TERM PAPER ON “GENEOLOGY OF GENTILE GOD’S” BY GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO

            Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), even though famous for his work ‘Decameron’, here the discussion takes place on ‘Genealogy of Gentile Gods.’ He was with Dante and Petrarch , a pioneer of Italian vernacular literature and of the humanism that would become the philosophical basis of the renaissance. It is an encyclopedic compendium in Latin if pagan mythology designed as a guide to the ancient poets. The 14^th and 15^th books of genealogy of gentile god’s, supports the poetry from the criticizers of the age. The discussion takes up to Plato’s ‘Republic’. Here, Boccaccio defends poetry against the medieval concepts and theologies given by the criticizers of the age.

           

Boccaccio was a son of a merchant called Boccaccino di Chelino, raised in Florence. As he got educated grammatically and literally, for practical bussiness training he was send to Naples to serve an apprenticeship. However as he preferred  aristocratic intellectual circles of the court of Robert of Anjou  to a lifetime. He began to mingle in courtly ,oclety and to write stories In verse and prose. He fell In love with a woman and wrote about an unattainable aristocratic woman he called Flammetta, who has been identified as Maria d'Aqulno, an illegitimate daughter of King Robert.

Boccaccio intended Genealogy of the Gentile Gods as a monumental work of scholarship,a mythological sourcebook that would introduce readers to this study of the ancient poets. His decision to write in Latin rather than Italian is a measure of its seriousness as a scholarly project. Books one to thirteen, mostly completed by 1360, contain Boccaccio's allegorical interpretations of Greek mythology. By the 1360s, however,he seemed to feel that some kind of defense of the ancient poets was necessary as well; to show that they were, as he writes in the first chapter of book 15" "really men of wisdom, their compositions full of profit and pleasure to the reader." Boccaccio's defense of poetry in books fourteen and fifteen compiles and arranges in a single document a series of arguments both for and against poetry that had been in Circulation for ·at least a thousand years. Together with Plato's Writing on poetry and ARISTOTLE's ‘Poetics’ which was not recovered in Europe until the fifteenth century, it provides the substance of Renaissance literary theory. The influence of the Genealogy's defense of poetry during the Renaissance is easily discernible, for instance, in Sir Philip Sidney's ‘Apology for Poetry’, published in England over two centuries later.

Unlike a straight forward reference book, the Genealogy is crossed by compromise and conflict-between utility and unity, reverence and ridicule, guilt and confidence, nostalgia and progressiveness, secularism and orthodoxy. For its early readers these conflicts seemed inevitable and the compromises exemplary. Both emerge precisely in the features of the book that contribute little to, or even hinder, its usefulness as a reference work-namely, in the metaphorical voyaging related in the proems of each book and in the idea of genealogy itself, the scheme that gives order both to the chaos of ancient mythology and to Boccaccio's book. It is not an overstatement that the Genealogy presents, alongside its mythological material, two plots, two historical itineraries, that struggle toward each other in time but never meet. In these plots, Boccaccio dramatizes his efforts as a mythographer and the historical discontinuity or rupture that both occasions and frustrates them.

Here the discussion mainly takes place on his three chapetrs of the fourteenth book in “GENEOLOGY OF GENTILE GODS” that is fifth, seventh and twelfth.

In the fifth chapter he talks about the false objections at the poets and their imputations. The rulers and upper status people of the age were giving importance to phylosophy at that age. It was a kind of sacred one. They kept it as if is is near to god, and the phylosophers a much bigger one. Boccaccio states that philosophy was given a position as god,( “Within a lofty throne, sits Philosophy, messenger from the very bosom of god.”) and  it is praised as ‘mistress’. Philosophy is given position near to god and praises it as a queen. It is clear that the age gave philosophy that much power that even noble people kept it as sacred. Philosophy usually deals with mother nature, the true good and  secrets of heaven. Like that those people gave a seat that give philosophy more important. It is said that if get into it, then reader would be ina devine place with devine mind, with speculations and knowledge. They praise it as something serious, honest and true huminity, that is taken for gods.

