1. INTRODUCTION : HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The 18th century is called “The Long Century” bc historians consider it doesn’t really start or end at the end of the century. It may start with The Glorious Revolution 1688; James II is overthrown or even earlier with the Restauration and Charles II in 1660 and may end with the victory of Waterloo or 1837 with the beginning of Victoria’s reign.

This century is defined as the age of Reason, the Augustan Age (ref to Roman Empire), or the age of Johnson. It’s characterized by its order, moderation and toleration.

= > After Cromwell’s Republic, theatres reopened, art was supported again by the king and the Royal Society (scientific) was founded, the Church of England was reestablished. Charles II after his exile in France developed a catholic bias, his brother James II was catholic => Catholicism was seen in England as absolutism.

In 1689, there was the Bill of Rights which granted power to the parliament and guaranteed personal liberties. It meant that the king and queen accepted the parliament as the highest authority, leading to the rise of political parties (Whigs and Tories).

In 1701, there was an act of settlement which imposed the king to be protestant. = > Religious tolerance in Britain.

It was also a period of prosperity on the economic side, despite colonial wars against France and Poland; trade, the colonial empire and banking developed.

In the last part of the 18^th century => Industrial Revolution.

Major changes happened during this period : American and French Revolution, age of Enlightenment. The distribution of wealth in the people wasn’t equal and poverty was very present.

The Age of Enlightenment : philosophical, cultural movement occurring in the last part of the 17^th and start of the 18^th century. This movement stressed reason, logic, freedom of thoughts over dogma and blind faith, they also reject the sovereignty of the state.

First, there’s the scientific revolution (ex : Newton’s laws)believing in rational and empirical evidence, examining the human life to obtain the truth in nature and believing that everything is guided by a rational order. Then, philosophers took these scientific observations as a model and argued that there could be academic disciplines which would focus on the activities of human beings and improve them for the better, focusing on the importance of the individual.

In the 18th century, people turned away from the dominance of religion (ex : rejected literal interpretation of the bible) and the state.

There also was an increased interest in culture materialized by the rise of books; publication progressively became an industry, and publishers and printers had an important role. A new class of writers appeared from the upper middle classes. It also marked the beginning of circulating libraries and education for the middle classes, providing a new market for literature => the rise of the novel after 1740.

Women were the main readers and writers in the middle classes, such as Jane Austen.

= > One of the main philosophers : Thomas Hobbes. He’s the first major figure in English Enlightenment and is famous for Leviathan published in 1651, analysing human nature and justifying absolutism, since for him human nature is entirely bad and humans as a consequence should remain in constant war unless they’re forced to behave by someone. He was an atheist and still argued that religion was useful, for example as propaganda for the state.

He said that human lives was by nature “solitary or nasty, ruttish and short”. He believed in the suppression of human instincts.

• Characteristic movement of the 18^th century Enlightenment in England : Empiricism.

3 important philosophers : John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume.

Empiricism : the idea that the origin of all knowledge is based on experience and senses.

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Empiricism is specifically British and contrasted with rationalism, based on the idea that the mind has access to some truth directly. The first philosopher who explained clearly this idea was John Locke in an essay; the mind was like a tabula rasa (blank slate) so we can learn and improve. It was received more positively than Hobbs’ theories.

“Every man is inherently good, and the necessity of government requires people to compromise on some issues for the general good.” = separation of powers.

Considering Berkeley, he understood that such ideas were not good and that the ideas of such things come from god perceiving them.

Hume divided human knowledge in 2 categories : relations of ideas that would depend on your observation of the world, and things that you don’t need to perceive to know they’re true like math for instance.

• Adam Smith (1723-1790)

He’s remembered as the father of modern economy and capitalism, he’s the author of The Wealth of Nation = first modern work of classical economy. He’s also remembered for his metaphor of the invisible hand.

In the book, he develops 3 main concepts : division of labour, pursuit of self-interest and freedom of trade. He argues that human actions are from selfishness yet according to him in the market trade, thanks to freedom of trade, competition benefits society. = chaotic, unrestrained, yet natural balance by the invisible hand that regulates.

• Jeremy Bentham : Utilitarianism

He believed that the right act of policy is that which causes the greatest happiness of the greatest number. He devises the happiness factor as the way to determine the moral worth of every action. = principle of fairness and justice in political decisions.

