was an article that said, for example, how you had to wear a hat to look elegant), articles on poetry, not to mention metaphysics. Journalists, because they wrote to people with little knowledge, used “puns”, which were words with the same sound but with different meanings in such a way as to create ambiguity and smile, which Shakespeare had previously used. In addition, in addition to journalists, writers also speak and write about middle class, each dealing with a particular aspect. An example of this is: - "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe, an epistolary novel, where we are presented with the middle class as rich traders. The protagonist is on an island and proposes to rebuild a civilization and every tool that can serve to survive.He guards the son of one of the island’s tribes and teaches him to speak and read in English.All this is symbolic and represents the Self Made that is made possible by his strength and faith in God. - Samuel Richardson wrote the epistolary novel "Pamela or the virtue rewarded", was the first to make a psychological analysis of the character, preparing the way for Romanticism.In the nineteenth century, in fact, the author of "Mr. Frankenstein" Mary Shelley will use it. Pamela represents an inferior class but is not part of the servitude.The story takes place in a country manor, where the master’s son makes court to Pamela.She being an inferior class believes that he wants to try his virtue and writes letters to the father to know how to behave (psychological picture). In the end she was wrong because the master’s son will marry her( Cinderella Dreamer). - Jonathan Swift, whose work "Gulliver’s travels" will deal with politics, through the many trips to very strange countries (in one there are only horses, in another only hominids) will criticize English society. It’s a kind of two-level reading on the one hand and a children’s fairy tale on the other a poetic satire.Georgetown Olwer will take his cue when he writes "Animal Farm”. - Then we still have Stern in which he will write very provocative works, in fact he will leave blank pages. The desire of the middle class was to reach a higher social class( this desire is called the dream of Cinderella), generally this could not happen, except for marriage with a person of a higher class. The novels, the most widespread genre in the Enlightenment, are written to make educated girls dream, because not everyone was educated, who hoped to raise their social class.Their homes were becoming increasingly larger, more comfortable, in fact, during their long free time to devote to reading, they gathered in the evening to read novels, so that reading became a popular habit.The new realistic genre also told stories of ordinary men, had as its theme the daily life of the upper bourgeoisie, abandoned the vicissitudes of heroes and kings.Women were prominent among readers, even as characters in the novels, in fact they also engaged in writing, but because they had not obtained all the rights, they used to sign a pseudonym male. London(with 5.5 million inhabitants) after the great fire of 1666(which spread throughout the city, because of the fact that London was made up of small streets and curves), London was restored by the architect Christofer Wren, who introduced to the city fascinating buildings such as St Paul’s Cathedral.In 1700 London was the center of culture and commerce, thanks to the navigable River Thames which allowed the entry and exit of the various ships, which is why London represents commercial well-being. The city was divided by two parts: the west, the richest part that was constituted by the Parliament and the Westminster Cathedral( in which the first King of England William the Conqueror, Norman King, was crowned). The eastern part consisted of poor people, who were considered lazy by the Puritans(who had strict moral codes) and for this reason were driven out of London, while those who work by themselves were rewarded by God, and that is why they were wealthy.The Triumph of Individualism also spread, a theme dealt with in the work of Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe. In Italy the centers of development and diffusion of the Enlightenment were Milan and Naples.The Italian Enlightenment looked favourably on the reforms put in place by the governments, they also took a critical attitude towards the Church, which had many privileges( censorship, the tribunal of the Inquisition and education). While the Neapolitan intellectuals mainly dealt with reforms that remedied economic, social and cultural backwardness, the Milanese Enlightenment was concerned with spreading new ideas to a wider audience, They then resorted to journalism and literature that dealt with current topics.