They praise philosophers as bounded with faith and doctrine of philosophy and they give the world full of their knowledge.

But there is also another group anoisy crowd of all sorts and coniditions.Some of these have resigned all pride, and live in watchful obedience to the injunctions of their superiors, in hopes that their obsequious zeal maygain them promotion.

But others there are who grow so elated with what isvirtually elementary knowledge, that they fall upon their great mistres tobes as it were with their talons, and in violent haste tear away a few shreds as samples then don various titles which they often pick up for aprice and as puffed up as if they knew the whole subject of divinity, they rush forth from the sacred house, setting such mischief afootamong ignorantpeople as only the wise can calculate. Yet these. rascals are sworn  conspirators against all high arts. First they try to counterfeit a good man they exchangetheir natural exression for an anxious careful one. They go about with downcast eye to appear inseparable from their thoughts. Their pace is slow to make the uneducated think that they stagger under an excessive weight of high speculation. They dress unpretentiously, not because they are really modest, but only to mask themselves with sanctity.

The philosophers has got this technnique to tell wonderfull things which they even do not know. And whatever they do not know, it is taken as something wrong or they ignore it. When they have caught inexperienced minds in traps, of this sort, they proceed boldly torange abouttown, dabble in business, give advice, arrange marriages, appear at big dinners,

dictate wills, act as executors of estates, and otherwise display arrogance unbecoming to a philosopher. And here they have this idea to make people think that they are masters andcall them ‘Rabbi’. Straightway theythrow off all restraint and become bold enough for anything.

           

It becomes a problem when they make fun of other genres, like poetry is treated by them as something absurd. Their comment upon poets is that they live in forests and lead a kind of life and it is just lack of manners. They say, besides that their poems are false, obscure, lewd and replete with absurd and silly tales of pagan gods, and that they make jove or zeus who was in point of fact an obscene and adulterous man, now that they have numerous kinds of names. They say poets are seducers of mind, they are prompters to crime and it is a crime to read poetry .  

Boccaccio regrets their theme and he objects supporting poets. He ward them off in his essay. As he is a writer he knows about being a writer. Thus he has his opinion. Here there is a section where it is found that Boccaccio prays to god to oppose those mad men who are against poetry and prays to give courage. He feels that he is weak and need strentgth.

In the seventh chapter he taalks on the definition of poetry, its origin and its function. He says poetry as a fervid and exquisite invention. It is something that is from bosom of  god  and a few would get the  lessing to get this  power. He feels it a gift for  rare of men. It is something which makes mind to imagine and convert ideas.

“This fervor of poesy is sublime in

its effects: it impels the soul to a longing for utterance; it brings forth strange

and unheard-of creations of the mind; it arranges these meditations in a fixed

order, adorns the whole composition with unusual interweaving of words

and thoughts; and thus it veils truth· in a fair and fitting garment of fiction. “

           

He give spoetry many meaning and praises it. He says that it can give energy and support to a king marshal them for war, launch whole fleets from their docks, attract women who are really pretty, could convey human facts, emotiond and dealing in a beautiful manner, subdue a criminal and and many things ike this.

            One fact he notices is that we write to those where our mind stimulates. And it is such a beauty it reaches to others and they also could enjoy what a writer or poet thinks. Liberal Art is both moral and natural, to possess a strong and abundantvocabulary, to behold the monuments and relies of the Ancients, to have in one's memory the histories of the nations, and to be familiar with the geography of various lands, of seas, rivers and mountains.

Places of retirement, the lovely handiwork of Nature herself, are favorable to poetry, as well as peace of mind and desire for wordly glory; the ardent period of life also has very often been of great advantage. If these conditions fail, the power of creative genius frequently grows dull and impose on others. Now since nothing proceeds from this poetic fervor, which sharpens and illumins the powers of the mind, except what is wrought all by art, for poetry is generally called an art. Poetry was origanated from greek word ‘poetes’.

