Restauration poetry and prose., Schemi e mappe concettuali di Inglese

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Restauration poetry and prose Restoratlon Drama Augustan Ilterature The novel William Congreve Life The way of the world Daniel Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe Jonathan Swift Life Gulliver's travel Restauration poetry and prose Poetry e Itwasa period of innovation ® Verse was characterized by: classical simplicity, order, clarity— exercise of reason (metaphysical conceits= eccentric, complex) e Main kind of poetry was satirical— due to the study of Horace, Martial, Juvenal ® Main poet= John Dryden ® Mainobject= real world Prose ® Rationality tendencies— John Locke(wrote essay conceming human understanding, knowledge of the outside world is achieved through senses and is not innate), Thomas Hobbes (defended absolute monarchy in leviathan) Isaac Newton (wrote Philosophiae naturalis principia Mathematica about laws of motion and universal gravitation) e Newscientific attitude— self confidence and belief in human progress (freed man from superstition) e The Royal Society try to improve the English language,by setting up a committee (importance of English, not Latin) Restauration Drama e The theater was made llegal again in 1660— change in theater e Theater roofed, artificlally lit with candles, footlights, drop curtains, painted movable scenery (elizabethan: no scenary, daylight> open) e Audience satin dark galleries, benches or on boxes in the pit (became a very fashionable place to stay, not for groundlings) e Comedy of manners+ excited laugh by making fun of the manners of artificial, highly sophisticated society (characters=more types than people) e Plot: intrigues, less important than atmosphere, dialogue and satire Restoration theaters Elizabethan theaters Prices=expensive Prices=all classes, even lower ones Audience=upper class (upper classes Audience=lower class, Groundlings  sat up and lower classes on the ground level) (circular, Porter spectators stood on the pit) Actress played female roles Women could not act, boys played female roles Actors tied to the theater by contract Actors tied by cooperative sharing bones ('own' part of the company) Style—witty, satirical, formal (prose=realism) Style— solemn, elevated (poetry) Themes+ vices and follies of upper and middle class (marriage devoid of any feelings, linked with sex and money Themes+ universal: lave, revenge Characters: male—fop (elegant, witty, cynical) opposed to the galant or fortunate lover (gentleman); female—> witty and more interested in fashion then Kings, queens, warriors in morals A survey of Augustan literature The reading public Growing interest in reading Country farmers and labourers quite illiterate, books were expensive For lower classes— cheap: ballads, chapbooks, pamphlets and newspapers, novel and short stories were serial Circulating libraries— increase in the reading public particular in middle/upper class women Growing importance of middle class+ influenced rise of prose Belief> power of reason, individual trust in his own abilities (novel and joumalism) Importance of Puritan morality (Success= following God's will) in the life of middle class readers Establishment of periodicals like the spectator— practical language= didactic aim Favorite verse— Satire and mock-heroic poems (principles of Horace in Ars Poetica, usage of periphrases, apostrophes and latinased words) Poems didn't express the poet's feelings Role of the poet social poetry with models of refined behaviour Mock heroic+ criticism and moral concem, trivial subject with an heroic style Middle class— new audience London enjoy=pantomime (ballad opera, political satire, picaresque adventures and love interest) Comedy of manners was replaced by sentimental comedy, simple language(everyday problems) f f è The characters are presented from the Inside and usually, appear In Isolation ROBINSON CRUSOE pio main character: Robinson Kreutznaer (bom in York 1632+ German father and English mother) he left home at 19 and also left the prospect of a comfortable life (as a member of the trading middle class) he did 2 voyages (1% to Guinea, 24 captured by Moorlsh pirates and rescued by Portuguese ship and brought to Brazil) S° voyage =to Africa to get more slaves to work In hls plantation he ìs shipwrecked on a desert island -> 28 years there he rebuilt the soclety of his country, wrote a diary (addressing himself, the reader and God) > hemetcannibals and saved thelr prisoner: Friday - Friday and Robison save cannibals' prisoners ( among which Friday's father) - Robison retumed to England and discovered to be very rich thanks to his plantation - = deal place for Robisan to prove his qualitles, to demonstrate that he deserved to be saved by God's Providence - heorganizesa primitive empire on the island characters Robison: = he belongs to the middle class, he is restless - heistrasgressive(the story begins with an act of transgression)+ isolation = develops the issue of the relationship between the individual and society - thesociety he creates is an exaltation of the 18th- century England and ideals of mobility, material productiveness and Individualism - hehasa pragmatic and individualistic outlook = hisjoumal-Keeping demonstrates his objective and rational approach to reality Friday: - firstmative character to be portrayed in the English novel - heisattractive and lively - Robisonteaches him the word “master”. Western culture, Bible = heis symbol ofthe colonised = clear and precised details = descriptions focused on primary qualities language= simple, matter-of-fact, concrete JONATHAN SWIFT  LIFE AND WORKS - bomin 1667 in Dublin - he was encouraged by Sir William Temple to write his first satirical works among which the best are: The battle of the books and A Tale of a Tub (about the superstition of the Catholics and the fanaticism of the Dissenters) = in 1694 he was ordained Anglican priest = deanof SanPatrick's cathedral in 1713 “ he began to write pamphlets denouncing the injustices that Ireland suffered from(they wanted independence from England) - in 1726 he published Gulliver's travels He published A Modest Proposal (irony+bitterness-> shocking episodes such as parents selling children as food for the rich) - he died in 1745 A CONTROVERSIAL WRITER - heis one ofthe most controversial English writer - he was labelled as a misanthrope, a monster or a lover of mankind - he was seriously concemed with politics and society, he is conservative - he defined himself as a hater of man, animal with reason - he thought that reason is an instrument that must be use properly (too intensive use of reason is an error and unreasonable =in contrast with the historical contest) GULLIVER'S TRAVELS n in - 4 settings= land of Lilliput (small people), land of Brobdingnag (giants), island of Laputa floating in the sky (scientists, philosophers), land of Houyhnhnms (intellectual horses-> criticises humanity) — opportunity to discuss everything he feels is wrong in mankind in general and British society in particular plot 4 books: 1. Gulliver sails from Bristol and after 6 months he is shipwrecked on the land of Lilliputians, where he leans their language, customs... and then he retuned to England 2. he sails for India and finds himself in Brobdingnag where is kept in a cage, a day a bird lifted his cage and dropped it in the middle of the ocean, he is rescued by a ship and retumed to England 3. he finds himself in Laputa where scientists make absurd experiments 4. last voyage leads him in Houyhnhnms where Gulliver feels inferior to the horses and similar to Yahoos, who are stupid, corrupt. the horses banish him and he returns to England, he can't any longer bear the society of his fellow beings-> he lives in a stable with animals, alone characters Gulliver : = typical European = middle-aged - well-educated - sensible  practical object of a transformation develops a critical awareness of the limitations of European values always displaced, an outcast of society literature of travel-> European man was seen as the victim of civilisation different from the usual literature of travel because Gulliver is cast in highly ©rganised societies (and not among children of nature) Europe is falling into a state of corruption-> constant opposition between rationality and animality - familiarity with the work Royal Society (for the scientific project in book 3) - elementsof political allegory through allusions to people and event of England of Queen Anne and George | levels of interpretation - a tale for children - political allegory (as a parody of voyage literature or a masterpiece of misanthropy) - critic to the political, social and religious conflicts of the time and problems caused by the scientific progress style - first-person - matter-of-fact - precise details