He was a liberal and was in favour of individual and economic freedom and in the favour of separation of church and state, freedom of expression, abolition of slavery, animal rights, right to divorce, decriminalizing of homosexuality. He’s the one who designed a model for prison buildings called panopticon. He advocated that universal peace could be achieved by unity.

• Edmund Burke

He’s at the origin of the concept of the sublime and the opposition to beautiful, and they’re mutually exclusive. He suggested that like beauty, there was an aesthetic quality in ugliness, by giving you intense emotion and resolve in a different kind of pleasure. He focused on the effects of the sublime and its ambivalence of fear and attraction. = delight

This notion of the sublime is summarized by “awe and terror”.

• The role of coffee houses and clubs

In the 18^th century, coffee houses sprung up everywhere in London and attracted a variety of people from all social classes. Coffee was also new and fashionable at the time, making coffee houses a hub of the latest news, scandals, ect and discussions around them. Then, in the mid-18^th century, tea became the new thing so coffee houses where replaced by gentleman’s clubs. Ex : Kit Kat Club & Scriblerus Club (Tory), it had members like Poe.

Result => growth of periodical and papers, such as The Tatler (news and gossip, Wig, essays) and The Spectator.

A very famous literary circle : Samuel Johnson, including David Garick, Burke, Goldsmith. Johnson was an English writer, biographer, lexicographer and remained famous for his dictionary in 1755 which remained the only one until the end of the century.

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1. THE COMEDY OF MANNERS

A genre associated with the Restauration. It started after the death of Cromwell in 1658 => end of the puritan government. 1660 => Charles II comes back from exile and becomes King.

During that period there were two trends : remain of the puritan tradition + continuing interest for the bible in works, but on the other part the restauration of the comedy took place.

During the reign of Charles I, the theatre was associated with royalism and when Cromwell came to power, he closed and destroyed all the theatres.

But the new king, Charles II loved drama and 2 main theatres where built : the Drury Land and Dorset Garden => Covent garden.

Changes in the theatres :

• Before, the actors were surrounded by the audience on 3 sides, but after the restauration they were facing the audience.

• Use of more elaborate costumes and lightning, movable settings.

• Women’s parts were no longer played by young boys. At the same time, the comedy presented them as equal to men in terms of wit and vices, and also promoted sexual emancipation.

• The public theatres from then on were indoor, and became expensive, excluding the lower social classes.

These elements increased the spectacular aspect of the shows.

The predominant genre was The Comedy of Manners addressing the higher social classes since playwright were nobles too. The themes were also related to the interests of the higher social classes.

Characteristics of the comedy of manners :

Inspired by Comedies of Humour : late 16^th century, associated with Ben Jonson, based on the 4 human fluids : blood with sanguine character, phlegm with phlegmatic dispositions, choleric (yellow bile) and melancholy (black bile).

Each character has a preponderant humour that gives an eccentricity. It explores the characters, encouraging the audience to analyse themselves. The main characters often corresponds to certain types of caricatures, referenced by their names, ex : Fopling Flutter who is a fop/another exemple is the rake = menteur, aimer les femmes agées, voler son père. Actors were often cast for the same types of roles.

Usually, comic effects are based on misunderstandings or the setting of the play. Most of the characters are obsessed with sex, fashion, gossip and intrigue. The plot is generally complex, based on several intrigues. The dialogues are brilliant and witty, they deal with affectations of fashionable men and women, only preoccupied with manners seen as essential. They are characterized by their elegance and the interest in the violation of social convention. Associated with the relation between style and morality.

After the puritan manners, people wanted to enjoy themselves in a world that was brilliant and stupid at the same time where feelings and sexual desires could be separated. Liaisons were seen as pure entertainment and considered lightly, while jealousy was considered ridiculous. It was a period of debauchery but also deep curiosity on a new way of living; pleasure is beauty.

On the other hand, the importance of social conventions was absolutely essential.

It comes from riches and good manners, and characters who turns their ruses to their advantages, and others who are made fun of and fail, ending up ridiculous.

Attention is paid to style, where the figure of the fop is popular, but style also means verbal ingenuity.

Meaning of wit : originally the ability to write poetry, but in the 17th century the meaning changed, signifying intellectual originality by using paradoxes, coining, deft sentences, clever verbal expressions.