He says poetry should be brief and not long and discriptive which makes reader too boring. And the name of art, as well as its artificial product, is derived from its effect. Cicero , an orator comments,

"And yet we have it on the highestand most learned authority, that while other arts are matters of science and formula and technique, poetry depends ,solely upon an inborn faculty, is evoked by a purely mental activity, and is infused with a strange supernal inspiration."

As this heard by people, they accepted poetry as a gift from god. And also accepted it as an effect converted into a beautiful masterpiece. According to Aristotle ‘poetry can create wonder by strange matter and expression as rhetoric should not’. And Boccaccio supporting him says rhetoric has also its part in literay works and it is also acceptable.

In the twelfth chapter he talks on obscurity of poetry was not causing for condemnation of poetry. As old rule of orators, where they say a speech must be simple and clear, people and upper class people critisiced as poetry also should be as a  speech. He says poets are sometimes obscure, but it is also a kind of way of expression. But when compairing to philosophers, how does they write something, it is also tough to understand.

There were people o support philosophers, but not for poets.

“Augustine,! a man of great sanctityand learning, and of such intellectual power that, without a teacher, as hesays himself, he learned many arts, besides all that the· philosophers :teach of the ten categories. Yet he·did not blush to admit that he could not understand the beginning of Isaiah. It seems that obscurities are not confined to poetry. Why then do they not critiCise philosophers·as well as .poets? Why do they hot say that the Holy Spirit wove obscure sayings into his works, just to give them ah appearance of .clever artistry?”

“To a half-blind man, even whenthe sun is shining its brightest, the sky looks cloudy. Some things are naturally so profound that not without difficulty can the most exceptional keenness in intellect sound their depths; like the.sun's globe, by which, before they can clearly discern it, str~ng eyes are sometimes repelled.”

Poets write and express which are hidden thoughts and beauty, thus they are  to be accepted. And readers of the age  opposed because they coulds grasp what the poet wrote and thus they need to show their regard. Philosophers were writing which cant be understood to people, then why poets can’t.

“As saith FrancisPetrarch in the Third Book of his ‘Invectives’, contrary to my opponents' supposition, "Such majesty and dignity are not intended to hinder those who wish to understand, but rather propose a delightful task and are designed to enhance the reader's pleasure and support his memory. What we acquire with difficulty and keep with care is always the dearer to us;" so continues Petrarch.

 He concludes by saying this that, when a reader  needs to understand a work, just repeat reading and try to get new meaning if one is not grasped.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ü  The Norton anthology of theory and criticism

ü  http://www.jstor.org/stable/462094

           

            

Assignment, Mimesis

Assignment

Krishna Darsan S S
I MA ECL

Mimesis

Introduction

Mimesis is one of the oldest and one among the fundamental terms in the literary theory. The term is said to have derived from the Greek term “mimesthai” which in adequately translates to “to imitate” or “to represent”. None of the translation of the word mimesis can encompass the complexity, range of attitudes and tradition of commentary it has inspired. Many    meanings,  attitudes  and  metaphors  that  mimesis  elicits  shows  its  significance  to  the western    literary  thought. The term mimesis was first introduced into the literary theory by the great Greek Philosopher Plato in his dialogue the Republic over two thousand years ago. He used this term to refer to the e physical act of imitating or mimicking something. Plato and his student Aristotle, another notable Greek philosopher extended this term which referred to this common human behaviour of imitation to the realm of artistic reproduction.

The meanings, attitudes and metaphors that mimesis elicits stands for demonstrates its significance n the western thought. The concept of art for at least the western culture is unimaginable without the theory of mimesis. Plato who introduced this term in his work Republic says that art is merely an imitation of reality. The 20^th century French philosopher Jacques Derrida said that,’ the whole history of the interpretation of the arts of letters has moved and been transformed within the diverse logical possibilities opened up by the concept of mimesis. The understanding of the Western theories of artistic representation is impossible without knowledge of mimesis.

The definition of mimesis has always been a a topic of discussion among the scholars. Plato and Aristotle distinguish mimesis from reality, but they dosent agree upon its  nature and effects. Plato  attacks  mimesis stating  the  negative  influence  of  artistic works  on  youth  and  links  mimesis with  extremes of human emotions. His  disciple  Aristotle  on  the  other  hand  defends  mimesis  according   to  many  of  the same  criteria  that  Plato  uses to discredit  it. 

