The Rise of the Novel. A Social and Literary perspective
The first course accounts for the appearance of the novel in English literature from a
a social, philosophical and literary perspective. It describes the main innovative literary
devices as well as the changes brought by the new genre within the context of
Enlightenment.
3
The 18th century is generally considered to be the first literary age during which
we can speak of the novel as a well-established genre in British literature.The period is difficult
to name; it was called by its contemporaries the Augustan or Neoclassical Age (as wr 323h78d iters
strove to identify themselves with the classical Roman model), or by other names such as
Enlightenment, the Age of Reason.
18th century philosophers, such as Locke,
the significance of the rational, positive spirit. In their opinion, human knowledge is empirical,
based on the perception of the senses, hence its subjectivity and limits. Order was another
first-rate value in the Augustan hierarchy. It was associated with thoughtful conduct,
efficiency instead of complexity, scientifical discoveries, acquiring connotations such as unity,
harmony, precision, clarity.
On the literary scene, the most influential genre that developed during the period was
the novel. It was influenced by similar developments on the continent, among which
Cervantes's Don Quixote, which was translated in 1700, the writings of Rabelais, or of Lesage,
particularly Gil Blas. The ordinary man became the norm, consisting of a variety of
individuals, such as the energetic merchant, the country gentleman directing his farms or
estates, the lady in her social calls, the doctor, the lawyer, soldier, servant, labourer, in their
occupations, the traveller observing life at home and abroad, and the writer including all these
as his public and characters. Economic specialization provided a particular kind of
audience - the lower and middle classes saw their lives and interests represented with a
sympathy and seriousness that had hitherto been accorded only to their betters on the social
scale. As A. Sanders has shown in his Short Oxford History of English Literature, the new
style emphasized for the most part the everyday experience of men and women in
society.
Enlightenment philosophy required a simple, unequivocal instrument of expression,
making use of a plain, native language to record experiments and conclusions. No rhetoric,
exuberant prose was permitted to obscure common sense, as writers (such as D. Defoe) wanted
to communicate their ideas without aiming at a literary distinction. As Ian Watt also shows
in his study The Rise of the Novel, the appearance of writers such as D.Defoe, S.Richardson,
H.Fielding within a single generation was probably due to the favourable conditions of the
time. 18th century literary historians have seen realism as the defining characteristic which
4
differentiates their work from previous fiction (the term was apparently used as an aesthetic
description in 1835 to denote the "vérité humaine" of Rembrandt as opposed to "idéalité
poétique"). Primarily used as the antonym of "idealism", the term would trace down all
possible continuity to earlier works that portrayed low life and where the economic and social
motives were given a lot of space in the presentation of human behaviour. Fiction is not a new
invention, there is a great number of Middle Age prose stories, of Renaissance romances,
allegories, character-studies or picaresque tales. Yet, fiction's relation to life was peripheral, a
mere idealization or satire.
Defoe and Richardson are the first great writers in English literature who did not
take their plots from mythology, history, legend or previous literature. In this respect, they
differ from Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare who used traditional plots. However, besides the
plot, much else had to be changed in the tradition of fiction: the actors in the plot and the scene
of their actions had to be placed in a new literary perspective. The plot had to be acted in
particular circumstances, rather than as had been common in the past - by general human
types against a background determined by the appropriate literary convention. The novel is
distinguished from other genres by the amount of attention it generally allots both to the
individualisation of its characters and to the presentation of their environment. It is also related
to the epistemological status of proper names as the expression of a particular identity
(medieval or Renaissance writers preferred either historical or type names).
The principle of individuation accepted by Locke was that of existence in space and
time; Northrop Frye has seen "time and Western man" as the defining characteristic of the
novel compared with other genres. Philosophical and literary innovations must be seen as
resulting in "a circumstantial view of life", a feature of the new prose. The narrative method
that embodies this view is called formal realism, the premise that it is an authentic report of
human experience, giving its readers details concerning the individuality of actors, particulars
of their actions, through a more referential use of language than is common in other literary
forms. The difference to earlier fiction consists in the fact that such passages were relatively
rare, while the plot was traditional and highly improbable.
5
Topics for discussion
1. The eighteenth century is also named "the Augustan Age". Which are the aesthetic
ideals that best characterize this period?
2. Describe the main features of the 18th century novel.
|
