The Enlightenment/Neoclassical Period

(1660-1790)
 The Enlightenment/Neoclassical Period
• The age is known as classical age or age of reason.
• Neoclassical literature is characterized by order, accuracy and
structure.
• It is a period of Enlightenment.
• Literature of the age is concerned with human nature supremacy of
reason.
• Unity in the works of all writers.
• The age wished to understand not to imagine.
Three stages of Neo-classical period:

• The Restoration period

• The Augustan period
• The Age of Johnson
 I. Restoration Period (1660-1700)
• This period is called the Restoration because the monarchy was
restored after Charles I's son became king of England on May 29,
1660.

• Restoration literature continued to appeal to heroic ideals of love and

honor, particularly on stage, in heroic tragedy.

• Styles of writing were clear, concise and precise sentences. It was

formal and elegant.

• Comedy of manner is introduced in which plays focus in the manners

and conventions of the high, sophisticated aristocratic society.
John Dryden

John Dryden was an

English poet, literary
critic, translator, and
playwright who in 1668
was appointed England's
first Poet Laureate.
John Locke

John Locke was an English

philosopher and physician, widely
regarded as one of the most
influential of Enlightenment thinkers
and commonly known as the "father
of liberalism".
William Wycherley

William Wycherley was an

English dramatist of the
Restoration period

Best known for the plays "The

Country Wife" and "The Plain
Dealer".
Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys was an English

diarist and naval administrator.

--He served as administrator of

the Royal Navy and Member
of Parliament and is most
famous for the diary he kept
for a decade.
Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn was an English

playwright, poet, prose writer and
translator from the Restoration era.
As one of the first English women
to earn her living by her writing,
she broke cultural barriers and
served as a literary role model for
later generations of women
authors.
 II. The Augustan Age (1700-1750)
• The age of Johnson, also known as the age of sensibility.
• This period was named after the writer/poet/critic Samuel Johnson.
• The term 'the Augustan Age' comes from the imitation of the original Augustan
writers.
• The Augustan Age was the period after the Restoration era to the death of
Alexander Pope (1690-1744)
• During this period the writers tried to write by the rules used by the Romans and
Greeks.
Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope was an English

poet, translator, and satirist of the
Enlightenment era who is
considered one of the most
prominent English poets of the
early 18th century.
Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was most

famous for being a satirist and
critiquing the social scenarios
of his time. His major works
include, ''A Modest Proposal''
and ''Gulliver's Travels.''
Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison was an

English essayist, poet,
playwright, and politician. He
was the eldest son of Lancelot
Addison.
 III. The Age of Johnson (1750-1790)

• Also called The greatest Age of Sensibility.

• Much was happening around the world politically, such as

both the American and French Revolutions.

• This time marked a transition in English literature from the

structure and formality of the Neo-classical writers to the
emotional, ungoverned writings of the Romantics.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
--is the namesake for the Age of
Johnson, and he wielded
considerable influence over this era
with works that focused on
neoclassical aesthetics.
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-
1774)
--was a writer, poet, and
playwright who supported
Johnson's neoclassical
ideals and was a close
friend of Johnson.
Edmund Burke (1729-
1797)
--was a philosopher,
statesman, and writer who
wrote on aesthetics,
politics, and society, and
was a supporter of
Johnson's neoclassical
ideals.
David Hume (1711-1776)
--was a philosopher, historian, and
economist who wrote on a wide
range of topics, including
aesthetics, politics, and religion,
and was a critic of Johnson's
neoclassical ideals.
Matthew Gregory Lewis
(1775-1818)
--was a writer and
playwright who wrote
Gothic novels and plays,
including The Monk,
which was published in
1796 and was a popular
success.
 The Romantic Period (1790-1830)

• Great Age for the Novel

• Romantic poets write about nature, imagination, and

individuality in England.

• It places emphasis on eliciting an emotional response

of the reader .
 The Romantic Period
(1790-1830)
Famous writers and their works:

• William Wordsworth (I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud)

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Kubla Khan)
• William Blake (Song of Innocence and of Experience)
• Mary Shelley (Mathilda)
William Wordsworth
--was an English Romantic
poet who, with Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, helped to
launch the Romantic Age in
English literature with their
joint publication Lyrical
Ballads (1798).
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
--was an English poet, literary
critic, philosopher, and
theologian who, with his
friend William Wordsworth,
was a founder of the Romantic
Movement in England and a
member of the Lake Poets.
Mary Shelley
--was an English novelist who
wrote the Gothic novel
Frankenstein; or, The Modern
Prometheus (1818), which is
considered an early example
of science fiction.
The Victorian Period (1832 – 1901)
--The Reign of Queen Victoria.

--The literature of this Era expressed the fusion of

pure romance to gross realism.

--The Victorian Period embraced the novel and

developed it into what we know of today.

--They wrote very long descriptive wordy novels

about the lives of fictional people.
 The Victorian Period
(1832-1901)

Famous writers and their works:

• Charles Dicken (The Pickwick Papers)

• Elizabeth Browning (How do I love Thee)
• Alfred Lord Tennison (Ulysses)
 The Modern Period
(1914 - 1945)

• Also known as Modernism.

• Modernism embraced these changes and experimented with new

forms of expression in literature, poetry, and prose.

• Characterized by a rejection of the traditional forms of writing in

favor of bold experimentation in both poetry and prose.
• The modern era was a time of great changes for the United States. WWI, the
Great Depression, and WWII.

• People of this era made immense technological advances.

• Change was the norm of the time as there was new advances in technology.

• No literary genre typified the modern period as much as poetry.

• The Modern Period of American Literature is better defined by the traditions it

broke rather than any tradition it created.
 The Modern Period
(1914 - 1945)

Famous writers and their works:

• Robert Frost (The Road Not Taken )

• Dylan Thomas (And Death Shall Have No Dominion)
• Wilfred Owen (Insensibility)
 The Postmodern Period
(1945 - Onward)

• Period begins with the end of World War II

• Influenced by Freud, Sartre, Camus, Derrida, and Foucault.

• Postmodern literature is part of socio-cultural and historical development and can

be seen as a specific way of a depiction of the postmodern life and culture. It
shows a crisis of identity of human being (ethnic, sexual, social and cultural).
 The Postmodern Period
(1945 - Onward)

Famous writers and their works:

• David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest)

• T.S Eliot (The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock)
• Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot)
American Literature Periods
Native American

• Native Americans are people from one of

the many groups who were already living
in North America before Europeans
arrived, especially those groups in the
continental United States.
• Native American Literature has been a living oral
tradition, but it was never treated with the same respect
as European or Western literature.

• The vast body of American Indian oral literature was

not even recognized by Western scholars until the late
1800s - assumed that Native Americans had no
literature.
 B. PURITAN (1472­-1750)

• Puritan” began as an insult by traditional Anglicans to those who cri

ticized or wished to "purify" the Church of England.

• It focused on daily life, settlement, moral

attitudes, and the authority of the Bible and the Church.
Two great Puritan authors and their
works:

• John Milton (Paradise Lost)

• John Bunyan (Pilgrim's Progress)

 C. ENLIGHTENMENT/REVOLUTIONARY
(1750­-1800)

• The literature of this period was inspired by political events and encouraged
Revolutionary War support.

• The writings were often meant to explore the ideas of liberty,

patriotism, government, nationalism, and American character.

• Emphasis on reasoning, scientific observation, and the ideals of justice, liberty,

and equality as natural rights of man.
Writers and Their Works

• Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard’s Almanac,

Autobiography, prose and poetry

• Thomas Paine: Common Sense, The Rights of Man,

The American Crisis, The Age of Reason
THANK
YOU