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    18th Century Literature

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    AnkeBauer
    Sentimental novels were reaction against 17th century Stoicism (emphasis on reason and rationality) Austen's Sense and sensibility (1811) marks the end of Sentimental novel. E.g. In Victorian melodramas, "tearjerkers" Traces of sensibility can be found until today.

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    18th Century Literature

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    AnkeBauer
    20 views7 pages
    Sentimental novels were reaction against 17th century Stoicism (emphasis on reason and rationality) Austen's Sense and sensibility (1811) marks the end of Sentimental novel. E.g. In Victorian melodramas, "tearjerkers" Traces of sensibility can be found until today.

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    Sentimental novels were reaction against 17th century Stoicism (emphasis on reason and rationality) Austen's Sense and sensibility (1811) marks the end of Sentimental novel. E.g. In Victorian melodramas, "tearjerkers" Traces of sensibility can be found until today.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    20 views7 pages

    18th Century Literature

    Uploaded by

    AnkeBauer
    Sentimental novels were reaction against 17th century Stoicism (emphasis on reason and rationality) Austen's Sense and sensibility (1811) marks the end of Sentimental novel. E.g. In Victorian melodramas, "tearjerkers" Traces of sensibility can be found until today.

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    18th Century Literature

    The first half of the 18th century


    The Age of Reason: emphasis on reason
    and rationality; the ideals of the
    Enlightenment
    Neoclassicism: celebrating the
    aesthetics and poetics from classical
    antiquity (Aristotle, Horace, Vergil, Ovid)
    Imitatio naturae: the imitation of
    nature in terms of its divine order, laws,
    rules and regularities
    The poet: focus on the formal level, style,
    diction etc.

    The second half of the 18th


    century
    Anti-Classical and Pre-Romantic
    movements as the basis for the rise of the
    Sentimental novel and the Gothic
    novel
    Reversal of the relationship between
    subject and object => focus on
    subjectivity/the subject/the poet
    Importance of feelings and emotions,
    irrationality, irregularity
    Revaluation of nature and its wild,
    sublime, frightening aspects

    The Sentimental Novel


    Literature of Sensibility: reaction
    against 17th century Stoicism (emphasis on
    reason and rationality)
    Sensibility: emotional responsiveness to
    another persons joys and distresses
    beauty and sublimity in nature and art

    The Philosophical Background


    Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
    negative view of Man as innately selfish
    homo homini lupus (man is a wolf to [his
    fellow] men)
    self-interest and the drive for power and status
    as mainsprings for human behaviour
    Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments
    (1759)
    development of social consciousness and
    responsibility
    positive view of Man as innately benevolent
    sympathy and sensibility as central elements in
    moral experience

    Writers of Sentimental Novels


    Richardson, Pamela (1740)
    Sterne, Tristram Shandy / Sentimental
    Journey (1760s)
    Rousseaus autobiographical Confessions
    (1764-70)
    Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther
    (1774)

    The Decline of the Sentimental


    Novel
    Austens Sense and Sensibility
    (1811) marks the end of Sentimental
    novel
    Traces of sensibility can be found
    until today (e.g. in Victorian
    melodramas, tearjerkers from
    Hollywood)

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