neoclassical age an age of satire

AJIT A KALIYAM.A. SEM 1ROLL NO 3

ENROLMENT NO 2069108420170013BATCH 2016-18

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, MKBU

Neo-classical age – An age of

satire

Introduction• Also known as restoration period,

Augustan period or an age of Johnson• Influenced by Romans and Greeks• Era of enlightenment• Rise of political parties• Realistic period• More people were literate• Genres – parody, essays, satire, letters,

fables, melodrama

What makes writers to write satirical works?

• Charles 2 encouraged skepticism, philosophy, and the examination of nature

• This milieu was a fertile ground for satire

• Aim of satire is to call attention to where society or a group within society is falling sort of established and valued social moral code

• Rise of political parties and printing press• Some of the most delightful satire was

provided by periodical papers of steele and Addition

• Political parties of Whigs and Tories • Nearly every important writer was employed

by either Tory or Whig party• Pope, Swift, Prior, Addition, Steele all were in

one of the party• It also provided much material for satirical

spirit – Colonialism, class conflict, social corruption

Major Satirists of the age Alexander Pope

• Was the greatest verse satirist of not only the eighteenth century but of all centuries.

• Greatest satire is “The Dunciad”

• A satire on the contemporary dunces who had happened to offend him.

Dr Johnson

• His two verse satires are• “London” (1738)• “The vanity of

human wishes” (1740)

Jonathan Swift

• His major work is “Gulliver’s Travels”

• Satire on all aspects of life

Daniel Defoe

• Major work-”Robinson Crusoe”

• Satire on English colonial ideas

Henry Fielding

• Major work-”Tom Jones”

• Satire on immortality of the age

John Gay

• Major work “The Beggar’s Opera”

• Satire and parody of the Italian opera so popular then

Conclusion The genre satire came in exist in

that age and had been written thousands of satirical works. Some of them considers today also as great satirical works and we can not find that type of great satirical works today also. So, we can say the Neo-classical age, an age of satire.

Sources

WikipediaNeoenglishsystem.blogspot.com

History of English literature - Edward Albert