Letteratura inglese 2

18th Century

In 1660, there was the restoration of the monarchy with the return of Charles II, and also the restoration of the Anglican Church. The Test Act required all holders of military offices to take a sacrament in an Anglican Church and to deny their belief in transubstantiation. Protestant Dissenters and Roman Catholics were excluded from public life. Charles II promised to govern the Parliament, but he started to reinforce the royal power. The report of the Popish Plot terrified all London, and the House of Commons expressed its fear by trying to convince Charles II to exclude his Catholic brother, James, the Duke of York, from the succession. Charles II resolved the crisis by dissolving the Parliament, and society was divided into two political parties: Tories, the King's supporters, and Whigs, the King's opponents.

James II and the Glorious Revolution

In 1685, James II came to the throne. He wanted to overrule the Parliament and support the Catholic Church, but the birth of his son caused problems for a Catholic succession. When William of Orange landed with a small army and marched towards London, James II fled to France, even though many remained loyal to him for decades, such as the Jacobites. James II’s escape was the result of the so-called “Bloodless, or Glorious Revolution,” led by William of Orange. In 1689, the Bill of Rights reaffirmed the supremacy of the Parliament and limited the power of the Crown. In the same year, the Toleration Act granted the freedom of worship to Dissenters.

George I, II, and the Rise of the British Empire

During the reign of Queen Anne, patronage was fostered because she encouraged musicians, writers, etc. She was followed by:

• George I, known as the first Hanoverian King;
• George II.

During the reign of George II, Robert Walpole was known as the first Prime Minister of Britain. The local reign of George III was dominated by:

• The emergence of Britain as a colonial power;
• A cry for a new social order based on liberty and radical reform.

Literary Production

It can be divided into three periods:

• Until 1700, extending to the death of Dryden, is neoclassical and important for the creation of the novel and the work of prose;
• Until 1744, ending with the death of Pope, is a period of transition and elaboration of forms such as the novel;
• Until 1785, ending with the death of Johnson, in which new romantic principles contrast the old ideas.

Samuel Johnson was the first person to codify the written English language, and his pronunciation helped to create modern English. He wrote the first great English Dictionary. The year of his death coincides with the rise of Romanticism.

Neo-Classicism or Augustan Period

The century was called Neo-classicism, or Augustan period: In reaction to the Baroque, it fostered simplicity, clarity, and regularity. It accompanied rationalist philosophies and the rise of experimental science. This movement developed in France a body of classical literature. Dryden’s generation took advantage of the analogy between post-civil war England and Augustan Rome. Moreover, this period is characterized by the study and representation of Nature as a universal and permanent element in human experience.

Eighteenth-Century Literature

It was a period rich in authors and genres:

• Jonathan Swift;
• Joseph Addison;
• Richard Steele;
• Alexander Pope;
• Matthew Prior;
• Samuel Johnson.

Themes included civilization and social relationships; critical and moral or satirical literature. Genres included mock-heroic poetry and satire, targeting a cultivated readership. Alexander Pope is one of the most important representatives of mock-heroic poems.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

A man of letters who could not benefit from Queen Anne’s patronage because he was a Catholic and as such was excluded from voting, university, and public office. His work became so successful that he managed to live on it.

• 1711: An Essay on Criticism - An informal discussion on literary theory in plain style.
• 1712: The Rape of the Lock (first version) - A heroic-comical poem written in a lofty language.
• 1713-26: Translation of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
• 1728: The Dunciad - Essay against the vulgarization of taste and the growing of the reading public.
• 1733-34: An Essay on Man (philosophical turn).

Pope was a master of style. His verse is notable for:

• Its rhythmic variety, despite the rigid metrical unit – the heroic couplet – in which he wrote;
• Precision of meaning and harmony of his language;
• Conciseness and complexity.

The Rape of the Lock is based on an actual episode that caused a quarrel between two important Catholic families. Lord Petre had cut off a lock of hair from the head of Arabella Fermor, to the indignation of her and her family. In 1712, it was published its first version, and in 1717, it was published its final edited version with the addition of Clarissa’s speech on good humor.

With fancy and wit, Pope elaborated the trivial events into a mini-epic that is the most perfect heroicomical poem in English. The verses have many parodies, echoes of the Iliad, Odyssey, and Paradise Lost – in an effort to compare small things with big, mythical ones. The Rape of Lock is about a war, but it is the war between the sexes. There are heroes and heroines, supernatural comic characters. There is an epic game and it is full of battle, a linguistic battle, fought with clichés of compliments and conceits.

Analysis

The epigraph may be translated “I was unwilling, Belinda, to ravish your locks; but I rejoice to have conceded this to your prayers” “non ero disposto, Belinda, a strappare i tuoi riccioli, ma gioisco per averlo concesso alle tue preghiere”. The epigraph is a quotation that has different meanings, in this case, reinforces what Pope wanted to do with his work, introduces the role of the poet, and substitutes his heroin with that of Martial, a Latin satirical poet. In his poem, every element of the contemporary scene conjures up some image from epic tradition or the classical worldview, because Pope wanted to do a relation between Latin culture and the 18th century.

