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Literature Survey 2 > Classicism, Restoration Comedy & Robinson Crusoe > Flashcards

Classicism, Restoration Comedy & Robinson Crusoe Flashcards

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1
Q

What happened in Classicism in the long 18th century?

A
  • rediscovery and re-evaluation of classic antiquity (Greek, Latin works)
  • interested in philosophy, theory and fictional literature
  • Alexander Pope
  • Samual Johnson wrote first English dictionary
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2
Q

What are the four doctrines of classicist aesthetic trends?

A
  1. imitatio naturae (=imitating nature)
  2. imitatio veterum (=imitating old poets)
  3. aptum (=aptness of style)
  4. decorum (=decency)
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3
Q

What does nature mean in a classical context?

imitatio naturae = copy nature

A
  • general, universal cosmic order
  • static system
  • may be understood rationally

does not mean beauty of ecological environment
does not mean pretty flowers, green grass and trees

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4
Q

What is human nature in an 18th century context?

A
  • 4 personality types
  • 4 liquid humours
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5
Q

What are the 4 personality types of human nature?

imitatio naturae

A
  • sanguine
  • choleric
  • melancholic
  • phlegmatic
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6
Q

What are the 4 liquid humours in human nature?

imitatio naturae

A
  • blood
  • yellow bile
  • black bile
  • phlegm
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7
Q

What is imitatio veterum and its characteristics?

A

= to copy the old poets
- no innovation, creativity, originality needed to make good literature
- mimesis achieved not through direct observation but following classical authors’ example and their aesthetic rules
- literature should express already accepted ideas in elegant, witty and easily memorizable form

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8
Q

What is aptum and its characteristics?

A

=Ständeklausel/aptness of style
- appropriateness of style
- poetic object (subject-story) should match the form
- 3 objects of mimesis: res magnae, res mediae, res parvae

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9
Q

What is the style and genres of res magnae?

A

= about kings and heroes
- style: genus sublime, poetic diction, verse, serious
- genres: tragedy, epic

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10
Q

What is the style and genres of res mediae?

A

= about middle classes
- style: genus medium, elegant, wit, mostly verse
- genres: high comedy, poetry (elegy, sonnet)

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11
Q

What is the style and genres of res parvae?

A

= about peasants
- style: genus humile, simple spoken language, prose
- genres: low comedy (farce), idyll, eclogue (=poetry)

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12
Q

What is poetic diction?

A

= elevated style distinguished from common speech
- rhetorical figures
- paraphrases
- long-winded euphemisms for low subjects
- circumlocution
- personification
- Latin terminology

feathered songster = bird = long-winded euphemisms

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13
Q

What is Circumlocution?

A

the use of many words where fewer would do

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14
Q

What is Decorum and its characteristics?

A

= decency (avoid discussion of bodily functions)
- no description of eating/drinking other than wine
- no description of bodily excrements/fluids
- no sickness, no dying
- no sex talk

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15
Q

What should Decorum concentrate on?

A
  • la belle nature
  • higher vision of reality
  • classicist imitatio naturae (=highly selective concept of reality)
  • all that is beautiful and harmonious
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16
Q

Who wrote “The Country Wife” and what is it?

A
  • by William Wycherley
  • published in 1675
  • a Restoration Comedy
  • social satire
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17
Q

What are some characteristics of the Restoration Comedy?

Study These Flashcards
A
  • sexual explicitness
  • very topical writing
  • crowded and bustling plots
  • first professional actresses
  • rise of celebrity actors
18
Q

What are some details about Restoration Comedy?

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A
  • 1660-1710
  • Protagonists win -> happy endings represent an end to chaos and restoration to order
  • good guys: usually younger, progressive
  • bad guys: usually older, represent decrepit and hypocritical values
  • audiences diverse: aristocrats, servants, middle class
19
Q

What are some stage innovations in Restoration Comedy?

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A
  • enclosed spaces
  • sexual licentiousness
  • real women on stage -> considered public property
  • reverse cross dressing
  • place of ill-repute (orange women = prostitutes)
  • weak ‘fourth wall’
20
Q

What are general tendencies of Restoration Comedy?

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A
  • Victory of younger generation (=Spring) over older (Winter)
  • teleology is towards marriage and social cohesion
  • tendency to dialogue
  • female characters are prominent and active
  • lots of puns (sexual innuendo), excluding laughter
  • fate is not predestined, choices have values

love triangles dissolved into love couples, characters devise intrigues to overcome obstacles and blocking characters

21
Q

Why is “The Country Wife” not a typical comedy?

Study These Flashcards
A
  • Teleological plot fails: love triangles do not all resolve in marriage (=breaks status quo)
  • Sympathy lies with central rake (=Mr. Horner) -> no poetic justice

it was the most radical daring restoration comedy

22
Q

What is the most important skill for characters to navigate within a Restoration Drama?

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A
  • No poetic justice (bad guys win, few positive characters, social cynicism)
  • driving goals: sex, power, money, marriage
  • required skill: wit
23
Q

What is wit?

