18th Century Literature. The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (1660-1785) 1.
概論General Introduction and 2. 時代背景Historical Background The England to which Charles Stuart returned in 1660 was a nation divided against itself, exhausted by twenty years of civil wars and revolution. Early in Charles’s reign, the people were visited by two frightful calamities that seemed to the superstitious to be the work of a divine Providence outraged by rebellion and regicide: the plague of 1665, carried off over seventy thousand souls in London alone, and in September 1666, a fire that raged for four days destroyed a large part of the City (more than thirteen thousand houses), leaving about two-thirds of the population homeless. A morbid fascination with death, suicide, and the grave preoccupies the poets of mid-century. 文體介紹Vocabulary, Language and Style Comedy of manners—its concern is to bring the moral and social behavior of its characters to the test of comic laughter.
Text Source: ENGL203-OC-1.1.1-Restoration18thcintro. English - English 3805 Restoration and 18th-Century British Literature. Restoration and 18th-Century Literature - Department Reading List. *Required Reading Major Authors *Dryden.
Selections in Tillotson (less Marriage A-la-Mode), plus Of Dramatick Poesie, The Hind and the Panther, Part I, To My Honour'd Kinsman. See also Restoration Tragedy *Johnson. *Pope. *Swift. Drama: Restoration Comedy *Behn. *Congreve. *Etherege. *Wycherley. Drama: Restoration Tragedy *Dryden. *Otway. Drama: Eighteen Century *Gay. English Literature: Restoration and 18th-Century (1660-1785) Introduction | Samuel Butler | John Dryden | Samuel Pepys | John Bunyan | Aphra Behn John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester | Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of Winchilsea | Mary Astell William Congreve | Matthew Prior | Daniel Defoe | John Gay | Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Jonathan Swift | Joseph Addison | Sir Richard Steele | James Thomson | Alexander Pope Dr.
Samuel Johnson | Thomas Gray | William Collins | Christopher Smart | Oliver Goldsmith George Crabbe | William Cowper | James Boswell | Essays and Articles | Additional Sources 1996-2011 Anniina Jokinen. All Rights Reserved. Created May 10, 2002. Last updated August 21, 2011. Introductory Lecture on the Neoclassical Period in English Literature. Introductory Lecture on the Neoclassical Period in English Literature Key terms: Restoration, 18th Century, Neoclassical, Augustan, Enlightenment façade, complacency, wit, reason, decorum, self-examination, self-publicizing diary, prose essay, periodical, ode, satire, novel Tory, Whig, non-conformist politeness, taste, self-control The names given to this period are confusing: Restoration, 18th Century, Neoclassical, Augustan.
Chronologically the period covers from 1660 to around 1800 (usual date is 1798, publication date of Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads). It is a period where counterfeiting and façades are very important; in some ways the country was trying to act like the Interregnum and English civil wars had not happened, and there is both a willful suppression of the immediate past and a glorification of the more distant, classical Roman past--which is why it is called the Neoclassical period. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Ninth Edition: W. W. Norton StudySpace.
Volume C The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century, 1660-1785 The Restoration period begins in 1660, the year in which King Charles II (the exiled Stuart king) was restored to the English throne.
England, Scotland, and Wales were united as Great Britain by the 1707 Act of Union. The period is one of increasing commercial prosperity and global trade for Britain. Literacy expanded to include the middle classes and even some of the poor. Religion and Politics The monarchical restoration was accompanied by the re-opening of English theatres (closed during Cromwell's Puritan regime) and the restoration of the Church of England as the national church. The Context of Ideas The court of King Charles II championed the right of England's social elite to pursue pleasure and libertinism. Conditions of Literary Production The Stage Licensing Act (1737) established a form of dramatic censorship in which the Lord Chamberlain pre-approved and licensed all plays for performance in London. Restoration Literature.
In a Nutshell The Restoration is a period in literary history full of humor and hanky-panky.
Shocking, right? We thought dudes that looked like this would be super-uptight. But nope—the most popular writers of the age wrote bawdy comedies packed with sexual innuendo. These writers loved to satirize social manners, sexual codes, and the social classes of their day. What set the literature of this period going was—history time! What's more, the theaters—which had been closed for more than a decade by those uptight Puritans who were in power before Charles II was restored to the throne—were reopened during this time.
But it wasn't just theater that was important during the Restoration age. The Restoration writers were men and women who liked to let their hair down, so to speak (they were actually wearing their hair under wigs). If you're into comedy—and especially stand-up comedy—then you should definitely care about Restoration literature. Why did the hipster burn her mouth?