Literary History + 17/18th century Flashcards
(30 cards)
What is Literary History?
a phenomena of study which can be broken down into:
- the historical object
- representation of the historical object (historiography)
What is the historical object?
Literary facts, people, events from a period -> writers + their texts, aesthetic trends of the time, literary institutions and the market
also how those institutions censored or marginalized certain writers
What is the representation of the historical object (historiography)?
the presentation and reconstruction of the historical object into a narrative
What are some functions of Literary History?
- Transforms isolated, monadic data into an orderly and accessible story
- places literary trends within larger aesthetic movements
- provides historical innerliterary context (norms during a period)
- unearths, evaluates and appreciates texts
Trends in Literature (i.e. realist novels) often follow developments in painting, music which are linked to social movements
gages their relevance & historical impact and introduces them to a modern readership
What is the historical innerliterary context of Literary History?
the norms during a period so that we can assess what is new, innovative, specific, unique, original about a text
What is the major function of Literary History?
explains literature as an active player in the historical process and as inextricably bound up with its surrounding historical contexts
How is literary a Fiction?
- theory-driven (aesthetic, political, ..)
- uses narrative pattern or emplotment (orders historical facts into a logical storyline)
- process of selection and construction (selects authors and texts, dates and events which are relevant to a period -> final selection known as the ‘canon’, constructs chronological, casual and teleological timeline, constructs epochs and genres)
epochs = diachronic dimension; genres = synchronic dimension
What is important to remember about Literary History as a Fiction?
- it is a construction, not a reconstruction -> there is no true account of literary history i.e. the canon is a construction (writers are written in and out)
- dependent on historical/social/ideological position of the historian
- determined by cultural context
- subject to change and development
Basically, the authors are “constructed” to be included in a picture of recognizability. Women were excluded in writing for eternities but everyone knows Dickinson now -> because it was constructed to fit in that period
How is Literary History constructed?
through methods of master narratives, emplotment, selection and construction
-> is problematic though
Why is it problematic that Literary History is constructed?
- Narratives that don’t fit the master mold are left out (e.g. women)
- Values certain writings and devalues others
that’s why there is a gap
What does the canon do?
- defines & perpetuates collective identity and shared values
- creates a “culture’s literary sense of self”
important for emerging nations e.g. post-colonial societies
What are the General Models of Literary History?
- Extrinsic -> focus on contextual factors
- Intrinsic -> focus on aesthetic, innerliterary factors
New extrinstic approaches as sythesis:
Literature as social practice; social functions interact with literary conventions; complex reciprocal relationship between the social and the aesthetic
What major periods are extrinsic?
- Old English - Early Modern Period
- Enlightenment
- Victorian Period
What major periods are intrinsic?
- Renaissance
- Neoclassical Period
- Romantic Period
- Modernist Period
- Postmodernist Period
What is Foucault’s Concept of Episteme?
A system of internalized norms or underlying ideologies that prevent us from experiencing the world around us in raw truth.
- discursive formation which enables/shapes experience
- historically determined organisation of knowledge and thought
- structures the way we make sense of the world
- is internalised by individuals
- operates at an unconscious level
- is contingent and changes over time
There is no way for us to perceive
naturalness or truth without the filter
of our own experiences,
preconceptions, and culturally
constructed ideas.
What is the extrinsic factor of Erotic Poetry in the Restoration Age?
- Restoration: 1660-1700
- King Charles II restored to the throne after War of 3 Kingdoms
- Religion moved away from Puritanism to Church of England
What is the intrinsic factor of Erotic Poetry in the Restoration Age?
- Break free from Puritan censorship
- Theaters re-opened -> restoration drama
- Era of poetry
- Poems affected political events and reflected the times
English epic poem (Milton) developed
Royalist poetry
Erotic- libertine poetry (obscenity, wit, satire)
When was the Age of Enlightenment?
1660-1800
What is the Age of Enlightenment?
- the age of reason (reason over faith/religion)
- core values: liberty, progress, reason, tolerance, ending abuses of church and state
- knowledge was not longer accepted from classical/authoritative sources
- scientific revolution: empiricism, questioning religious dogmas, Newton
- philosophs: Voltaire, Adam Smith, John Locke, Descartes
What happened in the English Civil War?
Cavaliers fought with the Roundheads
What did the Cavaliers stand for?
- were royalists
- supported the divine right of King
- supported Anglican Church
- gentry
- country
- England
- wore expensive clothes, round wigs
What did the Roundheads stand for?
- party of a strong parlament
- puritan party
- City
- Scotland
- wanted radical Church
- greater priority to moral and religious discipline
- simple shoes, short hair
Why did the Glorious Revolution happen?
James II was a Catholic and wanted to restore Catholicism -> they called in Protestant William of Orange
What are some important documents?
- Bill of Rights (1689) -> cemented sovereignity of parliament, election of parliament, parliament has to be held frequently
- Act of Settlement (1701) -> determined that the crown MUST BE Anglican
- Magna Carta (1689) -> even Monarch was bound by law