• The letter has an introductive function because, in it, the poet explains the addressees and the matter of the work. First, Pope explains to her his reasons for publishing the original poem: according to him, he was forced to take it public.
• In the second paragraph, Pope talks about the machinery as a term invented by critics to refer to supernatural elements that are in epic poems. He uses a different style and explains how he reworks the supernatural elements. In fact, this letter is a kind of presentation of his poetry.
• The book “Le Comte de Gabalis” mentioned by Pope is a comedy about occult beliefs and mystical spirits that was loved by Rosicrucians, who Pope wants to introduce.
• At the end of the letter, the poet flatters Arabella.

The Rape of the Lock begins with a passage showing the subject of the poem and invoking the aid of the muse. Carvel is the person who asked for the poem and is juxtaposed with the Muse that inspires the entire poem. So the third line is very important because there is the invocation of the Muse and the poetic “I”. Then the sun (“Sol”) appears to initiate the morning routines of a wealthy family. Bells begin to ring, and although it is already noon (mezzogiorno), Belinda still sleeps. She has been dreaming, and we learn that the dream has been sent by “her guardian Sylph,” Ariel. In her dream, a handsome, well-dressed young man whispers sweet things into her ear. In this part, we can see a transition from the night to the day. The line 12 can be considered the beginning of the narration that coincides with the day.

There are epic references in the entire poem, because being a mock-epic poem, these references are important to the humor and the satire. For example, the speaker begins the work by invoking the "Gods" and "Muses" who've inspired him to write, just like Homer and Virgil do at the beginnings of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid. Also, it is full of archaic language. The speaker is Pope, as we can understand from the letter he writes in the beginning. The poem is characterized by the heroic couplets and two poetic techniques at the end of his lines: end-stopping (where he uses a grammatical pause, like comma, the exclamation, or a period), or enjambment.

In the first part, he establishes the main themes. In the first two lines, beginning with the same word “what,” the rhythm is syncopated, but in the third line, it changes because we have many pauses with commas and exclamation marks. Belinda, that is the addressee of the poem, appears only in line 4, and the poet talks about her using the third person, so she becomes the subject of the work. In line 10, the adjective “gentle” serves to show the behavior of the high social class to function as an example for everyone.

One of them is the masculinity and men in general, because Pope juxtaposes the heroic classical ideal of manhood from the ancient epics, with the reality of them who moved through his own society, that he considers lacking. On the other hand, another theme is also that of women because the poem lets us know that women are even more limited by society's rules and regulations than men. Other themes are the sexuality that can be introduced with Belinda’s dream and the supernatural referring to the machinery and the many supernatural beings described in the poem.

Translation

Quale fiera offesa da amorose cause origina, quali vaste/ampie contese sorgono da eventi banali/triviali, io canto – questi versi a Carvell, o Musa! Sono dovuti: questi versi, che persino Belinda potrebbe degnarsi di vedere: esile/leggero è l’argomento, ma non così la lode, se lei ispira, e lui gradisca i miei versi. Dì quale strano motivo, o Dea! Potrebbe indurre Un signore di alto rango ad assalire una gentil donna? Oh, dì per quale causa ancora più strana, ancora inspiegato, potrebbe indurre una gentil donna a rifiutare un signore? In azioni così audaci possono piccoli uomini impegnarsi, e in petti/animi soffici dimora una rabbia così possente? Il sole attraverso bianche tende mostra un timoroso raggio, e apriva quegli occhi che il giorno dovrebbe far eclissare. Adesso cani da guardia si scuotono al risveglio, e amanti senza sonno, a mezzogiorno, si risvegliano: tre volte suona la sveglia, le pantofole sbattono sul pavimento, e l’orologio a pendolo rintocca un suono d’argento. Belinda ancora appoggiata al suo cuscino morbido, il suo guardiano ha prolungato il suo piacevole riposo. Era lui che aveva convocato il sogno mattutino Che era sospeso sul suo capo nel suo letto silenzioso. Un giovane più splendente di un signore vestito a festa (che persino nel sogno faceva arrossire le sue guance) Sembrava che le sue labbra suadenti si poggiassero quasi al suo orecchio, e in questo modo sussurrava, o sembrava dire: “più bella fra le mortali, la tua attenzione distinta Di centinaia di luminosi abitanti dell’aria! Se una visione ha toccato i tuoi pensieri da infante, di tutte le nutrici e tutti i preti che ti hanno insegnato, di elfi dell’aria che si vedono nelle ombre lunari, il pegno d’argento, e l’erba circolare, di vergini visitate dalle energie degli angeli, con corone dorate e ghirlande di fiori celestiali, ascolta e credi! Conosci il tuo stesso valore/importanza né delimita le tue strette vedute alle cose terrene. Alcune verità segrete, dal dotto orgoglio nascoste, solo alle domestiche e ai bambini sono rivelate. Quale sapienza dubbiosa potrebbe non dare credito? I giusti e innocenti ci crederanno ancora.

