introduction the 18th c novel. what does it mean that “the eighteenth century novel is an almost...
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
The 18th c novel
What does it mean that “the eighteenth century novel is an almost meaningless label”?
‘Generic vagueness’
variety of approaches to novel writing difficult relationship between the novel and
the romance generic instability of the novel dissociation of the novel from the romance ‘mixed modes of narrative discourse’
What kinds of different narrative discourses came into fashion in the 18th century? Bring examples.
Narrative discourses
Fictional autobiography (Defoe) Epistolary novel (Richardson) Parodic novel (Fielding, Sterne) Picaresque novel (Smollett) Philosophical novels (Johnson) Allegory (Bunyan is still popular in 18th c)
Summarize the differences made between the “romance” and the “novel” by William Congreve and Clara Reeve and how this distinction fits into the development of the 18th century novel and the change of the taste of readers.
William Congreve’s definition of the romance: ‘invincible courage of the hero’ ‘Mortals of the first rank’ ‘lofty language’ ‘impossible performances’ ‘surprize the Reader’ ‘he is forced to be very well convinced that
‘tis all a lye.’
William Congreve’s definition of the novel: ‘of a more familiar nature’ represents ‘intrigues in practice’ ‘not wholly unusual or unpresidented’
Clara Reeve’s definition of the romance: ‘an heroic fable’ ‘treats of fabulous persons and things’ ‘lofty and elevated language’ ‘describes what never happened nor is likely
to happen’
Clara Reeve’s definition of the novel: ‘a picture of real life and manners’ ‘a familiar relation of such things as pass
every day before our eyes’ ‘represent every scene in easy and natural
manner’ ‘appear[s] so probable, as to deceive us into
a persuasion (…) that all is real’
Change in the taste of readers Female readership is drawn from romances
to novels The novel provided:
moral and religious (self-)education according to social expectations
representation of feminine social mobility sensibility
How did it affect the assumptions about the nature of “fictional truth” in the work of several 18th century writers?
Fictional truth
‘lye’, ‘deception’ anxiety of authenticity
Fictional truth (cont)
writer as editor of ‘real’ documents documents: letters, diaries, autobiographies Defoe: ‘editor’, ‘private history’, ‘autobiography’ Swift: ‘publisher’s preface’ Richardson: ‘editor’ > ‘private memoirs
Fictional truth (cont)
writer as moral educator < puritanism (Bunyan) moral justification Preface to Pamela: ‘to paint VICE in its proper
colours…to set VIRTUE in its own amiable light’ moral truth (v. factual truth) can be learned from
the novel > confessions
Fictional truth (cont)
novel as a reminder : Fielding, ‘comic-epic in prose’ reminding of rather than teaching morals > satires
Summarize what you have read about the publishing industry (taste and composition of readership, journalism, price and number of copies of books in circulation, libraries, etc).
Taste and composition of readership Female readership (upper-middle-class):
Sentimental fiction (romances) Religious and moral education (conduct books)
Tradesmen (middle-class): economic considerations leisure
Workers (lower classes): rise of literacy cheap editions ‘democracy of print’ > anxiety of social hierarchy
Journalism
Periodicals: Spectator, Tatler, Preceptor, The Gentleman’s
Magazine (10,000 copies), Monthly Review, Critical Review, Blackwoods, etc.
Addison and Steele Topics of the day: instruction for middle class 60,000 readers daily of the Spectator in London
Newspapers: The Daily Courant (1707), 3 daily newspapers in
London by 1724 (20,000 daily readers)
Books in circulation
Books as commodities The Spectator, collected edn (9,000 copies) Thomas Paine, Rights of Man (32,000 copies in a
month, 200,000 copies by 1793) Booksellers: entrepreneurs Pope’s Dunciad (2 weeks’ salary) Andrew Millar (Fielding’s publisher): £100,000
Libraries
Private libraries Circulating libraries:
Subscribers Freedom of taste: popular taste Not recommended for women but decisively
female readers
What does the “feminization” of the novel mean?
Feminization of the novel
Female readership assuming female readers (Richardson, Sterne) female protagonists (Defoe, Richardson, Fielding)
Female writers majority (Mrs Aphra Behn) undermining gender roles (patriarchalism) and economic
status (social hierarchy) ‘a generation of amazons of the pen’ (Johnson) not regarded as ‘serious’ writers by male writers > rise of 19th c women writers > rise of feminism in 20th c
How does the gender composition of readers and writers affect the themes and topics of 18th century novels?
Thematic influence of gender composition Romances
not written by ‘serious’ writers ridiculed (Austen)
Novels written by ‘serious writers’ for women female protagonists novels of sensibility epistolary novels, autobiographies, allegories
How do the demands of moral instruction on the one hand and imaginative pleasure on the other hand define the development and main concerns of the 18th century novel?
‘Teach and delight’
Ian Watt: novel serves the purposes of the rising middle class
But: widespread christian literature before that
Teaching reading skills > teaching christian morals (‘spreading the Word’); e.g. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (1699)
Imaginative pleasure + moral teaching Balancing them The latter is used as justification of the former Literature is a ‘platform’ for moral improvement Examples:
Preface to Richardson’s Pamela Preface to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe: ‘the Improvement of
it, as well to the Diversion, as to the Instruction of the Reader’
‘moral shape’: literal events aquire allegorical significance
What was Dr Johnson’s opinion about this?
Dr Johnson’s opinion
Full authority behind Pamela Tom Jones is a ‘vicious book’ About Tom Jones:
‘entertainment of minds unfurnished with ideas, and therefore easily susceptible of impressions; not fixed by principles, and therefore easily following the currents of fancy; not informed by experience, and consequently open to every false suggestion and partial account.’
What new sub-genres are brought into life?
New sub-genres
Epistolary novel Anatomy of feelings Memoirs Confessions Biographies