RESTORATION & ENLIGHTENMENT POETS
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Transcript of RESTORATION & ENLIGHTENMENT POETS
RESTORATION & ENLIGHTENMENT POETS
1660-1798
17th Century: Enlightenment
• a reaction against the religious anxiety of the Reformation era
• Charles II returned to power (1660)
• philosophical movement• from WHY questions to HOW• natural phenomena explained by science
• John Locke: political philosopher• Isaac Newton: gravity and motion
17th Century: Enlightenment
• Growing middle class• audience for new literary forms
• Journalism, essays, novels
• Influential upper class (socially)• powdered wigs, makeup • fashion• their lifestyle was often satirized
18th Century: Age of Reason
• order, balance, logic, reason• scientific inquiry • religion is far less of an issue, focus on the
rational • Deism
• societal views and educational discourse• women, too (private gatherings: circles, salons)
• poetry served a public, not private function• social discourse• elegy, ode, satire, essay
CENTRAL POETS
• Alexander Pope 1688-1744
• Jonathan Swift 1667-1745
• Daniel Defoe 1660-1731
• Samuel Johnson 1709-1784