The Novel

The novel as a genre was founded at the beginning of the 18th century (1700). There was a gradual shift from drama and critical essay to the novel, which better expressed sociocultural behaviors and feelings. In addition, the novel became the genre that best communicated the value of the emerging mercantile bourgeoisie. Narrations in prose had already been written in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (French romances). However, the stylistic and literary rules of the modern novel took shape only at the beginning of the 18th century. Among the reasons which led to the creation of the novel, we need to discuss at least two features:

• Improvement of printing technologies: Printing becomes easier, cheaper, and faster.
• Journalism spread enormously. Many journals and magazines were published and circulated widely.
• Magazine articles were meant to instruct, reform, amuse, and criticize political and intellectual positions.
• Two were the most important journals: The Tatler, founded in 1709 by Sir Richard Steele, published for two years until 1711, and The Spectator: founded by Joseph Addison (1711-1714: politician, writer, and dramatist)
• Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, also known as Johnson’s Dictionary (1755)
• Spread of literacy also thanks to:
• The improvement of the school system
• The diffusion of the lending libraries, which lent books at a very low cost.

What is a novel?

• Constant search for balance between form and content, that also mirrors daily life;
• Revolutionary, because it is about common people;
• Popular, because it deals with topics of shared and public interest;

At the beginning, the novel is a realist narration: it tries to represent reality through a perspective that is supported by the establishment. The novel is initially a parody of classical literature, where all events have to do with the hero. It also begins by following Horace’s motto, according to whom literature has to entertain and instruct at the same time.

How Did the Novel Originate?

Narrations in prose were already common before the appearance of the novel: think of diaries, autobiographies, travel accounts, letters – all were very common. The novel drew from different forms:

• Epic narrations
• Ballads
• Dialogues taken from drama
• Moral ideas developed in essays
• Plasticity of the images in poetry

However, the most important model on which the form of the modern novel has taken inspiration was travel writing. Two authors paved the way for this transition:

• Joseph Addison - Remarks on Several Parts of Italy (1705)
• Daniel Defoe - A Tour Thro the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724)

On a formal level, travel narrative influenced the emerging novel in:

• The choice of using a first-person narrator
• Improving the textual and semantic coherence of texts
• Adopting rhetorical strategies in descriptions
• Organizing the text by following a strict spatial and temporal structure, whereby actions are narrated within sequential movement on a spatial-temporal basis.

On a thematic level, travel narrative influenced:

• An emphasis on the centrality of the Self (highlighted by the use of the first-person narration)
• Detailed descriptions, with a focus on exotic places and cultures
• Protagonists who face unknown populations and venture into unknown lands
• Testimonial function (rather than imaginative)

Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver's Travels (1726)

It is a traditional text from romance to the novel.

What is a romance?

A literary genre typically involving fantastic or perilous adventures. Medieval verse romances were usually about knights and ladies, sorcerers and dragons, daring deeds, and secret love. Example: the tales of King Arthur and his Knights. Gulliver’s Travels is not really a novel, because:

• It is still strongly influenced by non-realistic narrative modes (romances)
• Lacks a rigidly-organized chronological structure
• Tells extraordinary and improbable events
• The characterization of the protagonist, Gulliver, is devoid of interiority and prevents readers from identifying with him.

The lack of identification with the protagonist and his world marks Gulliver’s Travels’ distance from the emerging form of the “novel.” The novel is founded on the identification of readers with the protagonist through a process of equivalence between narrated and “real” worlds. Moreover, the novel had to stimulate readers’ curiosity as well as amuse and instruct in order to inspire moral judgment.

Robinson Crusoe (1719) responded to the need for self-representation of the bourgeoisie and of mercantile businessmen. Robinson Crusoe is a novel that tells the adventures of the eponymous protagonist, who represents the English merchant who travels for business. Robinson survives on a desert island for more than 20 years by reconstructing the social structure of the bourgeois world he left in England.

Friday: this name gives the time of the scene, Robinson calls a character he met “Friday” because when he met him it was Friday. Robinson transforms the unknown into something familiar. Robinson is the archetype of the British colonizer who imposes his language, social and cultural system on the colonized Other (Friday).

On a formal level:

• The narration is structured on the form of the travel accounts
• Alternance of first and third-person narrators
• Objective and pragmatic style
• Focus on actions (use of action verbs)
• Chronological, linear, and coherent development of the narrative.

Together with Daniel Defoe, the other pioneers of the modern novel were:

• Henry Fielding “Tom Jones” (1749)
• Samuel Richardson, creator of the epistolary novel “Pamela” (1739) and “Clarissa” (1748)

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was educated in Kilkenny Grammar School and Trinity College, where he enjoyed reading and literature. Among his first works, there are A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books. After a time, he became popular in political verses and became an important journalist. He was different from many of his contemporaries, embracing a satirical style and engaging with the social and political issues of his time.