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The XVIII century (Culture (More people began to read due to several…
The XVIII century
Philosophy
The Enlightenment was an European philosophical movement which developed in the 17th and 18th centuries with the aim of freeing the man from ignorance through knowledge.
This movement was charcterised by faith in reason seen as a means to question traditional assumptions in order for man to achieve happiness.
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The enlightenment thinkers aimed to discovering the original natural nucleus because, for them, what is natural is also rational.
This thinkers rejected the Calvinist theory of original sin. They affirmed free-will, salvation for all, the goodness of mankind and its capacity for progress.
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Rousseau thought that a person who was wild hadn't limits that were imposed by society. He thought that we are all good because we are created by God. This "good spirit" is in everything in nature. So, good people are wild and people are evil due to society (ex.: Frankenstein)
In the 19th century, there was an important movement based on Epicurus, a Greek philosopher. This movement was the Utilitarianism, created by Jeremy Bentham.
According to this theory, an action it morally right if it has consequences that lead to happiness and wrong if it brings about the reverse.
All the institutions should be tested in the light of reason and common sense to determinate if they are useful and could provide the material happiness for the people.
It suited the interests of the middle class and contribute to the conviction that any problem could be resolved through reason.
Utilitarianism will be attacked by Mill, Dickens and other intellectuals.
Culture
People in London worked all day due to the Industrial Revolution. They began to drinking alcohol to escape from the reality. The social effects of drinking were devasting. They also drank coffee.
The artistic appetite of the English man developed into an importation of items from abroad. They wanted to mix the "tastes", so the perfect English gentleman talked and dressed in French, sang in Italian etc...
This century was full of changes. There were a revolution, a civil war, a reform of parliament and the growth of the new middle class. The Renaissance was replaced by Puritan pragmatism.
Despite the Puritan morality became an integral part of the English character, the scientific revolution spread the idea that reason than religion was the key to understand man and the world that surrounds him.
More people began to read due to several factors: advancement of printing technology, expasion of school system, opening of circulating libraries, increase in the number of woman readers (Puritans considered their wives to be equal partners and encourage them to read).
Middle class was interested in art, social problems and political life. They were Puritan and showed a distinct preference for factual writing. In response to this taste there was a remarkable proliferation of journalism writing.
Richard Steele: the creator of The Tattler in 1709. He understood that the new class reader needed to entertained as well as informed. He joined his old school friend Joseph Addison and they published the periodical The Spectator. It contained essays on literary and was written in a clear style.
Samuel Johnson: the creator of The Rambler, but he is best remembered for his Dictionary of the English Language.
The novel of this century was an evolution of the non-fictional prose-writing, because the middle-class readers didn't like ancient battles and legends. They wanted to read about themselves and the world they lived in.
Daniel Defoe was born in a family of Dissenters. He started to write in Whig papers but the Queen did not like his critical attitude and had him arrested. For freedom, he denied his Whig ideas and became a secret agent for the new government. He started novels when he was sixty.
His masterpiece, Robinson Crusoe, tells the story of a shipwreck on a desert island. The novel is full of religious references to God, it can be read as a spiritual autobiography in which the single hero read the Bible to find comfort. Crusoe has a pragmatic outlook and applies a rational method to everything.
The novel is full of religious references to God, it can be read as a spiritual autobiography in which the single hero read the Bible to find comfort and the island represent the ideal place where the main character can show his qualities (he managed to create a primitive empire). His stay on the island is the chance to dominate nature. Defoe shows that, through God, the individual can shape his destiny through action.
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin. He worked for Sir William Temple, a Whig statesman, who encouraged him to write his first satirical works. In England, he became an Anglican priest. He produced a great deal of writings for the Tory administration. He was a controversial writer, labelled alternatively as misanthrope and lover of mankind. He was interested in politics and society, did not share the optimism of his age and had a pessimistic attitude. He thought that reason is an instrument that must be used properly.
He wrote the Gulliver's Travels that is composed in 4 books. The hero is the ship’s surgeon Lemuel Gulliver (Swift puts him in comparison with animal and not men). Swift adds both real and imaginary elements in the novel. There are also elements of political allegory through allusions to people and events in the England of George I.
The imaginary voyage had been used by French writers. The traveller discovered some happy society where men lived an uncorrupted life, so they wanted to accuse European for the victim of civilisation. There are also more general themes of moral satire. For this reason, when Gulliver finally returns home to England, he decides to go and live in a stable, among the animals.
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