Plato’s concept of mimesis

The Greek philosopher Plato gives the most influential account of Mimesis. Plato wrote about mimesis in both Ion and the Republic (Books II, III and X).The Republic also refers o a wide ranging political literary and ethical theories written around that period (380BC). He does not just comment upon the existing notion of mimesis but redefines art as essentially mimetic and as a representation of something else. The use of the word can be traced back to the fifth century but is rare before Plato adopted it in his work in the following century. French classical scholar Jean Pierre Vernant argues that Plato’s use of the word mimesis marks an important point in the history of Greek ideas of art. Prior to Plato, the Greeks believed or regarded the images and statues they used as the actualization of what they actually stood for. But Plato defined them as an illusion or representation of the deity thus putting forth the idea that art is an imitation of something that is real or image or imitation of something else. He thus at once makes and unmakes art.

The concept of mimesis is introduced by Plato as a potential threat to the ideals of justice and reason rather than as an aesthetic category. In the beginning of the dialogue the speaker Socretes proposes the construction of a city, which acts  a canvas for plato to propose and debate on the various theories he put forwards. Mimesis will be introduced in the course of the discussion of this city. The citizens of the city does their task, and Socretes realizes that ‘the healthy’ city he described would become a feverish city if there is no luxury. He introduces mimesis here as secondary and unhealthy. He describes it as a luxury not as a necessity. Plato separates mimesis from the real, rational and essential and equates it with pleasure and emotion. In book three Socrates and his auditors are seen worrying over the possibility of the guardians who are bound to protect the city turning inward and becoming a threat to the city itself. He tries to say that the art though entertains can corrupt the mind of its readers or viewers as it is lacks concern with morality, as it treats both virtue and vice alike. Though it is known that Plato stands against poetry, in the republic it can be noted that the narrator Socrates uses stories in education. The stories used in education are central to the training and thus must be used carefully as Socrates claims that artistic imitation invariably gets behavioural imitation. In addition to influence that mimesis has over the audience Plato continues to point out the effect it can have on the performer as well.

In the book ten he inquires into the oppositions between mimesis and reason. He bases his critiques on three grounds: reality of mimesis; the relationship of mimesis to knowledge; and the effects of mimesis on the emotions. He uses the analogy of mirror to mock the idea that art requires special skills and methods. He uses this analogy to argue that mimesis produces mere phantoms, not real things. He then uses another analogy to show that artist is not a creator of something but only reflects on something that is like the being, but is not being. The analogy of bed says that the artist’s bed is twice removed from that of the truth r the original as the real bed is created by the God, which the carpenter tries o imitate. Further the painter or the artist is inspired by this bed and tries to copy this to his canvas.

Aristotle’s concept of Mimesis

Poetic’s by Aristotle is often referred to as the counterpart to Plato’s Republic. It is his treatise on the subject of mimesis. He holds an entirely different view on Mimesis. Contrary to Plato’s view on Mimesis Aristotle defines mimesis as a craft with its own internal laws and aims. Aristotle is Plato’s disciple. Though he opposes and challenges Plato’s claims about the nature and effects of mimesis he does not question Plato’s basic assertion that art is essentially imitative. For Aristotle mimesis is a real thing that is worthy of critical analysis which relies on the framework set up by Plato.

Aristotle treats poetry “in itself”, not as a reflection of something else. He treats poetry as a natural object which can be subjected to philosophical inquiry. While the metaphors that Plato uses to prove his points are artificial or unnatural, for example, mirror and couch, the metaphors that Aristotle uses emphasises their similarity to natural objects. Throughout the work Aristotle borrows or modifies what Plato has already said or adds a distinction where Plato fails to make one. According to Plato the imitations made in poetry, painting and tragedy are essentially the same, but Aristotle cuts this argument by saying that they are different by the materials they employ. The painter for example uses figure and colour while the musician melody and rhythm, though these are all mimetic they use same tools in various combinations. Thus he portrays them, the artists as a maker, a craftsperson rather than as an imitator.