Grammar, good English and games of words were also an important part, at the time the audience believed the actor had no lives of their own and lived entirely through their characters. The plots were often complex, most of the time telling the story of the love affair of a young couple, but the hero has other mistresses.

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Between 1660 and 1708, there was many playwrights, and we could see a revolution. The characters were diminished; plays were more edified.

= > George Etherege, The Man of Mode = the hero is a rake and is involved in 3 affaires. + Fopling Flopper, mocked for his imitations of French manners. The author draws our intention to good & bad social manners.

= > William Wycherley, The Country Wife = like L’Ecole des femmes, the MC is a rake.

= > William Congreve, The Way of the World = his last, the evolution starts to be felt in this one. The plot is artificial : importance of reputation, witticism, extreme importance of dialogues (parallels, repetitions), scandals, pessimistic = image of the English class.

= > John Vanbrugh = more moralizing, less elitist & elevated language to be more understood by middle classes.

= > George Farquhar = like Vanbrugh.

There’s a turn at the beginning of the 18^th century.

In 1698 = J. Collier, A Short View of the Immorality & profaneness of the English Stage. It denounced the immorality of plays. These plays fell out of fashion and were replaced by sentimental comedies. There was a revival of Comedies of Manners at the end of the 18^th century (1770s) with Oliver Goldsmith & Sheridan (The School for scandal & The rival, he wanted the restauration of comedies of manners).

CONCLUSION : Comedies of manners are not to criticize society, it isn’t political. Its more to make you laugh and draw the spectator’s attention to the importance of social manners.

1. THE AUGUSTAN SATIRE

The 18^th century is known as the “Age of Satire”, it strongly influenced literature. The term “Augustan” is used as a synonym of “classical”, expression of stability and conservative society, with the return Charles I from FR.

Augustan’s literature was inspired by classical Greek roman models, like Horace, Ovide, … These writers were translated to English in the 18^th c. Dryden => Virgil’s Aeneid // Pope => The Iliad.

It was characterized by refinement, elegance, perfectly suited style to the theme.

Augustan verse is made of couplet => a unit of two lines in poetry, we can find satire in them & it is in iambic pentameter : a style of writing in poetry where each line is 5 feet long. Each foot contains two syllables, one is stressed and second is unstressed; each line carry ten syllables : five stressed and five unstressed.

Ex : “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day ?” => Shall + I / com + pare / thee + to / a + sum / mer’s + day.

Satire is the art of criticizing a subject by making it ridiculous and showing indignation, laughter is used as a weapon : caricature and irony (= implicit meaning). In an ironical text, the language and style of a character are taken, reproduced but only to be mocked.

2 kinds of satire :

• Personal, to defend political ideas and attack your enemies, to discover everybody’s face but their own.

• Universal, targeting a whole class.

A large part of the Augustan satire was in verbs, it was moralizing. Pope’s essays reflect the main values of men, he attacked declining cultural standards. Women were harshly criticized but there were also women satirists, like Lady Mary Montagu.

The most famous satirist is Johnatan Swift. He wrote more general satire, his most famous is A description of the Morning, it which he takes the most famous topos, revealing what’s taking place with the morning light, but the sun reveals a young chimneysweep preparing for work, a group of schoolboys, convicts coming back to prison. = more realistic description, criticizing the ills of society. His most famous work is Gulliver’s travels. He is of Irish origins and at the time Ireland had been colonized by the English and there was much poverty, his solution would solve the problem of overpopulation : sell them to the higher classes & eat them.

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At the time = so much poverty, it was linked with the English trade restrictions. Swift pretends to give a solution in order to fight against the dreadful living conditions in Ireland.

= > Description of the poverty, children in rags, people stealing, importuning, in need of help.

He propose the make them useful by fattening them and selling them to the British landowner and improve the economy.

How is it a satire ? At the beginning, he fills his description with reckoning of how to take care of a child and makes the proposal as if it were logical.

= > figures, arithmetic to show its logical.

= > looks like a recipe in lines 10 to 12.

= > on the other hand : obscenity of the proposal.

= > very serious, how to do it, with who, ect…

= > some to breed, other to be eaten, compared to animals.

= > Irish Catholics ≠ English protestants = get rid of their religious enemies.

= > He’s not expecting anyone to take this seriously, the idea is to shock people.

