Lecture 6 The Rise of theNovel in the 18th century
1. Social, cultural, economic background:
growth of an economically powerful middle class (agricultural revolution)
rapid increase in literacy, development of circulating libraries
development of commercial printing and bookselling-publishing (“Grub Street)
→ expansion of the literary market:
spectacular growth of the number of printed books
emergence of the professional writer:
-- Literature: a market commodity, copiousness: „a sheet is a sheet”
Reaction of establishment authors: “the moderns or the dunces”
death of civilized values??
Scriblerus Club: to mock modern writing (John Arbuthnot, Pope, Swift, John Gay)
2. The new genre of the novel (see Ian Watt: The Rise of the Novel, 1957)
INTERESTED IN UNIQUE INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE
daily life of ordinary people
(capitalism, protestantism – makes it possible)
a) against literary traditionalism originality, original plots
b) Neo-classic generality VERSUS realistic particularity
classical literature: general human types against conventional backgrounds
new literature: particular people in particular circumstances: “patient labour of minuteness”
Richardson: feelings, emotions; Defoe: physical circumstances
“psychological realism”“circumstantial realism”
narrative devices:
individualization of characters, viewpoint: first person protagonist narrator
detailed presentation of their environment
diffuseness, lack of concentration
c) Portrayal of life by time VERSUS timeless universals
source of personal identity: in memory
distinctive feature of novel: characters develop in the course of time
realism: reality = change VERSUSclassicism, Platonic: forms, ideas are the unchanging, ultimate reality
3. Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
Life
about 500 works, son of a tallow-chandler, family: Presbyterian dissenters who left the Anglican church,
life of several careers: political pamphleeter, merchant, secret agent, reporter
Most important fiction:
Robinson Crusoe 1719
Moll Flanders 1722
The Journal of the Plague Year 1722
Roxana 1724
non-fiction: religious treatises, moral conduct books
Family Instructor 1715-18, 2 vol.
Moll Flanders
novelty: protagonits a low class woman, a prostitute and thief
severe criticism of society
Robinson Crusoe
first fictional narrative in which an ordinary person’s daily activities are in the centre
description of manual activities, objects
Two (contradictory?) perspectives in the novel: the „capitalist” and the religious
a) the economic man, the capitalist, the individualist
“Profit is Crusoe’s only vocation, and the whole world is his territory.”
behaviour is of the typical colonialist; Friday’s naming etc.
very much interested in profit and loss:
I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job better than the beginning. It is impossible to express the flutterings of my very heart when I looked over these letters, and especially when I found all my wealth about me; for as the Brazil ship come all in fleets, the same ships which brought my letters brought my goods, and the effects were safe in the river before the letters came to my hand. In a word, I turned pale, and grew sick; and had not the old man run and fetched me a cordial, I believe the sudden surprise of joy had overset Nature, and I had died upon the spot.
b) religious allegory
a modern Jonah (story begins with a shipwreck) and a true repenting Prodigal
opposition to the advice of his father: “my original sin”
island = the wilderness, the place to learn and mature as a Christian, a proving ground
Calvinism: stewardship of the material gifts of God, work very important, secular vocations can come from God
secularisation of this doctrine autonomous individual to regard his achievements as a quasi-divine mastering of the environment:
4. Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)
Pamela, 1740
epistolary novel: writing letters to her parents
A young maidservant in a wealthy household, the son of the household, tries to seduce and then rape her, but finally, successful resistance turns lust to love and the Squire offers marriage
a mode of writing „to the Moment”, „Moment to moment”: in which events purport to be narrated in letters by the participants at the time they are actually ocurring
dives into the recesses of the human heart, identifying with Pamela’s consciousness
Differing interpretations:
the victory of virtue and prudence over lust
a servant girl trapping her master into marriage? (Fielding’s opinion)
.
Clarissa (1748): a tragic novel
instead of the conventional notion of marrying the seducer, Clarissa follows the path of self-imposed martyrdom
5. Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
Life: born an aristocrat, but poor:
closely tied to the Augustan/Neoclassical tradition
first a dramatist, turned to writing fiction for a living
first two works of fiction (Shamela, Joseph Andrews): triggered by his dislike of Pamela
Fielding’s own definition of the novel in the Preface to Joseph Andrews:
epic poetry (according to Aristotle) can be either tragic or comic,
Fielding claims it may be likewise either in verse or prose
DEFINITION: comic epic (poem) in prose (or comic romance?)
Tom Jones 1749
Plot:
Short version: the real identity (gentle birth) of the protagonist, a disinherited young man is revealed through a series of complications, his growing misfortune is ultimately reversed and he is reinstated morally, financially and emotionally
Longer version: The adventures of Tom Jones who is found as a new born infant in the bed of the benevolent S Allworthy and brought up by that good man until the evil machinations of the Squire’s nephew, Blifil result in Tom being banished in disgrace for crimes he did not commit but which his imprudence and his passionate nature make it easy for Blifil to fasten on him. After Tom’s adventures on the road all the major characters are brought to London for the denouement where Tom turns out to be Blifil’s half brother, Blifil’s evil schemes are discovered, Tom wins through to reconciliation with A, to fortune and to the hands of Sophia.
Narrative technique:Intrusive omniscient narrator (third person singular)
- frequent asides to the reader manipulating her/him
- introductory chapters: literary and moral essays
- distancing effect: no identification with characters, instead: an overall vision
Characterization
importance of plot is in inverse proportion to that of character
identification with characters would destroy comic effect
structure depends on the lack of effective communication between them
Moral vision:
criticism of social hypocrisy, what counts is not appearance, not even prudence, but the GOOD HEART, GENEROSITY
Tom is sincere, warm-hearted, noble, but he is impulsive, acting stupidly, thus committing errors, even crimes, has to learn prudence
Fielding’s type of realism: “social realism”
panoramic vision of a whole society
What’s new?
very intricate and complex fictional world with a coherent authorial vision , ordered by a consistent and intelligible system of values
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