Aristotle offers another serious criticism on Plato’s description of the objects of imitation. While Plato treats men in action in poetry according to their good and bad over the audience, Aristotle classifies them as men of a higher or lower moral type. For him each artistic genre and each artist emphasizes one human type and the actions appropriate to it. The epic and tragedy presents people as better than what they really are, on the other hand comedy present them as worse. The third criticism that Aristotle opens upon Plato is on the manner of imitation. He says that the manner of imitation should not be judged on whether it reveals the poet or not but on its appropriateness to the nature on the material.

Aristotle, contradictory to Plato’s view on child’s imitation as a danger of mimesis uses it to affirm the naturalness of mimesis. He argues that poetry springs in a man’s mind from two sources. The first is the natural tendency of man to imitate things around him, which is implanted in him right from his childhood. He argues that man learn his earlier lessons through imitation or mimesis. This is a quality that differentiates him from the animals. He further notes that like children the adults also derive pleasure and knowledge form mimesis. He describes this as the second source of poetry. He observes that men often derive pleasure from viewing repelling and disgusting things around him like the dead bodies. Thus imitation gives us a fictional distance from the actual experience which would help us to learn whereas the in the actual scenario we might act emotionally. It thus provides us with an opportunity to look into human character.

Throughout Poetics one could see Aristotle’s effort to revalue Plato’s arguments and judgements. Similarly in chapter 6 of his Poetics he contradicts the arguments that Plato had against tragedy. While Plato tries to establish that the tragedies tries o play with our emotions at the expense of our rational faculties, Aristotle says that good tragedies are constructed rationally. He argues that even tragic emotions can be made predictable and reasonable. The tragic emotions which are aroused in the minds of the audience in the end are the result of the plot structure, and not just a catastrophic event at the end. Pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune and fear by ‘the misfortune of a man like ourselves’ are two essential tragic emotions that are aroused at the end of a tragic play.

Plato opposes tragedy by saying that the emotions that a tragedy produces are not grounded. Aristotle suggests that tragedy produces emotions rationally. Plato in his work argues that mimesis arouses emotions that are best be suppressed. Aristotle disarms this argument by saying that the tragedy would in turn lead to catharsis or purgation of the emotions. This purgation that man feels has therapeutic effect on him as he can experience them in his life without having to face the crisis for real. It offers them a chance for transformation.

Thus by bringing in the notion of purgation or catharsis which is beneficial Aristotle gives art and mimesis a primary and crucial function along with the arguments that it is natural, rational and educational.

Horace   and   Mimesis

                   Horace’s   conception of mimesis is different   from  that  of  Plato  and  Aristotle. He  shifts  the  object  of  imitation from  nature  to  the  ancient  Greeks   such  as  Homer  and  other  Greek    tragedians.  He makes  himself  clear  on   the  relationship   between  following   the  ancient   tradition  and  making  their  own  invention  in order  to  steer Roman poetry  to  the  eminence  of  that  of  its  Greek  counterpart.

Horace   gives  more  importance  to  imitation  of  the  ancient  Greek  and  is  less  bothered  about  the  contemporary  writers.  He  doesnot advocate  a  literal  translation  of  the  ancients, but  a  sort  of  re-creation  of  their  works, by  infusing  one’s  own  invention  with  the  tradition.   However  in  Ars  Poetica  he  reduce  the concept  of  mimesis  to  a  technical  process of  either  following  the  tradition  or  making  one’s  own  invention  based  on  literary  principles.

                  To  conclude  with  Horace  is  broadly  concerned  with  craftsmanship  of  writing  and  emphasizes  art  over  genius.

