The Augustan Age PDF

**The Augustan Age** **The Historical Context** The 18^th^ century in Britain was a period of relative stability and prosperity in which the country developed both at a political and economic level. At a political level it saw a decrease in the power of the monarchy in favour of parliament (consti...

**The Augustan Age** **The Historical Context** The 18^th^ century in Britain was a period of relative stability and prosperity in which the country developed both at a political and economic level. At a political level it saw a decrease in the power of the monarchy in favour of parliament (constitutional monarchy). This process had started with the Glorious Revolution (1688) and continued under the Hanoverians who had little interest in England and favoured the consolidation of the two political parties, the Whigs and the Tories, and the power of the prime minister (Sir Robert Walpole and later William Pitt). The policy promoted trade and expansion of possessions in India and North America so starting the foundation of the British Empire. **The Social Context** The internal political stability, the expanding colonial empire and the technological progress in the field of industry and agriculture, all contributed to the growth of Britain as a leading political and commercial country. The economy flourished; overseas trade boomed; towns increased in size; and the first **technological inventions** were introduced like the **spinning jenny** (1764), which accelerated production in the textile industry, and the **steam engine**, which was used in all sort of applications: it was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Britain, however, remained a predominantly rural society, even if there was an increasing **shift of population from the countryside to the towns** for different reasons: - - As a result, the **economic power shifted from the landed gentry to the merchant and manufacturing class** **in the towns**. This rising middle class was in search of identity, of a social status, they looked to the aristocracy as a model of elegance and refinement and aimed to improve their manners and education to be accepted by the high society. The demand for education spread and so did literacy (alfabetizzazione) and reading became a form of entertainment but also had a didactic function. **The Cultural Context** From a cultural point of view the period has been defined in various ways -- the **Age of Reason**, the **Age of Enlightenment**, the **Augustan Age**, the **Neo-Classical Age** -- which all emphasise the predominant trend of the period , that is the **prevalence of reason over feelings**. The **Enlightenment** was a European intellectual movement that developed in the 17^th^ and 18^th^ centuries with **the aim of freeing man's mind from ignorance, superstition and obscurantism (after the puritan era) through knowledge and science**. The period was characterised by **faith in reason**, order, empirical observation and rational thinking and the conviction that **reason was developed by education**, the only means for social and political change. Many scientists had become dissatisfied with explanations based on the notion of Nature as a reflection of God's will. A new conviction began to spread: the belief that **men could understand and explain the world only through scientific observation**, and the application of the scientific method. A forerunner of this idea was **Isaac Newton** who, through his Law of universal gravitation, demonstrated that the world is regulated by forces that can be observed, classified, understood and explained in terms of 'laws'. The new emphasis on reason and rationality was not limited to science. Many **philosophers** put human experience (rather than authority) at the centre of their investigations for truth and meaning (John Loke's Empiricism). They began to argue that all men are created equal and have innate human rights, a view which later contributed to the French Revolution. **Enlightened thinkers not only wanted to understand the world but to improve it**. A new **optimism** spread and the belief that reason could improve society and discover new horizons (also through geographical explorations). The **Royal Society,** which had been founded in 1662, had an important function in this sense. The main purpose of it was to promote and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of society. Talking about **art and literature** the same period is better defined **Neoclassicism** because the writers tried to imitate the style of the Romans and Greeks and exalted the classical rules of balance, symmetry and refinement which reflected the order of nature and universe. Besides painting, sculpture and poetry, the same rules were applied in architecture, gardening and town planning. **The middle-class felt the need to be informed, to reflect on the world in which they lived and to take part on the cultural debate**, so the 18^th^ century saw a considerable **increase in the number of readers** and the spread of new forms of expression for the circulation of ideas. The **Coffee Houses** started to spread and became cultural centres in which artists, intellectuals but also common people could meet and exchange opinions about politics, literary issues and also gossip. It was mainly through the coffee houses that public opinion and **journalism** began to evolve. The most famous journal was ***The Tatler*** (meaning 'gossip') founded in 1709 by J. Addison as a periodical. Addison created it to comment on the political issues, cultural events and social themes of the age. In 1711 it was replaced by ***The Spectator***, which was published daily by J. Addison and R. Steele. Their writing style, witty but also simple and close to everyday language spoken by common people, influenced the birth and the development of the novel. The existence of **circulating libraries,** where people could pay a low sum of money to borrow books, also favoured the growth of the number of readers, in particular women, who still did not have a public position in society and had lots of free time. They loved to read novels because they represented a chance to escape from the narrowness of domestic life. **Pamphlets** started to circulate in this period. They were booklets written to express ideas about any topic with a polemic or satirical tone. Writers could express their position about another literary author or were critical both of the new social order brought about by the rise of the middle class, with its bad taste and cult of money, and of the corruption of the aristocracy and the political parties. They exposed all this through their sharp **satire**.