ENGL1004 - Background Review

( Will be updated throughout the semester. )

Age of Enlightenment

A term formally used to define the Eighteenth Century as a reflection of reason. Focused on human experience rather than traditional authority and/or blind faith.

Restoration

Refers to the return of the monarchy between the seventeenth century and the closing of the eighteenth century. Reflects the changes made to culture and living.

Truth

A concept of the Enlightenment Age that asks ‘how we know about what we actually know’, and challenges to find reasoning to conclusions.

What does enlightenment show?

Reform

What does enlightenment support?

Liberal freedom, free thought, and scientific exploration.

Skepticism

A key concept during the Enlightenment Age. Considered a suspension of disbelief that follows with several questions to find truth in the concept and/or idea.

Protestant

A follower of the Christian Church that separates from Roman Catholicism. Another term to refer to one who objects.

Empiricism

A key concept during the Enlightenment Age. Focuses on observation and experimentation of ascertaining truth through scientific inquiry. The belief that knowledge derives from experience.

John Locke

The most important philosopher during the 17th century; took Newton's approach to the world and applied it through text. Pushed faith to reason. Influenced through metaphysics and philosophical thought. Important for modern democratic theory.

The Essay Concerning Human Understanding

A piece written by Locke. Concerns the theory of the mind being a blank slate at birth and acquires idea through human experience, correlating to ‘chains of reasoning’.

What four key aspects were included in Locke’s philosophy?

Natural rights, social constructs, blank slates and reasoning

“Tabula Rasa”

Another form of blank slate. The idea that knowledge comes from experience and reason, not innate ideas.

The Pilgrim’s Progress

A piece written by Bunyan. Tells a story of a man named ‘Christian’ putting the world behind him to travel to the Celestial City in exchange for salvation. An allegory that connects to the path of divinity.

Methodism

A movement that originated from England, appealing to emotions and the reaffirmation of faith. Relies heavily on hymns and sermons to bring in converts.

What does Locke question in his piece ‘Concerning Human Understanding’?

The innate recognition of faith and the world around us, along with the connection of the idea of God.

What can ‘reasoning’ be used for?

To access a series of universal patterns in a consistent repetition to reach the truth.

What does the Eighteenth Century regard God as, according to the Enlightenment Age?

A mathematician or mechanical functionality that, as quoted, can be simply referred to as the ‘great conductor’.

What are two important concepts that Locke argues about?

Dissent and property

What does Locke argue about for government regulation?

People have the right to disagree, as to prevent violation of what citizens hold rights to. Constructs current modern day governments.

What does Locke argue about for property rights?

The subject of ownership belonging to the monarchy, and that individuals should hold the right to take in their own land.

David Hume

A Scottish philosopher and enlightenment intellectual. Held belief in empiricism and was influential for metaphysical naturalism. Utilized skepticism in his writings and was a influential skeptic regarding religious faith.

Close Reading

A analytical strategy that explores ideologies of a text and creates new knowledge out of the content itself. The idea of looking at both the literal message and how it is shown, said, and demonstrated.

What are some examples of close reading?

Imagery, figurative language, and motifs

What does healthy skepticism require?

For all questions to be taken seriously. If not, blind trust may result in the subscription of confliction.

Samuel Pepys

A man who wrote a diary containing everyday life occurrences and important events in thorough detail- documenting scientific discoveries and advancements. Provided glimpses of life during the Restoration.

Realism

Defined by the Eighteenth Century novel. An individual’s perception of the world that captures streams of consciousness,

What does “realism” question?

The social and political values of the world. Abstracts and shifts over time.

Novel

A long form of writing that was defined during the eighteenth century. Uses everyday experiences as its source and demonstrates flexibility through human perception.

Pamphlets

Worked as an option of printing opinions and became a marketplace of ideas. Became a commodity and was subjected to more power under booksellers.

Elizabeth Haywood

A prominent novel writer during the eighteenth century; demonstrated how women writers shined importance to their contributions in English literature and the breaking of the stereotype ‘men owning the world of writing’.

Amatory Fiction

A type of genre that depicts a woman seduced by a deceitful men, who is then abandoned and is left to lament. Woman holds a role of passivity and is unsuccessful in winning him back.

Fantomina

An amatory fiction that flipped the script. Reverses the passive role and displays the heroine through multiple disguises to make it impossible for the man to abandon her.

