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EARLY MODERN THOUGHT (c.1600 - c.1785)17 CENTURY: THE AGE OF REASONth

18 CENTURY: THE ENLIGHTENMENTth

ARTS

Literature: the view predominates thatliterature is an essentially rationalundertaking, i.e., it is founded on mainlyrational principles and appeals principallyto the reason shared by all humans in itsquest to better humanity.

The Author: literature is largely an impersonalexercise not a vehicle for self-expression or self-exploration; the author matters only insofar as hisgenius and wit are responsible for the creation ofthe work in question.

Literary Form:there is a general tendency to looktowards the past for the sanction of establishedauthorities and practices (hence, an emphasis ontradition in this sense). Indeed, emulation of thestyle of the Classics is extolled to the point of aprescriptive and formulaic conformity to those rules(e.g. the three unities) extrapolated from the workof the ancient masters.

Diction: figurative language is viewed as a two-edgedsword in that, used wrongly, it can muddy andobfuscate but also, used rightly, it can shed light onthe object depicted.

Genres: Poetry, early forms of prose fiction (the riseof the novel).

Dominant Mode: satire

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Literary History:An essentially static anduniversalist conception of literature prevails, i.e.,

there is little sense that literature changes anddevelops over time or that it varies from place toplace. In fact, there is an assumption that there is acommon core to all great literature which remainsessentially the same from period to period, place toplace, irrespective of external superficialities such asthe particular language in which it is written, etc. Inshort, certain classic works are both timeless anduniversal.

The Reader:a pragmatic conception of literatureprevails according to which literature must be utileet dulce, i.e., both entertaining or interesting to thereader in some way (dulce) and educational ordidactic (utile). It accomplishes this mainly byappealing to his/her reason, rather than thepassions.

Representation:the basic assumption informingboth the writing and the criticism of literature is thatof imitation / realism, i.e., literature is conceivedof as a mirror held up to nature that ought to bejudged accordingly, i.e. in terms of its veracity.

In competition with the realist impulse describedabove, there was also a preoccupation with theBeautiful, i.e. those attributes of the natural worldand artworks which in the perfection of their formapproximate the order and beauty of the ideal world.

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COMMUNICATION

Semantics:a correspondence / instrumentalist theory of meaning prevails, i.e., the meaning of aword (e.g. c-a-t) is an idea (in this instance, the idea cat) which is in turn a reflection of a part

ofexternal

reality (the referent, e.g. what we call a cat, i.e., a real, furry little creature thatpurrs, etc.). Ideas exist prior to language but words are the necessary medium by whichthoughts are communicated from one person to another. Language is, in short, a vehicle ofcommunication.

Diction:precision, clarity and transparency are the qualities accordingly extolled, underpinned bya strong suspicion of the potentially obfuscatory effects of figurative language such as similes andmetaphors for their ability to cloud, rather than shed light on, the referent.

Conformity to the linguistic norms of the community in question is extolled, that is, to thestandard version of the language in question common to the community of speakers and writers

of which the speaker/writer in question is part and which is accordingly not peculiar to him/her.The result of this was that little by way of experimentation, innovation, neologisms, etc. wasencouraged.

HISTORY

There is little or no recognition of or emphasis on historical change. Rather, the prevailingassumption is that the world is essentially static, any changes being seen as essentially cyclical innature (in the manner of the recurrence of the seasons). History as an institutionalised disciplineof study would develop only during the nineteenth century.

THE HUMAN BEING

A timeless, universal human nature is extolled; determinants such as gender, race, place of birth,etc. are thought of as merely accidental, superficial and unimportant features appended thereto.In other words, there is an assumption that human nature is not historically- or culturally-specific

in that it does not vary from period to period or place to place and is unaffected by factors suchas ones sex or skin-colour.

The Mind:a dualistic conception of the mind (i.e. the view that the mind is different in substancefrom the physical body) consolidates itself.

The Self: an essentially Platonic, hierarchical conception of the self (in which the reason[associated with the head] ought to prevail over the emotions [the heart] and the bodily appetites[stomach, genital organs]) continues to hold sway.

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KNOWLEDGE

Empiricism:this is the view that the ideas which comprise our consciousness are a reflection ofthe external world. Consciousness is a posteriori. Key figures include: John Locke, George

Berkeley, David Hume

Rationalism:this is the view that at least some of our ideas, the most important ones, precedeour intercourse with the external world and thus are intrinsic to our consciousness.Consciousness is, at least in part, a priori. Key figures include: Ren Descartes, Baruch Spinoza,Johann Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant.

Objectivity: the view predominates that the absolute truth can be known about any and allthings and objectivity is to be striven for. Realism, Positivism, Scientism

There is less an emphasis on the filtering effect of tradition in the sense described above and

greater stress placed on a direct encounter with the things themselves which are fundamentallythe same everywhere and at all times. In other words, notwithstanding differences of place andtime, we are always already talking about more or less the same things, 'reality' beingfundamentally unchanging over time and invariable from place to place. The Neoclassicalsaccordingly believe that, culturally speaking, we need to be selective: it is not a question ofabsorbing wholesale what one's culture bequeathes to you but of respecting those of ourancestors who were able to see things as they really are and accordingly were able to hold amirror up to nature. From this point of view, novelty is an illusion in that there is arguablynothing inherently new under the sun. Moreover, it is Pope's argument that our earliest ancestorswere arguably closer to the truth than we are because they were came on the scene beforeanyone else and encountered things directly whereas our own thoughts have been necessarily

tainted to some degree at least by the intervening speculations, right and wrong, of the personswho stand between us and them. Pope, et al. in the eighteenth century accordingly sought toground their own work in the literature and culture of Ancient Greece and Rome (hence the label'neo-classical') by emulating the work of greats like Homer.

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NATURE

Physics: during the 18 century, thanks in large part to the work of Isaac Newton, the image ofth

a mechanistic, dead universe that operates according to purely mechanical, material principles

began to gradually take hold, at least in academic circles. The foundations of modern science arebeing laid at this time through the work of the natural philosophers.

Metaphysics (Religion): the general public remains religious and, specifically, Christian. A(Platonic) belief persists that there exists another non-material, ideal world which is our truehome. To put this another way, a Christianised Neoplatonism continues to prevail, that is, theview basically that the material world (the Earth) is an imperfect reflection of a better, if not idealworld (Heaven).

This is normally accompanied by a hierarchical vision of natural and social order for which E. M.Tillyard coined the term the Elizabethan World Picture, i.e., a belief in a hierarchical universe

with God located at the top, man somewhere in the middle, flora and fauna beneath him, andinanimate objects at the bottom (Popes Essay on Man is a wonderful illustration of this schema).

SOCIETY

A hierarchical economic, social and political order prevails in most societies;

The Economy:a rural agricultural economy is gradually giving way to an urban, industrialisedeconomy.

Social Structure: a rigid class structure is in place with a minority of people owning the landand, later, the factories. The majority of persons live in poverty and even squalour, labouring inthe fields or, later, in the factories for very little.

Politics:conservatism (the preservation of or, at least, failure to question the status quo) is thedominant political mood. Radical challenges to the status quo are to be repudiated preciselybecause it is thought to have been designed by God, though intra-class power struggles arecommon and variously justified.

Gender:a patriarchal social order prevails, i.e. discrimination on the basis of gender iswidespread in that women are largely objects exchanged between men and denied ownership ofproperty.

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