British Literature Unit 2 Notes: Chapter 1

• Published Utopia in its complete form 

• Served as Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII

• Refused to take an oath supporting the Act of Succession when Henry broke from Rome and was beheaded as a result of this refusal 

• Canonized by the Catholic Church

Sir Thomas More

a genre of fictional writings about ideal societies

Utopia

using irony to critique a society

Social Satire

the attitude an author has toward his subject that readers are meant to share

Tone

• Author is Sir Thomas More 

• More uses irony to critique the English society

• More criticizes materialism (gold and silver); he says that the British are obsessed with material things instead of useful things. 

• More emphasizes the fact that everything in English society is the same (equality) 

  • “If you know one of their cities you know them all, for they’re exactly alike, except where geography itself makes a difference.”

• Geographical Features of Utopia: 

  • Crescent-shaped island 

  • 54 cities with the same institutions, laws, customs, and language; everything is the same  

  • Each country's household has 40 men or women in it who have the same profession of farming.

• More is talking to a factional explorer, Raphael Hythloday. 

• The Book is set up as a dialogue between Sir Thomas More and Raphael Hythloday

Utopia Story 

• Epitomized the ideal humanist gentleman.

• Trained for government service and appointed cupbearer to Queen Elizabeth 1575

• Banished from court after questioning the queen. Eventually gained military command in the Netherlands.

• Died at age 31; works were published posthumously.

• His work (An Apology for Poetry) compares Philosophy and history

Sir Philip Sidney 

the practice of establishing criteria for and engaging in the analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of works in literature.

Literary Criticism

deviations from the standard use of language – mainly in syntactical arrangement: to achieve special effect.

Rhetorical Devices

similarity in the structure of two or more phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Parallelism

detailed comparisons of one thing to another dissimilar thing

Analogy

appeals to logic, emotion, and credible authorities.

Rhetorical Appeals

facts and reason

Logos

emotions

Pathos

credible authorities

Ethos

• The first English female poet to publish poems for the public and call herself a poet.

• Grew up in court society but had little social standing.

• Married to a court musician who left her with little financial support.

• Read many classics and was well educated in Latin, rhetoric, poetry, and the Bible.

Amelia Lanier

the process of presenting a claim and providing reasons to support it.

Argumentation

• An important figure in early seventeenth-century history, philosophy, and literature 

• Held several political roles including Lord Chancellor 

• Career ruined when he was charged with taking bribes 

• Published November Organum in 1620, explaining the new idea of scientific induction 

• Often called the Father of Modern Science

Sir Francis Bacon 

a brief prose composition with a single topic

Essay

short, pithy statements that express serious truths

Aphorisms

the repetition of three parallel phrases or clauses of equal length that often build in emphasis

Tricolon

a person observes multiple details about a topic or situation and draws from this evidence the general truth it most logically suggests

Inductive reasoning

a person offers general premises which, if true, most logically result in his conclusion

Deductive reasoning

• Author is Sir Francis Bacon 

• Three purposes of studying: “Studies serve for delight, ornament, and ability.”  - tricolon

Of Studies 

• Author is Sir Francis Bacon 

• He thinks that atheism has a lot of flaws 

• Uses creation itself to argue against creation 

• Uses deductive reasoning to come to the conclusion that atheism is flawed and not true

Of Atheism 

• Received a typical young lady’s education but also read scholarly works 

• Nicknamed “Mad Madge” because of her intellectual pursuits and her eccentricities in fashion 

• One of the first Englishwomen to write for publication 

• Most of her works deal with natural philosophy

Margaret Cavendish 

a metaphor developed beyond single sentence or comparison

Extended Metaphor

• Author is Margaret Cavendish 

• Compares women’s writing to a disease 

• Critiques the microscope and telescope because they give no useful advantage

Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy

• Author is Margaret Cavendish

• Compared everything made by atoms to individual bricks that make up a house

A World Made by Atoms