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UNIT 5. ENLIGHTENMENT.
AUGUSTAN LITERATURE
▲ Increasing number of people moving to the cities.
▲ 1 st^ stages of Industrial Revolution.
▲ People abandoned rural areas and began to work in cities; they began to participate in public life.
▲ Consolidation of a new social class: bourgeoisie.
Middle-upper class conformed by merchants, businessmen... people with economic power that had different interests that the aristocracy. In fact, the bourgeoisie began to question why they had to pay taxes to maintain this class. At the same time, the English continued being the most powerful country. They were also recognized as an intellectual power. Many people gained money in England going to Africa, taking slaves and taking them to North America (slave-trade).
Rousseau Voltaire defended aristocracy. He considered that it should be maintained. He believed in equality, that people were different. Rousseau distrusted the aristocracy because they were opposed to theatre and believed in equality upon human beings.
More and more people began to take part in the economic and social life, because they were more prepared (they could read and write).
Men used to meet at social places called Coffee Houses. They read newspapers and discussed political, cultural and economic life. Newspapers gave people the opportunity to comment and debate on the news. They did not separate fact from fiction.
Women, specially the bourgeoisie ones, were also educated and had time to read. Women usually met in more private rooms at home called boudoirs. They read newspapers and novels. A famous newspaper for women was The Female Spectator.
The circulating libraries were institutions where people could borrow books. Initially, were private. The public library was founded in the 19 th^ century. People had to belong to a certain society so that they could have access to the books. In the 18 th
century, the practice of serial publications began.
Serial Publication instalments: the publication of books, chapter by chapter. It gave the authors a rough idea about the taste of the people, so they could change the plots of each chapter.
NOVEL
▲ Historical
✓ Decadence of theatre
✓ Alphabetisation
✓ Circulating Libraries
✓ Serial publications
▲ Formalists
✓ National
✓ Continental
ANTECEDENTS OF THE NOVEL
a) In the English literary tradition (writings in prose). Formalists looked in the past for antecedents of the novel and paid attention to the formal aspect.
b) In the continental literary tradition: the Quixote and Spanish Picaresque Literature were translated to English.
Many writers opted to write novels to avoid the taxes that newspapers were forced to pay. A series of authors began to write any type of texts and they had two options: fantastic romances or more realistic accounts focusing on the life of contemporary individuals. So, two types of texts were written in this period: novels and romances.
ROMANCES
▲ Set in a distant, idealised past
▲ Based on the epic
▲ Set in remote and exotic location
▲ Depict the life of aristocracy and designed for an upper-class reader
▲ Long and episodic
▲ Value the preservation of virtue and chastity
▲ Written in 3rd^ person
NOVELS VS GOTHIC ROMANCES
The plot of the Gothic Romances: the setting takes place in distant places such as Italy, Spain and France with imposing buildings like castles where a violent character lives surrounded by wild nature.
The plot usually includes a young heroine. She discovers strange events, ghostly appearances, she’s in damage. She’s far away from her natural place. This type of literature has been revised and studied from the 1980’s onwards.
One group interprets this type of literature in negative terms considering that this type of novels criticised patriarchal pre-modern societies such as France, Italy or Spain in which violence, danger and wildness prevalue. Women are threatened and afraid of the main characters.
Another group of critics, considered that this texts offered an opportunity to enjoy freedom, to visit faraway places and to express in direct and vain way thing that could not be openly discussed in literature at that time.
GOTHIC ROMANCES
▲ Critics realised that these text were famous.
▲ They were widely read and women contributed to the cause
▲ Two types of visions: negative and positive
- Negative: rejection to the patriarchal, aristocratic, catholic communities.
- Positive: women could enjoy freedom and developed their imagination. Often female readers/writers had an opportunity to live what alternative lives in faraway environments. If they found themselves threatened they usually escape from that situation.
▲ They were written to speak on an indirect way about topics that were forbidden like sexuality.
▲ (^) They influenced the development of cinema. Gothic literature was used to deal with different topics but always with things that couldn’t be openly represented in literature.
▲ For ex. Ann Radcliffe, On the Supernatural in Poetry
▲ Women realized that on these types of texts they could talk about issues in a indirect way. At this time (s. XVII) the only way to talk about issues as domestic violence, sexuality, freedom to travel etc. was by these texts. Other topics were motherhood, ownership (dereito á herencia) and vindication of women rights.
▲ Mary Wolstoncraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women. It was a very early feminist text. She also wrote gothic texts. She criticises that women don’t have access to many things. She talks about this issue openly.
