The Novel in 18 th Century in Britain

The Novel in 18 th Century in Britain Benvenuto Georgie 4 PLSC

Cultural contexts • Emerging British empire exports and imports from the distant colonies, naval power, restoration of the monarchy, period of prosperity after civil war • Urbanization London is becoming a real powerhouse in Europe, centre of trade • Concerns with order, reason, method political and religious unrest, rise of science

Cultural contexts • Nature science: objective, exterior, impersonal psychology: subjective, interior, personal • Experimental empirical personal experience • Enlightenment values individualis, liberalism, skepticism, public sphere: freedoms

Cultural contexts • Popular Prjess, Grub street, Republic of letters journalism, libraries, debating societes, coffee house culture, popular periodicals, cultural institutions (rise of printing press)

Classical literary canon Homer epic Vergil Sophocoles tragedy Seneca Pindar poetry Ovid

Novel = ‘new’ • Contemporary content • Experimental • Loose structure • Varied/new audiences • Personal/private • Female, authors, readers, subjects

Novel genres CONTENT • • • Prosaic Moralizing Horror Thriller Fantasy Courtship Chastity texts Travel True crime Comedies of manners FORM • • • Prose Epistolary Descriptive Picaresque Experimental Diary Non-dramatic Non-heroic protagonists Personal point of view Narrator-character Self-aware of form

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