THE ENLIGHTENMENT (end of the 17th – middle of the 18th c. )
HISTORY:
Puritan and Restoration Ages (1625-1702)
- The Civil War (1642-1651)- Oliver Cromwell’s puritans win and establish the Republic (they abolish the monarchy and the House of Lords);
- The Restoration – the country returns to monarchy;
- The Glorious Revolution (1688) limits the power of the monarch in favour of the Parliament.
The Augustan Age (1702-1776)
- The two-party political system is established;
- The American Declaration of Independence (1776) disrupts the British colonial expansion system.
ECONOMY AND SOCIETY:
Puritan and Restoration Ages
- Economic boom and mercantilism;
- Puritans banned all forms of entertainment;
- Puritan rigidity is discarded after the Restoration;
- The Plague (1666) and the Great Fire (1666) decimated the population.
The Augustan Age
- Start of the Industrial Revolution
- workers live in workhouses in poor living conditions
- hospitals are built in towns
- rise of the middle class
- power is associated with money.
IDEOLOGY AND CULTURE:
- The Enlightenment period is known as The Age of Reason;
- The extravagance of Renaissance is replaced by Puritan Pragmatism and Morality;
- Scientific and social revolutions lead to research and innovation and the development of Mathematics, Physics, Medicine, and Astronomy;
- Philosophers (Th. Hobbes, R. Descartes, J. Locke) spread the idea that reason is the key to understanding the world;
- The desire for order, clarity, and stability.
LITERATURE:
Puritan and Restoration Ages
Poetry
- John Donne
- John Milton
- John Dryden
Drama
- Theatre was considered to be immoral
- The comedy of manners was the only accepted type of play- William Congreve is the most outstanding writer
Prose
- Robert Burton
- Sir Thomas Browne
- John Milton
- John Bunyan
The Augustan Age
Poetry
- Alexander Pope: is influenced by classical writers, his poetry is defined by harmony, concision, elegance, and technical perfection.
Prose
- Popular types of prose: journalism prose, essays, political satire, pamphlets
- Middle-class readers were Puritans who preferred factual writing over fiction (was considered a form of lying)
- Realistic traits in writing
- prose is an imitation of life as it is
- literature has an instructive purpose
Writers:
- Daniel Defoe
- Samuel Richardson
- Henry Fielding
- Jonathan Swift
- Laurence Sterne
Drama