This blog responds to the task given by kavisha ma’am. This blog is thinking activity of the neo classical age.

Understanding the neoclassical era helps us better understand its literature. This was a time of comfortableness in England. People would meet at coffee houses to chat about poetics, among other topics, and drink a new warm beverage made of chocolate! It was also the beginning of the British tradition of drinking afternoon tea. And it was the starting point of the middle class, and because of that, more people were literate.

People were very interested in appearances, but not necessarily in being genuine. Men and women commonly wore wings and being clever and witty was in vogue. Having good manners and doing the right thing, particularly in public, was essential.

Broken into three parts…

The restoration period
The augustan era
The age of johnson

HISTORY:

Neo classicism is a revival of the many styles and spirit of classic antiquity inspired directly from the classical period, which coincided and reflected the development in philosophy and other areas of the age of enlightenment, and was initially a reaction against the excesses of the preceding rococo style. While the movement is often described as the opposed counterpart of romanticism, this is a great over-simplification that tends not to be sustainable when specific artists or works are considered. The case of the supposed main champion of late neoclassicism, demonstrates this especially well. The revival can be traced to the establishment of formal archaeology.

The writings of Johann Joachim winckelmann were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. His books thoughts on the imitation of greek works in painting and sculpture (1750) and geschichte der kunst des alterthums (“history of ancient art”, 1764) were the first to distinguish sharply between ancient greek and roman art, and define periods within greek art, tracing a trajectory from growth to maturity and then imitation or decadence that continues to have influence to the present day. Winckelmann believed that art should aim at “ noble simplicity and calm grandeur ”, and praised the idealism of greek art, in which he said we find ” not only nature at its most beautiful but also something beyond nature, namely certain ideal forms of its beauty, which as an ancient interpreter of plato teaches us, come from images created by the mind alone.” the theory was :” the only way for us to become great or if this be possible , inimitable, is to imitable, is to imitate the ancients” with the advent of the grand tour , a fad of collecting antiquities began that laid the foundations of many great collections spreading a neo-classical revival throughout europe. “Neoclassicism” in each art implies a particular canon of a “classical” model.

Literature of the augustan age:

1. Matthew arnold called 18th century as ‘the age of prose and reason’

2.as a result of the influence of enlightenment, wit and intellectual conceits shaped the tone of much augustan writing.

3.the works of dryden, pope, swift, addison and other writers demonstrated qualities of order, clarity and stylistic decorum.

4. Their works were less concerned with emotion and imagination than with facts and reason.

5.dryden can be seen as a link between restoration and augustan age, since he wrote comedies in a restoration vein, but also wrote works in a neoclassical spirit.

6.pope and johnson on the other hand, are seen as the most representative writers of this age.

7.writers imitated classical forms epic, ode, epistle and made use of aesthetic and critical principles taken from classical authors such as horace and virgil.

8.prose triumphed in the augustan period.

9.periodicals, essays, satires, novels all flourished during this period.

10.even poetry became prosaic and was used for the purpose of criticism or satire.

11.nature as an important influence on augustan writers.

12.they examined the enduring truths of human nature.

13.by nature, the augustans meant not the external natural world as expressed in the poetry of romantics, but man and manners of society.

You can refer from this video link which helps you to better understand neo classicals major/minor writers.

Later “neoclassicism”:

In American architecture, neoclassicism was one expression of the American Renaissance movement, ca. 1890-1917; its last manifestation was in beaux arts architecture, and it’s very last, large public projects were the lincoln memorial (highly criticised by the architectural community as being backward thinking and old fashioned in its design), and the american museum of nature history’s roosevelt memorial these were considered stylistic anachronisms when they were finished in the british raj sir edwin lutyens monumental city planning for new delhi marks the glorious sunset of neoclassicism world war 2 was to shatter most longing for (and imitation of) mythical, heroic times.

Q-1 Write on 18th century women poets.

Female writers of the Eighteenth Century often focused on the role of the female imagination in novel writing, poetry composition, and as an outlet for temporarily escaping a harsh world. In Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft focused mostly on the latter notion, the ability of a woman to employ her imagination in transcending the physical prison of an insane asylum, as well as the metaphorical prisons of a tyrannical marriage and an oppressive world. Meanwhile, Anna Letitia Barbauld emphasised the artwork which the female imagination can fashion in her poem “Washing-Day;” however, she additionally hints at the dangerous male scientific imagination behind the invention of hot air balloons. Finally, in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley draws a striking contrast between feminine uses of the imagination and the ruthless aims of a male-dominated scientific imagination. Although Wollstonecraft presents imagination as the only outlet and sole alternative for women trapped in their homes, she champions feminine uses of imagination over male employments of the mind; Barbauld and Shelley expand on the uses of female imagination, displaying the artful creations of the feminine mind and simultaneously condemning male forms of imagination, especially in the realms of science and technology.