What convention does the heroine take in ‘Fantomina’?

An active control of her sexuality and reverses traditional gender expectations- along with the reversal of fortune in success by restoring moral order through pregnancy.

How are women often portrayed in amatory fiction?

Passive and victimized.

What was Haywood interested in when writing amatory fiction?

The psychological part of the roles that women can uphold, along with the pleasures of people holding imperfections and struggles with themselves, including morality and soul.

What did Haywood demonstrate in all of her writings?

The respect of women in literature occupations, and how women are important to literary history, along with the shaping of social constructs and complications of it.

What do good pieces of literary work include?

Conventions, genres, and elements/archetypes.

What does Samuel Johnson argue about towards passionate, fictional texts?

The power of example and influence that the youth may take in, corrupting them. States that novels should only exhibit characteristic virtues and real-life examples.

Why was the man thought of ‘higher’ than animals?

One held reason and faculty- one did not. One was dominant and active in reasoning, the other held passivity and lack of recognition.

Companion Animals (Idea)

The idea that the ‘man’ must be different animals, which conflicted the relationship between humans and animals (pets).

Pets

A creature kept in the house and that the man holds the power to name it; a personal belonging, diminished being, and a creature of charm.

Tracking the Etymology

A dictionary published by Samuel Johnson that defined tame animals and companion animals- due to the tension between labour animals and pets.

Tame Animal

A creature defined by its behaviour toward humans.

Companion Animals (Term)

A creature defined by the social and emotion it plays in human life.

The Mouse’s Petition

Written by Barbauld. Appeals to the human consciousness and suggests natural rights towards animals, warns about abusing power. Uses sentimental imagery to challenge the treatment of animals and advocates for the importance of compassion.

What kind of right does Barbauld’s ‘The Mouse’s Petition’ advocate for specifically?

Liberty

Washing Day

Written by Barbauld. A mock-heroic/epic poem that directs the reflection of domestic work as something worthy to contemplate about through satirical and exaggerated humor. Critiques gender roles and outlines the harsh realities of women’s labour.

Mock Epic

A type of poem that treats a trivial or ordinary subject in a grand, elevated style to create humor and satire.

Epithets

A descriptive phrase that expresses a quality characteristic of the object or person being mentioned. Accompanies or takes place the name of something.

“In Medias Res”

Also known as ‘the middle of things’. Story begins in the middle of the event transpiring.

Vast Settings

A tool that pictures a space in a particular way, exaggerating scales of the scene (specifically in mock-epics).

The Rights of Woman

Written by Barbauld. Advocates for the education and empowerment of women. Criticizes the neglect of mind and argues women deserve independence and learning.

The Caterpillar

Written by Barbauld. A didactic poem for children that teaches lessons about nature and morality. Captures a journey from personal growth to moral development through transformative lessons derived from morals.

What was often a common feature of children’s literature in the eighteenth century?

Drawing moral lessons from nature

Innovation to Muse

A new way of thinking or being inspired. Searches for creative inspiration and find a source to spark imagination.

What does Fantomina focus on in terms of archetypes and themes?

Romance, sexual love and conventions of the amatory fiction

What did amatory fiction focus on, in terms of experiences?

Living out events that are prohibited from engaging with in the real world

What does the question of accountability challenge in Haywood’s Fantomina?

The sexual and moral standards of women, as they were expected to be passive and morally pure.

Interior Monologue

The process of thought, questions and planning in finding answers to wonder.

What question does Haywood ask in her tale of Fantomina?

How women are addressed according to how they appear; disguises used to please Beauplaisir.

Why must Fantomina disguise herself repeatedly?

Her agency is not absolutely, despite her actions being free. Women who are to be respected can’t express desire. Her freedom depends on performance, not equality.

How does ‘The Mouse’s Petition’ portray understandings of the animal to the person?

Personality traits connected to creatures, identification of hierarchy, and accepting differences between different existences.

What is one way to attempt to understand animals?

Assign human traits and provide characteristics to approach reality in animals

What did the need for animal power generate?

The interest in how creatures were treated and the concern of said treatment about labour animals.

What does our reasoning capacity provide us?

The ability to feel for others, and question the responsibilities of what power we hold in our own rights.

What does it mean when it is stated that ‘rights are a safeguard’?