Mimesis in modern theories

The attack on mimesis by Plato begins with the childhood education, and persistently links mimesis with the problem of childhood education, and persistently links mimesis with extremes of human emotion. Aristotle defends mimesis according to many of the same psychological and anthropological criteria that Plato uses to discredit it. This ancient idea about the interrelation of mimesis and human nature has garnered interests in the minds of psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and theorists of race and gender in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Among the most important psychological theorists of mimesis in the later nineteenth century was the French sociologist Gabriel Tarde. In his major work, The Laws of Imitation (1890), Tarde defines imitation as a fundamental life force, one of the three great forms of ‘universal repetition’ that organize physical, biological and social life:

 ‘imitation plays a rôle in societies analogous to that of heredity in organic life or to that of vibration among inorganic bodies’
 (Tarde, 1962: 11).

Tarde has an expansive notion of imitation, which encompasses everything from the use of language to the spread of influential ideas, the institution of manners and even contagious laughter. Memory and habit are also forms of imitation. Tarde also regards imitation as socially progressive. Imitation begins in the family, where the father is a model for his children, but it soon spreads beyond the hierarchical structure of reproduction and inheritance. Everyone is allowed to imitate everyone else, and each individual can imitate different aspects of other groups or individuals. Imitation becomes an invisible and equalizing social bond that provides individuals with the means for greater personal expression:

 ‘the very nature and choice of these elementary copies, as well as their combination, expresses and accentuates our original personality’
(Tarde, 1962: xxiv).

In 17th and early 18th century conceptions of Aesthetic theory emphasized the relationship of mimesis to artistic expression and began to embrace interior, emotive, and subjective images and representations.  In the writings of Lessing and Rousseau, there is a turn away from the Aristotelian conception of mimesis as bound to the imitation of nature, and a move towards an assertion of individual creativity in which the productive relationship of one mimetic world to another is renounced.

Freud took up and powerfully developed Tarde’s suggestion that imitation is everywhere in human psychic life. For Freud, even our most deliberate thoughts and actions are governed by unconscious memories and desires. We reproduce aspects of our past in our everyday relationships with others, as well as in our dreams at night. Freud was also a careful reader of Aristotle, and called his earliest therapeutic technique the ‘cathartic method’, because it sought to purge a patient’s painful memories through hypnosis.

Theorists of race and imperialism have offered  similar analysis of the mimetic foundations of identity. The pivotal figure here is the psychoanalyst and anti-colonial theorist Frantz Fanon. In his book, Black Skin, White Masks (1952), Fanon explores the formation of racial identity in the context of colonial domination. His specific point of reference is the psychic state of blacks in the French Antilles. Drawing on the Freudian theory of identification, Fanon argues that the colonial relationship is metaphorically akin to that between parent and child: the native is a ‘child’ in relation to the ‘mother country’.

In 20th century approaches to mimesis, authors such as Walter Benjamin, Adorno, Girard, and Derrida have defined mimetic activity as it relates to social practice and interpersonal relations rather than as just a rational process of making and producing models that emphasize the body, emotions, the senses, and temporality.

Conclusion

The theory of mimesis formulated by the great Greek thinker Plato and further developed by his disciple created a diverse realm of thought where the later thinkers and artists live and breathe. Even when they do not agree with particular formulations in Plato or Aristotle, they still perform, willingly or not, on the stage these thinkers built. After Plato and Aristotle many popular thinkers have contributed to the theory of mimesis. The arguments and research on this theory is still continuing around the globe. Mimesis is the inescapable conceptual medium of Western thinking about art, artists and audiences, and about their relationship to broader currents in human psychology and collective life.

Bibliography

1. Potolsky, Matthew. Mimesis, New Delhi: Routledge, 2006.

2. Aristotle, Aristotle’s Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, trans. S. H. Butcher: New York: Dover, 1951

3. Derrida, Jacques.  Dissemination: University of Chicago Press 1981

4. Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Princeton: 

Princeton UP, 1953

5. Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A glossary of literary terms, New York Cengage Learning, 2011.

