Neoclassical Age in British Literature
Neoclassicism is a resurgence of classical taste , sensibility and aesthetic values of Ancient Greece and Rome that the Neoclassical writers modeled their works upon. Literary historians often tried to estimate the literary period/s that strongly upholds the neoclassical ideology and its preference for traditionalism over the radical innovation of form and content, which characterizes the mood and representation of Renaissance. The Neoclassical writers
conceived literature primarily as a form of ‘art’ which, apart from individual talent and perception, also requires long study and practice and sometimes some deliberate adaptation of an ancient form and content and contemporize it with the spirit of the time and the aim for rectification. So, they adhered strictly to their classical mentors from whom they learn order, accuracy, harmony, balance, proportion and restraint that results in the formation of was the heroic couplet and the genres like mock-epic Or mock- heroic.
Their fundamental belief was not art for art’s sake, but art for humanity’s sake. Therefore, both in content and affect their focus was on human beings—- the thoughts, tastes, beliefs and on shared experiences which often lead to a simplistic yet detailed representation of human life with an eye of objective observations as Dr. Johnson summarized in The Vanity of Human Wishes.
Even though man had been their focus of representation but the neoclassical writers reacted against the bold egocentrism of the Renaissance that held man as larger than life and boundless in potential, instead,the neoclassicists directed their attention to a smaller scaled concept of humanity’s need to submit to the cosmic order that envisioned a natural hierarchy or Great Chain of Being. Their understanding of man was that of a social creature in a larger social context and human nature as dualistic, flawed, and needed to be curbed by reason and decorum. Therefore, the neoclassicists were satiric in tone and didactic in purpose.
Two concepts that were crucial to the Neoclassical literary theory and praxis were imitation and nature and their interrelation.The notion of imitation corresponds to the external world, and fundamentally, of human action, seen with an objective eye and represented in a form of imitation of the human conduct. In this regard, the Neoclassical representation of human action opposes the Renaissance subjectivity of expression and the strong note of individualism of the characters. Imitation may also denote the following of the stylistics and diction of the ancient masters like Homer and Virgil ( as mostly done by Pope) with an aim of social rectification. The concept of “nature” had a deep moral significance in the Neoclassical understanding. Nature , for them, denoted a harmonious and hierarchical order of the universe, that is inclusive of the various social and political hierarchies within the social structures and to see man as a part of it and not a superior entity as the spirit of Renaissance resonated with. In their vast scheme of nature, everything had its proper order and appointed place. The concept of nature also extended to human nature as well and to focus on what was central, timeless and universal in human experience.
The neoclassicists strove for a stylistic decorum, structure and diction with an eye for “correctness” as Pope wrote in his Essay on Man, “Order is Heaven’s first law”, so they resurrected the classical values of unity and proportion. The erudite neoclassicists aimed for a polite and morally upright society. So, they felt an obligation to “teach as well as to please.”
On understanding the overall mood and preferences of the neoclassicists, The Neoclassical Age can be divided into three periods: the Restoration Age (1660-1700), the Augustan Age (1701-1750), and the Age of Johnson (1751-1798).
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