Literature: Augustan age, age of reason, restoration drama, novel
Riassunto esaustivo in inglese (per letteratura inglese) sul periodo dopo la restaurazione inglese, sul piano culturale: correnti letterarie e di pensiero, cafè, giornali, prosa, poesia, teatro e nascita del romanzo (2 pagine formato docx)
It started in 1714, with the end of the Stuart dynasty and means the production of works modeled on those of the classical period under the Emperor Augustus.
It is not the exact equivalent of the continental “Enlightenment”. The British ruling class believed they were the true heirs of the Roman Empire, making comparisons between the British Parliament and the Roman Senate, its empire and the ancient Rome’s one. Neoclassicism became a style of life, reflected in all arts but also in gardening and town planning. However, this period is not only neoclassical, because of the diffusion of newspapers and magazines, the rise of the novel and the affirmation of individual consciousness and new sensibility.
THE AGE OF REASON AND THE RATIONAL PHILOSOPHIES
The Augustan artists believed in reason, capable of making some order in the world and proclaimed the superiority of intelligence and good sense over fancy and impulse. They criticized the cult of money of the middle class and the corruption of aristocracy: they exposed it in their satire. The Empiricism developed into the scepticism of the Scottish philosopher David Hume and into the deism of George Berkeley, who rejected the revealed religion in favour of a natural religion.