= > “for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents” = metaphor, they’ve already taken everything to the parents. Lateralization of the metaphor with the kids, double edged word.

= > It’s a way of shaming the profitable status of the English towards the Irish.

= > Satire : based on irony, rigorous logic, used of reckoning for the reader to agree and makes the conclusion even more horrible.

= > He makes the proposal in an apparently naïve manner.

= > Also suggest filling pillows with hair, make gloves, …

Satire is also present in the 18^th c’s novels. The influence of satire can be felt in many, ex : Fielding, Swift.

• SATIRE IN VISUALS ARTS

Some were influenced by literary works and the techniques used are similar to those in literary satire.

Wealthy men would go to Italy and bought back macaroni, so they were called the macaroni club.

Hogarth made series showing the various stages of a story of one character like a BD.

The Mariage Settlement > The Tête à Tête > The Inspection > The Toilette > The Bagnio.

1. THE RISE OF THE NOVEL

The genre that dominated was the novel, it was mostly about the quest of knights and princesses, chivalric, courtly love, supernatural events. The novel was a reaction against this, unlike romances the novel meant realism. The story told was based on the illusion that it was true, the characters were now middle class, peasants. The events were very close to real life so they should be familiar to the reader. ≠ traditional.

The criteria used to judge literary works until then had been the conformity to trad practices. Before, plots were derived from mythology, legends while novels focused on individual experiences. The characters are individualized with the use of ordinary names = no longer types of characters. Novels are rooted in historical context and aren’t timeless. = rising individualism.

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Princess + knights => middle classes. + rise of capitalism.

= > circulating libraries : number of reading increased bc it became cheaper, reading became popular, form of entertainment, more demand for easier works than poetry for instance. The number of religious also increase/decrease. The novel had a bad reputation even in new literary forms, it wasn’t treated seriously, and the writers were ashamed. => linked to the fact that it was written for entertainment and not “serious works”.

The public was middle class and not the literaty since it broke away from tradition. A number of writers published anonymously and tried to justify their work with and edifying aspect in their stories. Writers feared the critics and evaded from the name of “novel”, by calling them “romances” for instance.

It wasn’t born in the 18^th century; the first author was Aphra Behn writing love letters in the 1680s. But the popularity really rose only during the first part of the 18th century.

• TRAVEL NARRATIVES

The 18^th c was marked by the interest in travel and imaginary travels, influenced by colonialism. The British Empire was expanding, the dev of The Grand Tour, interest in foreign land, fascination for the unknown = travel diaries were published. In the 18th c, there was confusion between authentic and fictitious travel diaries bc the readers had no knowledge of the country in the novels. 2 kinds of travel literature :

• One focusing on the country discovered and the protagonist remains a spectator : more authentic, make the reader discover new lands and their specificities.

• Focusing more on the hero and what’s happening to them, usually stories of survival underlining the hero’s resilience in a hostile world.

• Swift, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne.

• Defoe

He was really prolific : poetry, political pamphlet, spy, travel narratives & novels. The two most famous novels : Moll Flounders (1722) and Robinson Crusoe (1780). Crusoe was a huge success and was translated in many foreign languages. It was inspired by a true story, the one of Alexander Selkirk, who was a sailor and was abandoned on the island of Juan Fernandes in 1705 and was rescued in 1709. He wrote an account of his adventure, and it served as inspiration for Defoe. He changed the story a little ; the island was in the Atlantic Ocean & the whole narration is presented like a true story.

Defoe had an important role in defining the genre of the novel. In all his works he insists on the authenticity of his stories, giving the impression of realness.

How would he give this impression ?

• 1rst person narrator

• Direct discourse & straightforward

• No attempt of organising, Defoe reproduced the lack of order of our thoughts/impressions, no good idea on the passing of time.

• Technical details, ex : lists of all the objects he finds in the ship & how the days go by (weathers, ect…)

= > impression of witnessing the experience itself and being with Crusoe.

Crusoe comes from the middle classes, making it easy to identify to him.

The values :

The book embodies the values of the middle class ; hard work, temperance, living frugally, saving money, progress through labour, free enterprise, individualism, capitalism, protestant spirit. It’s thanks to his energy & hard work that Crusoe survives.

