1660 – 1785 Augustan

& Restoration

•The Augustan Age was during the first half of the eighteenth century.

•Augustan literature was produced during the reigns of Queen Anne, King George I, and George II.

•The Augustan Age was a period when art and literature flourished – it also saw the beginning of the novel.

•The Augustan Age has also been called the Age of Reason and the Neoclassical Age.

The Age of Reason• An 18th Century

movement which followed after the mysticism, religion and superstition of the middle ages. Neoclassical

Age• The neoclassical age

came after the Renaissance period. • The writing in the Neoclassical Age was

influenced by Sophocles.

Augustan Literature..

•Augustan Literature

was produced in the

18th Century.

•It is a literary epoch – a calendar year – which featured the development of the novel. •There was also the

explosion of the Satire

genre.

Satire is a literary form of drama.

Satire is mostly

sarcastic and witty.

•Augustan Literature was also used to organise a new government – this showed the heavy political criticism.

Jonathan Swift

•The literature of the 18th Century is political.

• This time was also called the Age of Scandal, because the novels contained crimes and vices of the world.

•In Prose -Clarity and simplicity of expression. -The realism –high class people being defined for what they were. • In Poetry -There was the use of poetic diction -Frequent use of personification and inversion -Latin construction and vocabulary

Literary Styles..

Features of Augustan Literature..•The features of novels and poems are characterised by the development of poetry and the rise of the novel.

•The development of poetry – showed irony, satire and meditation.

•This led to a breach in the metaphysical tradition.

Relation to Nature – the Augustan writers followed nature and its laws.Ideals of Harmony – represented a way of life which was crucial in relation to the Age of Reason. Ideals of Beauty – this was a representation of the idea of perfection and simplicity which was based on the neoclassical idea. Ideals of Order – this represented stability and balance.

The Rise of the Novel•The modern novel appeared in the early half of the 18th Century – after the restoration period.

•The Augustan Age – when the ground for journalism/novel had been laid by drama and satire.

•Novels were dominated by satire, real social events, family life, economical issues and women.

•The rise of the novel coincides with the rise of middle classes in Western Europe.

•Jonathan Swift (born 30 November 1667) was an Irish satirist, as well as a political pamphleteer.

•Swift was an important person in the political life of London – until he was dropped and exiled back to Ireland.

•Swift’s most famous novels ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ was published after Swift was dropped and exiled.