5. Benjamin, Walter. Reflections, New York: Schocken Books, 1986

Enlightenment, Salmanul Faris. K

ASSIGNMENT

ENLIGHTMENT

                                          

Salmanul Faris. K
I MA ECL

“Reason is natural revelation”

 -John Lock

The term ‘Enlightenment’ is a term which refers to an intellectual movement of the 1700s which was widespread whole over the European continent. It marks the shift from predictive notion of knowledge to that of a deductive one.From the previous time, contrast to the superstitious views and irrational thinking it shifted to reason. It argued the state of human life could be improved through knowledge and reason. The enlightenment movement subsequently shows light to romanticism.

The enlightenment thinkers did not advocate any common ideal or philosophy. The idea of individualism and the importance of rational thinking brought them together. The Scientific Revolution had begun by the fourteenth century; it was merely seen as a creation of God. Otherwise, it was considered unorthodox. The question on authority of religion and faith were punishable, church and other religious institutions were enjoyed their power and occupy control over the people and their lives.

It is visible; the enlightenment era had followed the neoclassicism.  On other hand the Enlightenment period overlaps with the neoclassical age.  This period takes it name from the restoration of the Stuart to the England throne in 1600, at the end of the commonwealth lasting till 1700. The early puritan regime reflected in the literature of the period. Two central concepts of the neoclassical literary theory and practice were imitation and nature and these two are intimately related. In Renaissance, writers increasingly sophisticated individualism and exploration of subjectivity can be seen. Opposed to this the notion of imitation of the external world and of human nature was a reaffirmation of the ideals of impersonality and objectivity. But at the same time, imitation of classical models especially Homer and Virgil was integral to this notion. The relations of neoclassicism with recent science and things which consequently emerged as some of the core values of enlightenment are really paradoxical. There were neoclassical thoughts which were rooted in conservative ideals also. The major writers during this era were Alexander Pope, Aphra Behn, and Dryden etc.

The theaters was back to life after the cancellation of the ban placed by the puritan  in 1642. Sir George Etherege, William Wycherely , William Congreve and John Dryden developed the comedy of manners called Restoration comedy  .  Dryden , Thomas Otway  and the other playwright developed the tragedy called Heroic drama.

Dryden was the most dominating and most representative literary figure of that time, hence the age also referred as age of Dryden. Dryden occupied a place in English critical history . Samuel Johnson called him the ‘Father of English Criticism’ . He agreed Dryden on his Essay of Dramatic Poesy that modern English Prose begins here. In addition to the essay he wrote numerous prefaces, prologue which together set the stage for late poetic and critical development.

The eighteenth century English literature has been called the Augustan Age, the neoclassical Age and the Age of Reason. The original Augustan Age was the brilliant literary period of Virgil , Horace, and Ovid under the Roman Empire Augustus. The term was applied to the literary period in England from 1700 to 1745. Alexander pop  is associated with the age known as Augustine Age, portrays the fact that other writers such as Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe were influenced much more. The literature of this period which conformed to Pope’s aesthetic principle is distinguished by the striving for harmony and precision.

European politics, philosophy, literature and science were reoriented during the course of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries due to a phenomenon termed Enlightenment. It was an era marked by humanitarian, intellectual and social progress. Unlike the early period which gave importance to irrational prejudices and superstitions, thought began to be based on the rationality and freedom of an individual. More than a human faculty reason began to be seen as a way of life or a way of looking at the world.

Much of the Enlightenment thoughts owe to the new scientific vision of the universe inspired by the work of Isaac Newton. The historical perception of nature as created and controlled by a benevolent providence was dismantled by the scientific notion of a mechanical universe which could be comprehended through scientific laws. Reason was given importance even before the period of Enlightenment, but then people were taught to use reason within certain constraints put forward by the religion or society. During Enlightenment the difference was that reason began to be viewed as the primary faculty to acquire knowledge through its limitless application. English thinker Francis Bacon, the French rationalist philosopher Rene Descartes and the Dutch rationalist thinker Benedict Spinoza had influenced the Enlightenment ideals.

Major figures in this period are; Francis Bacon, famous English philosopher, propagated the method of introduction through his works. His major works include The Advancement of Learning and The Organonare.  . He advocated that the method of induction is a more authentic method than the method of deduction which was followed during the medieval age. This is a more scientific method because we apply reason to the observed facts than merely form random conclusions.