Rights only protect people if they are respected and applied in everyday interactions, not just written down.

What was the big question regarding animals in the eighteenth century?

The questioning of ‘if animals hold moral understanding/faculty like humans’.

Hegemony

The consolidation of power held through dominance over others. A forced consent where power is assumed over feeling, knowledge and judgement.

Nationalism

The idea that a nation is limited in its geographical borders.

What were the key aspects of the Romanticism period?

Imagination and nature

The Big Six

Poets that were profoundly prominent during the French and Industrial Revolution.

Metafictional

The roles that men and women perform; the self-awareness of being a work of fiction and draws attention to construed, not real.

Sentimental Novel

A type of genre that involves a personal journey of finding identity and draws out compassion and sensibility from the reader. Treats ‘sensibility’ like an object.

What is the point of the sentimental novel towards the reader?

To distill feelings, sensations and emotions- along with cataloguing and refining sensations through immediate accuracy.

What is the most important thing regarding sentimental novels?

Show the finest moral distinctions and nail down what is means to be human. Refines moral discrimination rather than action.

Sophism

An argument apparently correct in form, but is actually fallacious- especially in the usage for deceit. Utilizes misconception.

What exactly is important in ‘Mansfield Park’ and the sensitive novel?

Family and domesticity, both in people and objects.

What does Fanny Price- the heroine- embody?

Sentimental virtues: she is morally steadfast and her inner feelings/moral reflections are central to the story.

What does Fanny’s resistance to Henry Crawford demonstrate?

Virtue through internal sentiment, rather than public rebellion.

What are Fanny’s struggles?

Exaltation, poverty, and equality

What does ‘rehearsal’ equal?

Moral testing

What does performance equal?

Moral collapse

Why do the rehearsals of ‘Lover’s Vows’ matter in Mansfield Park?

They blur social and moral boundaries, demonstrate the desires that the characters want in real life, and damage the current boundaries that they have.

Why does the interruption of the performance matter in ‘Mansfield Park’?

It demonstrates that temptation to the acting of desires that are wanting is corrupting; by blurring social and moral boundaries, moral danger arises, moral failures begin and moral decay outwinds itself.

According to what the definition of ‘sentimental novels’ suggests about Mansfield Park, what does Fanny look for?

The recognition and reward of others, seeking for identity and worth in domesticated spaces.

Philiopiety

The quality of love and reverence for parents and family.

Mary Crawford

A sophisticated character that is skilled in writing. Beautiful and charming, but shallow and evil who seeks financial benefit through immoral justifications.

Henry Crawford

A character who is the first love interest of the story. Rejected by the heroine and is taken towards the role of a ‘changed man’ after proposing. Runs off with another woman in the end.

Mrs. Norris

A character defined by her cruelty towards Fanny, who is stated as a busybody. Wants to set herself up higher than the heroine to reduce the risk of being set down to the social bottom.

What is the mirror image of Fanny?

Mrs. Norris: the only character that worries about her own importance and yearns to be the center of things.

Tom Bertram

A character who is regarded as the ‘heir’ to Mansfield. His lifestyle of partying causes him to go under a heavy illness- specifically from large consumptions of alcohol.

Maria Bertham

One of the daughters of Sir Thomas, who ends up running off with a specific character at the end. Abuses the heroine and is self-indulgent/pretentious in character.

Julia Bertham

One of the daughters of Sir Thomas. Follows her sister around and is regarded as ‘less value’ in terms of hierarchal standards.

Sir Thomas Bertham

The uncle of the heroine; an authoritarian and harsh father towards his children. Utilizes the role of imperialism to dictate the expansion/identity of Fanny.

The Dead Silence

A moral narrative and/or prescription of how a person is to live the good life.

Colonialism

The focus of commercial aspects of expansion, specifically in more mercantile aspects.

Imperialism

The defining nature of nations seeking expansion through worldbuilding projects.

What ways does Mansfield Park speak to the projection of imperalism?

Sir Thomas’ goal to have Fanny marry into the wealth of the Crawfords, the building of identity in expansion for riches and wealth, along with being moved around by bigger forces.

How does Sir Thomas utilize the role of imperialism?

The dictation of Fanny’s expansion through where to place her under authority; inserting himself as a grand force through responsibilities and organizations towards the ‘possession of territory’.