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A
  • linguistic, rhetorical & social skill
  • natural ability, can’t be imitated by the witless
  • manipulative
  • quick repartee
  • striking similes or metaphors
  • helps to not lose face/ hides feelings
  • a means to maintain gentility
24
Q

Why were Restoration Comedy plays written?

Study These Flashcards
A
  • to reassert aristocratic dominance
  • ‘dramatic’ power struggle of classes played out in sexual terms
  • wit comes naturally to aristocrates
  • to humiliate the Middle Class
25
How did plays reaffirm the aristocratic class?
- plays based on aristocratic norms - idealize aristocratic public spheres of London - attractive characters - no moral, only aesthetic restrictions
26
Which stock characters are found in "The Country Wife"?
- Wit = rake = Mr. Horner - Witwould = fop = Mr. Sparkish - Cuckold = Mr. Pinchwife - Country bumpkin & cit = Mrs. Pinchwife - witty couple = Mr. Fidget - romantic couple = Arithea & Mr. Harcourt - scheming servants = Lucy
27
Sentimental Comedy was created after Restoration Comedy, what does it celebrate?
Middle Class norms and rejects aristocratic value system
28
What are some facts about Robinson Crusoe?
- written by Daniel Defoe - published in 1719 - epistolary and narrative form - move away from heroic aesthetics to realism (from aristocrats to everyday life & style is simple, fact-based, direct, many details)
29
What were the characteristics of old novels?
- vernacular lyric or prose (not Latin) - improbable characters and events (Kings, wars, supernatural stuff) - Arthurian tales (folk tales, no originality) - war & courtly love - characters lacked perspectivity, psychological depth
30
What is the story level of the new novel?
- Original plots - Probability - Contemporary reality; on daily lives of ordinary people
31
What is the Discourse Level of the new novel?
- serious portrayal of Middle Class - detailed descriptions - fake authenticity - transparent discourse vs. flowery language - combo of fictional and non-fictional forms (travelogue, diary, devotional book) - pragmatic justifications: didactic message ## Footnote tradition-free language: no Greek or Latin Colloquial language Referential language vs. aesthetic
32
What are the features of the new novel according to Paul Hunter?
1. Contemporaneity: stories of here and now 2. Credibility + probability: believable characters and events 3. Familiarity: everyday existence 4. Rejection of familiar plots: freedom from stereotypes and turn against universality 5. Tradition-free language: "consciously unliterary" 6. Individualism, Subjectivity: "quality of self-consciousness or "intensified consciousness" 7. Empathy + vicariousness: ability to identify or relate to protagonistt 8. Coherence + unity of design: continous action, theme or governing idea 9. Inclusivity, digressiveness, fragmentation: ability to deviate 10. Self-consciousness about innovation and novelty
33
What does the title page of Robinson Crusoe "Strange and Surprising Adventures" tell?
- combines autobiography, travelogue, adventure story - Individualism (repeated emphasis on solitariness/self-reliance) - Empiricism (external facts, numbers, years, places) - Fake-authenticity (pretends to be real) - Anti-classist (middle class protagonist) - Original | empiricism adds to probability
34
What are some of the mental & social factors seen in Robinson Crusoe that shaped the new novel?
- Individualism - Puritanism (directly accountable to God) - Capitalism (pursuit of profit) - Empiricism - Middle class reading public ## Footnote capitalism -> both factors stress importance of autonomous individual
35
What happened during the European Protestant Reformation?
- Calvanism -> God as Sovereignity - led to English Civil War - Book of Common Prayer - Church of England -> Anglicanism
36
What is Anglicanism?
- political influence of Henry 8th - keeping money away from Rome - keeping foreign influence out - Church of England - back to mildly protestant - middle ground between Catholics and radical protestant reformers
37
Who were the Puritans?
- diverse group of radical protestants who refused to swear to Anglican Church, as it was still too Catholic - Social utopians with a pioneer rhetoric - fanatical seekers of salvation
38
What did Puritans want?
- to purify the Protestantism - piety (more personal and group holiness, saintliness, devoutness) - doctrine of sovereign grace
39
Why is Robinson Crusoe a Coloniser?
- he comes to the island and says its his - saves slave on Friday and calls him that and he is his only friend but insists that Friday calls him Master - "England's way is God's way"
40
How is Puritanism depicted in Robinson Crusoe?
- spiritual predestination - God designs fate - "what pleases God, European, his grain.."
41
What is different in Robinson Crusoe?
- detailed description (as oppossed to Classicism) - transparent language - familiarity - autodiegetic narrator: tactic for creating authenticity
42
An important scene is the prodigal son in Robinson Crusoe, why?
- typically puritan: clear signs from God - Father: static, old values, accepts position in life - Son: proto-capitalist, aspiring, adventurous ## Footnote Now I saw plainly the goodness of his observations about the middle station of life, how easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days, and never had been exposed to tempests at sea or troubles on shore; and I resolved that I would, like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my father

Literature Survey 2 (4 decks)

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