David Hume is one of the major figures of the Enlightenment. This Scottish philosopher  developed some of Locke’s empiricist notions toward more radical, skeptical, conclusions. His major philosophical works include A Treatise of Human Nature (1740), An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751) and Political Discourses (1752) etc. His works are generally considered as the manifesto of enlightenment.  Hume argued that we know only ideas, not the external world itself. According to him, external objects can be known only by the “perceptions they occasion,” and we can infer their existence only from “the coherence of our perceptions,” whether they indeed are real or merely “illusions of the senses.” Hume rejected the Aristotelian concept of “substance” as the underlying substratum of reality.  Hume's essay "Of the Standards of Taste," was published in his volume entitled Four Dissertations in 1757. The other three essays were on history of religion, the passions, and tragedy. It is a celebrated literary performance, and it bears suggestively on modern and contemporary debates about standards in criticism, reader-response theory, interpretive communities, and canon formation and it poses grave questions about the standards of aesthetic judgments of taste.

Giambattista Vico is an Italian Philosopher. In His writings he expressed a historical view of the progress of human thought, language, and culture. This particular thought anticipates the evolutionary perspectives of Hegel, Marx others. His major work was Scienza Nuova which was first published in 1725. He got his education in rhetoric and medieval philosophy.

Vico was a predecessor of systemic and complexity thinking, as opposed to Cartesian analysis. He is rightfully cast as a counter-Enlightenment thinker. He advocated rhetoric and humanism. His conjecture can be more easily understood by contrasting it with the Cartesian rationalism, especially the emphasis laid by Descartes on the geometric method.

 Alexander Pope, the author of “An Essay on Criticism”. It was an attempt to identify and refine his own position as  a poet and as a critic. His contribution to neoclassical criticism is very important in the period. The essay is modeled on the Horatian form and it followed a survey and consideration of the criticism in general , an examination of the important causes for literary misjudgment , characteristics of an ideal critic ,and a short account of the history of criticism .

Samuel Johnson, also known as Dr Johnson is a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer and a lexicographer. He is remembered for his” Dictionary of the English Language”. Although it was not the first dictionary in English language, it was the first comprehensive dictionary.

“Lives of the English Poets” is another famous work of Dr Johnson. It consists of short biographies and critical assessment of 52 poets, most of who lived during the 18th century. He has also penned poem, the famous poem being The Vanity of Human Wishes. “The  History of Rasselas” is another important work of Johnson. It is basically an apologue on happiness.

Immanuel Kant is one of the leading figures of modern philosophy. He lived towards the end of the Enlightenment, he is a German. Like Voltaire and Hume, he too believed that reason should replace the traditions and superstitions of religion and monarchy. Although he lived during the revolution of France and America, he was largely unaffected by the events.

Kant carefully amalgamated the empiricist philosophy that was prevalent in Great Britain and rationalist philosophy of Europe. Although he was trained in rationalist tradition, he was influenced by the empiricist philosophy of Hume. Kant argued that reason is the source of morality, aesthetics arises out of detached judgements, and that the world in itself is something unknowable to human beings.

One of the most important personalities in this era was Mary Wollstonecraft. She was an English writer, philosopher and advocate of women’s rights. She is often considered as the first feminist writer. Her famous work “Vindication of the Rights of Men” was a reply to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. Her best known work is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. This book is considered as the foundational text of western feminism.

She proposes the idea of equality of men and women. She was of the view that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and wants a social order based on reason.  She argues that rights cannot be based on tradition, but on reason and rationality. Of course she can be considered one of the most influencing figures in enlightenment.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.      Habib, M. A. R. A History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to the Present. New Delhi: Blackwell, 2006. Print

2.       Albert Edward. History of English Literature. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979. Print

3.      Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Wadsworth: Cengage, 2012. Print

4.      Schmidt, James, ed.. What Is Enlightenment?: Eighteenth-century Answers and Twentieth-century Questions. Ed. James Schmidt. 1st ed. University of California Press, 1996. Web.