ENGLISH LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY

1. ENGLISH LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY Lecture 2: Neoclassicism

2. Mannerism (Late Renaissance) • first half of 17th century in England, turbulent decades (ending in the Civil War) • excess of freedom and question of responsibility (think of Hamlet) • complicated conceits of Metaphysical Poetry • Milton’s decorated style (Baroque?)

3. John Milton (1608-1674) • ”the most learned poet-philosopher” (blind) • his poetry is ”divine and humane” (sonnets!) • Paradise Lost (1668) is the great Protestant epic on the Genesis and history of Mankind in blank verse and ”Latinized English” (Satan’s republicanism!) • in his drama he observed the principle of 3 unities (Samson Agonistes, 1671)

4. NEOCLASSICISM (1660-1790s) • style of ”the long 18th century” • revival of the classical rules of writing • copying and imitating the classical forms and patterns, while filling them with new contents (e.g. satire!, heroic epic, elegy, ode) • Age of Reason, or, Age of Enlightenment • continental rationalists vs. English empiricists • ”follow nature” & Deism (natural-rational religion)

8. John Dryden (1631-1700) • ‘Poet Laureate’ (1669-1689) • a playwright, a critic, a satirist, and a translator (Virgil’s works) • heroic tragedies (All for Love), comedies, tragi-comedies • ”father of English criticism” – An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668)

9. Dryden, An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668) • written in the form of a dialogue • the theoretical principles of drama writing • four main topics: 1. ‘moderns’ vs. ancients dramatists 2. contemporaries vs. the Elizabethans 3. the English vs. the French drama 4. rhymes vs. blank verse in drama

10. 1. Moderns vs. Ancients Dramatists • great debate that time • whether to obey the rules of the 3 unities • pure imitation can lead to dullness, while the moderns’ characterization is more vivid, their style more witty (26) • he defends Ben Jonson’s (e.g. Volpone) Shakespeare’ works

11. ”had the largest and most comprehensible soul” (27) ”naturally learned” genius for characterization like Homer good at wit, language and humour (cf. characterology of humours) learned writer correct craftsman like Virgil Shakespeare vs. Ben Jonson (CP, 27-8)

12. e.g. Corneille and Racine the 3 unities are observed in coherent plots – ”beauties of a statue” do not mix the comic and the tragic (dull) lengthy and wearisome speeches (little action) Jonson, Shakespeare without the classical rules –more lifelike, ”lively imitation of nature” natural mixing of comedy and tragedy in the tragi-comedy (more varied) full of action – ”more masculine fancy and greater spirit” The French vs. the English drama drama

13. Rhymes vs. Blank verse • in tragedy rhymed verse can be as natural as blank verse (in comedy ”poetic prose”) • contemporary verse dramas equal Shakespeare’s blank verse (plus, wit!) • the intensity of the representation of life requires a comparable intensity of poetic utterance (see ”dulce et utile”!) • he was the master of the heroic couplet in dramatic poetry

14. Dryden – ”the father of English criticism”: • his style is intelligent and intelligable (authority!) • values Milton ”sublime” and labels Chaucer as ”the father of English poetry” (CP, 29) • he lays down the canons of taste and critical guidelines • introduces the terms of ‘wit’ and ‘metaphysical’ (CP, 28B)

15. Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1710s) – Part I. • rules of taste • relation between Art and Nature • emphasis on natural common sense • discussion of Wit • importance of the Ancients • persistent dependence upon the ancients due to their providing criteria for judgment, e.g. Horace, Aristotle, Longinus, Homer, Virgil, Quintilian, Cicero

16. Nature Rules Ancients Relation of the key concepts in Pope’s An Essay on Criticism REASON (common) Sense

17. ”First follow Nature, and your Judgment frame By her just Standard, which is still the same: Unerring Nature, still divinely bright, One clear, unchang’d, and Universal Light, Life, Force, and Beauty, must to all impart, At once the Source, and End, and Test of Art.” (ll. 68-73) ”Be Homer’s Works your Study, and Delight, Read them by Day, and meditate by Night,” (ll. 124-5) ”Learn hence for Ancient Rules a just Esteem; To copy Nature is to copy Them.” (139-140) ”Those Rules of old discover’d, not devis’d, Are Nature still, but Nature Methodiz’d;” (ll. 88-9) ”True Wit is Nature to Advantage drest; What oft was Thought, but ne’er so well Exprest, Something, whose Truth convinc’d at Sight we find, That gives us back the Image of our Mind;” (ll. 297-300)

18. Pope, An Essay on Criticism, Part II: causes of bad judgment • Pride • inadequate knowledge (line 215) • judging only parts, not the whole (only style, expressions, metrics, or imagery) - CP, 33-4 • being biased for a ”Sect”, or a click (35A) • flattering influential people (or yourself) (35B)

19. Pope, An Essay on Criticism, Part III: lays down the rules for the good critic • ”Learn then what Morals Criticks ought to show, For ‘tis but half a Judge’s Task, to Know. ‘Tis not enough, Taste, Judgment, Learning, join; In all you speak, let Truth and Candor shine: That not alone what to your Sense is due, All may allow; but seek your Friendship too.”(ll.560-5 • ”Tho’ Learn’d, well-bred; and tho’ well-bred, sincere; Modestly bold, and Humanly severe? Who to a Friend his Faults can freely show, And gladly praise the Merit of a Foe?” (ll. 635-538)

20. Samuel Johnson, aka Dr. Johnson • ”literary dictator” (translator, critic, satirist) • Lives of the Poets: literary biographies • edited Shakespeare’s works (good preface!) • A Dictionary of the English Language (1755): descriptive, systematic, analytical, and illustrative • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOSYiT2iG08

21. Periods in American Literature • 1600-1765: Colonial Period • 1765-1830: Revolutionary and Early National Period • 1830-1865: Romantic Period • 1865-1900: Realistic Period • 1900-1930: Naturalistic and Symbolistic Period • 1930-1960: Period of Criticism and Conformity • 1960- : Period of the Confessional Self