At the beginning of the novel, Crusoe rebels against the authority of his parents who defends values of honest living & hard work. He becomes a sailor and shipwrecks, like a punishment for his rebellion & kind of baptism since he becomes a new man on the island and opens up to more spiritual life, importance of effort & patience. => can be compared to The Pilgrim’s Progress by Bunyan.

The novel also develops the spirit of conquest ; Crusoe becomes king of his island. Reason must organise and purify nature, Crusoe becomes responsible of Friday => idea of white men who have the duty of protecting the slaves with their superiority and wisdom, bring civilization. => justification for colonisation.

Crusoe was so popular that he inspired many authors, and the Robinsonnade (see def in the handout de ses morts) was known as a new subgenre, used to glorify god & imperialism.

• Swift, Gulliver’s travels

Strong satirical writing, comments on society, occasion for satire. => like Les Lettres Persannes de Montesquieu.

The hero goes through 4 different adventures : Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa & Houyhnhnm Land.

= > ability to keep distance with what he’s confronted with & see things from a critical perspective.

= > Swift was a Tory, so he attacks the king in the novel (George I).

In the first travel, Gulliver discovers the vanity of the little people which is turned into ridicule by Gulliver’s actions. In the 2^nd travel, Gulliver himself becomes ridiculous due to his size, he find himself in degrading situations. On the 3^rd travel, crazy scientists are interested only in maths and music & act as tyrants bc they lower their island on another island = criticize oppression of the English on Ireland & slavery. In the 4^th travel, Gulliver encounters the Houyhnhnm & the Yahoos = importance of reason on passion.

= > tyranny, lack of reason, lack of passion, importance of restraint and moderation.

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• EPISTOLARY NOVEL

The epistolary form existed before the 18th c, its founder in English is James Howell and the first novel was Love Letter between a Nobleman and his Sister by Aphra Behn. But the genre began to flourish in the 18th c, which can be associated with the rise of letter writing for the upper classes as a past time and many correspondences were published. Conduct books were books meant to teach young people (girls really) how to behave and took the form of letters written to children.

An epistolary novel contains one or more than one character and at least one who speaks in 1rst person, the narrator assesses their subjectivity. It implies a dynamic of interaction between addresser and addressee and a bit of manipulation when informing the addressee. It’s in private and their various aspects tend to make epistolary novels ambiguous. Readers may have doubts concerning the aims of the narrator and the veracity of what they say. + problems of communication played on, what Michel Serres calls “parasite”, like intercepting letters or forging letters.

Towards the middle of the 18^th c, we could find 2 opposed visions of the novel :

• Samuel Richardson’s pov : he believed that the interest of novels didn’t lie in the story but in the analysis of

characters’ sentiments at the expense of actions. So, he used the epistolary form where the characters feelings are conveyed directly.

Richardson is famous for 2 epistolary novels : Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded + Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady.

Pamela tells the story of a young woman who works as a servant for Mr. B, who tries to take advantage of her. However, she manages to keep her virtue unmolested and leads him to marry her.

Clarissa is a darker version, a virtuous woman who comes from the middle classes and is raped by an aristocrat called Lovelace and kills herself. Lovelace dies too.

At the time it was published, Pamela was subversive bc it showed that the value of a person was due to their qualities and not to their birth and shows an evolvement from middle classes to upper classes.

There’s bad and good characters, the good are rewarded & the bad are punished. However, you realize that the characters are more ambiguous than they seem, and this is achieved thanks to the epistolary form.

There are no omniscient characters, so the reader only gets the characters’ pov/consciousness, but the text may reveal their unconscious emotions or desires. The 2 mc are in love with their persecutors (c degueulasse). In the epistolary novel, many things are left unsaid => have to deduce them, since you cannot speak of them directly in the 18^th century like sexuality. Ex : in Clarissa, the rape is not described or mentioned, only in a letter of Lovelace.

Richardson has become famous for developing the aesthetic of writing to the moment. Characters write their letters in between 2 actions and sometimes in difficult circumstances, it contributes to increasing the dramatic tension as the narrator underlines the difficult circumstances of the character. + immediate rendering, the purpose is to give spontaneous rendering of the events, to convey the character’s feelings & it makes possible to explore the evolution of these feelings. It’s a way for the text to mirror the interior life of the characters, it contributes to psychological realism. The subjectivity of the letters forces the reader to play an active role in the understanding of the truth, through comparison of the povs, especially when the retelling of events are not the same. Ex : two views of Ranelagh.