Barbauld and Shelley adopt a similar perspective in their respective works; however, they emphasise the fruits of female imagination in the realms of poetry and writing and depict the ways in which male ambition and imagination in the scientific arena quite often lead to destruction. Barbauld takes a more subtle approach than Shelley, but the same themes emerge nevertheless. In her rather tongue-in-cheek poem, “To the Poor,” Barbauld tells the poor to become comfortable in their situations, because they can expect no relief in this life; they must wait for their rewards in heaven. Towards the end of the poem, Barbauld becomes somewhat bolder in proclaiming, “Nor deem the Lord above, like Lords below” (line 18). Barbauld places the brunt of the blame for the plight of the poor on aristocratic men. The rich men hold all the power, and render the poor, especially poor women, utterly powerless and paralyzed in their social class. She castigates a male aristocratic society that prevents any social mobility. In her final line, “Nor fear the God whom priests and kings have made,” Barbauld suggests that the actual God proves much kinder than the organised politics which men have created.

The 18th century is a significant period for analysing how women were ill-treated by the male-dominated society. It is an age defined by gender inequality and discrimination. The idea of the superiority of men and their ownership of women made women oppressed victims of the patriarchal society. Receiving little respect, surrounded by an ill-conditioned society, women were the suffering sex relying on the mercy of men. As child-bearers and homemakers, women spent their lives as 'dependents'. The home was the woman's sphere. Female education was limited to practical training for their domestic roles such as home management, laundry, cookery or piano classes, and needlework. These customs and beliefs of society, reflected in the English language and also in many works of literature, defined 'the woman' as the second sex; however, women began to defend their rights towards the end of the century.

Q-2 write in brief about your favourite major/minor writer/poet of the age.

My favourite writer of neoclassical age/ the age of restoration is “John Dryden”

John Dryden

The restoration age is also known as the age of “the age of the dryden”, because of the poets, writers, critic, translator, -john dryden’s dominance on the literary life of restoration england. He was the poet laureate by charles-2 in 1668. He left almost 30 works for the stage. After John Donne and John Milton, Dryden was the greatest English poet of the 17th century. After William Shakespeare and Ben Johnson, he was the greatest playwright. He had no peer as a writer of prose, especially literary criticism and a translator.

Mathew Arnold called the 18th century in English Literature as the “age of prose and reason, our excellent and indispensable 18th century”. Thus the Neoclassical age is primarily the “age of prose and reason”.As compared to poetry, the prose of the Neoclassical age developed more. The poetry of the period developed the qualities of prose such as clearness, lucidity, and beauty of expression.

Dryden was a poet and dramatist of repute, but he was also a great writer of prose. He was the first great modern prose writer and also the first great critic Similarly, the Pope was a poet, but we find in his poetry, characteristics of good prose-neatness, lucidity, uniformity, and balance. Matthew Arnold declared that dryden and pope were the classics of prose and not poetry.

Critical works of dryden:

- “essay of dramatic poesy” published in 1666.

-“a defence of an essay” published in 1668.

Today best-known for :

-absalom and achitophel published in 1681.

-mac flecknoe published in 1678.

These works established him as a verse satirist.

-All for love by dryden this work published in 1677.

Translation:

-virgil’s aeneid.

-homer’s iliad.

-ovid’s epistles and metamorphosis.

An essay of dramatic poesy:

“An essay of dramatic poesy” is acknowledged as one of the classics of literary theory. He presents to us a variety of views, different from one another, but not in any sense, antithetical to one another.it consists of long discussion and explanation of critical stands taken by the four characters who engage themselves in a literary debaten.

Characters are Neander, Crites, Hisideius and eugenius. Dryden presents the different viewpoints with absolute honesty and integrity without attacking or being partial to any side. Dryden’s ultimate belief in literature being a mimetic art is most clearly expressed in his famous definition of the play: a just and lively image of human nature, representing its passions and humours, and the changes of fortune to which it is subject; for the delight and instruction of mankind. On ben jonson, dryden’s observation is most telling. Chaucer is for dryden, the father of english poetry. He upholds the three unities on rational and psychological grounds.

His translation of ‘the aeneid’ remains the best ever produced in English.dryden's criticism was of scattered nature; he paid attention to almost all literary forms and expressed his views on them.

Q-3 portrayal of humans in neo classical novels.

Neoclassical literature is characterised by order, accuracy, and structure. In direct opposition to Renaissance attitudes, where man was seen as basically good, the Neoclassical writers portrayed man as inherently flawed. They emphasised restraint, self-control, and common sense direct opposition to Renaissance attitudes, where man was seen as basically good, the Neoclassical writers portrayed man as inherently flawed. They emphasised restraint, self-control, and common sense. This was a time when conservatism flourished in both politics and literature.