The document provides an introduction to Neoclassical Literary Criticism, outlining its historical context and origins in the late 17th and 18th centuries as a reaction against the expansiveness of the Renaissance in favor of order and restraint in literature. It discusses major figures of the Neoclassical period like Dryden, Pope, and Johnson and contrasts Neoclassicism with the emerging Romantic movement of the late 18th century. The course will examine key concepts in Neoclassical thought around nature, reason, and the role of the critic compared to Romantic emphasis on individual emotion and creativity.
The document provides an introduction to Neoclassical Literary Criticism, outlining its historical context and origins in the late 17th and 18th centuries as a reaction against the expansiveness of the Renaissance in favor of order and restraint in literature. It discusses major figures of the Neoclassical period like Dryden, Pope, and Johnson and contrasts Neoclassicism with the emerging Romantic movement of the late 18th century. The course will examine key concepts in Neoclassical thought around nature, reason, and the role of the critic compared to Romantic emphasis on individual emotion and creativity.
The document provides an introduction to Neoclassical Literary Criticism, outlining its historical context and origins in the late 17th and 18th centuries as a reaction against the expansiveness of the Renaissance in favor of order and restraint in literature. It discusses major figures of the Neoclassical period like Dryden, Pope, and Johnson and contrasts Neoclassicism with the emerging Romantic movement of the late 18th century. The course will examine key concepts in Neoclassical thought around nature, reason, and the role of the critic compared to Romantic emphasis on individual emotion and creativity.
The document provides an introduction to Neoclassical Literary Criticism, outlining its historical context and origins in the late 17th and 18th centuries as a reaction against the expansiveness of the Renaissance in favor of order and restraint in literature. It discusses major figures of the Neoclassical period like Dryden, Pope, and Johnson and contrasts Neoclassicism with the emerging Romantic movement of the late 18th century. The course will examine key concepts in Neoclassical thought around nature, reason, and the role of the critic compared to Romantic emphasis on individual emotion and creativity.
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1/ 21
The Neoclassical Literary
Criticism (1)
An Introduction Dr Islam Aly El-Naggar Faculty of Arts (2023-2024) Why? • “study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future.” (John Maynard Keynes) Always Begin with the Etymology Main Objectives of the Course • Classicism vs Romanticism • The Eighteenth-century literary efforts and ideals based on: • The classical conception of nature. • Function of art and literature in the light of such conception. • The classical emphasis on objectivity in contrast with • The nineteenth-century (poetry) that operates within Romantic theory of poetry • Its stress on subjectivity. The Course Outline
• Neoclassicism in England vs other parts in Europe?
• The function of a Critic Or What does it mean to be a critic in the era of neoclassicism (as predominant thought) • A Critic vs an Artist • The idea of ‘wit’ and ‘reasoning’ • The Concept of (law of) Nature vs Imitation (Mimesis/representation) • The Neoclassicist (Augustan)Theory (18th Century) vs Romantic Theory (19th Century) Imitation/verisimilitude (1) Augustan Theory Romantic Theory Nature at the centre [external reality] Ego at the centre [Solipsism] DIVIDED INTO THREE PERRIODS
1660–1700 1750–1798
1- Age of 3- Age of ( Dr Samuel)
Restoration Johnson (Age of Transition) the date when the Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge was published for 2- The Augustan Age the first time 1700–1750 1798 Main Neoclassical Figures
John Dryden Alexander Dr Samuel
Pope Johnson
(1631-1700) (1688-1744) (1709-1784)
Historical Background
• The Age of Restoration vs the Age of Renaissance
• Religious tolerance* • The French Academy*/Classics • The moral and ethical (also aesthetic) responsibilities of the poet/critic [Examples …] • Debate over the Ancients and/vs the Modern* • The prevalence of Comedy & Satire as modes of socio-political criticism • Beginnings of skepticism* … We shall first look briefly at the historical antecedents of this theory Before We Start… Think of these Terms
• Classicism • Neoclassicism • (Renaissance) Humanism • Romanticism • Realism ??? Realism: What are the different critical lenses?
The Author = what causes literature?
The Text vs the universe/the world = [the
degree of] Referentiality/realism …
The Critic/the reader-response = what is the
effect of literature? Humanism • Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the value and agency* [see the next slide] of human beings, individually and collectively. • The meaning of the term humanism has fluctuated according to the successive intellectual movements which have identified with it. What is Agency?
• In social science, agency is defined as the
capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. • By contrast, structure are those factors of influence (such as social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, ability, customs, etc). Traditional Humanism What does it mean to be a humanist?
•Humanists believe that human experience and
rational thinking provide the only source of both knowledge and a moral code* to live by. • ... Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. Renaissance humanism
• Renaissance humanism was a revival in the
study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. ... • During the Renaissance period most humanists were religious, so their concern was to "purify and renew Christianity" not to do away with it. Humanism continued …
• In modern times, humanist movements are
typically non-religious movements aligned with secularism*, and today humanism may refer to a nontheistic/atheistic life stance centred on human agency and looking to science rather than revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world. (New) Humanism
• (New) Humanism, critical movement
between 1910 and 1930, based on the literary and social theories of the English poet and critic Matthew Arnold, who sought to recapture the moral quality of past civilizations—the best that has been thought and said (Touchstone theory)—in an age of industrialization, materialism, and SO ON ... The Origin of Neoclassicism
• After the Renaissance—a period of exploration
and expansiveness—came a reaction in the direction of order and restraint. • This reaction developed in France in the mid- seventeenth century • In England (roughly) thirty years later … • Neoclassicism dominated European literature until the last part of the eighteenth century. 2- The Augustan Age (1702-1714) The New Restraint • Writers turned from inventing new words to regularizing vocabulary and grammar. • Complex, boldly metaphorical language, such as Shakespeare used in his major tragedies, is clarified and simplified--using fewer and more conventional figures of speech. • Mystery and obscurity are considered symptoms of incompetence rather than signs of grandeur. • The ideal style is lucid, polished, and precisely appropriate to the genre of a work and the social position of its characters = (decorum*). Grave Diggers Scene in Hamlet! How you interpret* it?
• “Here us the water-good here stands the man
good • If the man go to this water and drown himself • It is, will he will he, he goes, mark you that. But • If the water come to him, he drowns not himself.” • https://www.shmoop.com/hamlet/act-5-scene-1-translati on.html • What is he that builds stronger than either the manson, the ship-wright, or the carpenter?
