one of the literature period which we encountered with later periods of english literature.

1. Neo classical literature
A.M.CK.ABEYSEKARA
SSH/11/12/006
SH/2656
UNIVERSITY OF RAJARATA
SRILANKA

3. NEO CLASSICAL AGE
• The Renaissance (c. 1485-1660)
• Neo classical (c.1660-1790)
• Romantic era. (c. 1790-1830)

4. NEO CLASSICAL
(1660-1790)
• “Neo” + “classical”
(New) (Roman & Greek classics)
• Thus the combination of the terms 'neo,' which means 'new,' and
'classical,' as in the day of the Roman and Greek classics.
 period of enlightenment
 age of reason
 era of logic

5. Three stages
• Three distinct stages :
(1).Restoration period
(2).The Augustan period
(3).Age of Johnson

7. Restoration Period
• 1660 to 1700 - the period of Restoration.
• Because restoration of monarchy in England.
• Its symptoms include the dominance of French
& classical influence on literature
(poetry & drama)

8. Famous Writers of
Restoration Age.
• John Dryden
It is called the Age of Dryden, because Dryden
was the dominating and most representative
literary figure of the Age.
• John Milton

9. Absalom and Achitophel
• "Absalom and Achitophel" is one of Dryden's great
political satires.
• In "Absalom and Achitophel," Dryden comments on
(a) the Popish Plot
(1678: an alleged plot by Catholics to kill the king and make
England Catholic again)
-the Exclusion Crisis
(to keep Charles' Catholic brother, James, from inheriting
the throne after Charles' death)
(b)Monmouth Rebellion
(1685: an attempt to put the king's illegitimate son James,
Duke of Monmouth on the throne)

10. Cont.
• He frames these contemporary events in terms of the
biblical story of King David and his rebellious son
Absalom.
• Biblical narratives would have been very familiar to
contemporary audiences.

12. Augustan Age
• literary period of Virgil, Horace and Ovid
under the Roman emperor Augustus.
• self-conscious imitation of the original
Augustan writers
• has been called,
- the Augustan Age
-the Neoclassical Age
-the Age of Reason.

13. Famous Writers
• Alexander Pope
• He is the dominant figure who associated with
the epoch known as the Augustan Age,
• Jonathan Swift
Gulliver’s travel
A modest proposal
• Daniel Defoe

14. Pop’s Literary Work
• The Rape of the Lock (1714)
• translated the Iliad and the Odyssey
• Essay on criticism
• Prologue of wife of bath

15. The Rape of the Lock
• Mock –heroic Masterpiece (1714)
– = speaks of a trivial matter
– epic poems → the effect is comical.
A nobleman cut a lock of hair from the head of Lady
Arabella Fermor. This caused an argument between
the two respective families and Pope, who was a
friend of both of them wrote this poem to make
them laugh and reconcile.
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16. Robinson Crusoe By De-Foe
• form of fictional autobiography or diary
• who manages to survive for years without any
human companionship.
• different ways that men cope with reality when
hardship comes.
• creating his own reality, rescuing a savage.
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18. The Age of Johnson
• “The Age of Sensibility”
• middle of the eighteenth century until 1798.
• Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)-
poet, critic, and author of fiction,

19. Cont.
• William Collins
• William Cowper
• Thomas Gray
• Christopher Smart
are also attributed to the Age of Sensibility.