Critically comment on the major features of the Augustan Period/ Augustan literature in Europe.

Critically comment on the major features of the Augustan Period/ Augustan literature in Europe.

Augustan literature (sometimes referred to misleadingly as Georgian literature) is a style of British literature produced during the reigns of Queen Anne, King George I, and George II in the first half of the 18th century and ending in the 1740s, with the deaths of Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, in 1744 and 1745, respectively. It was a literary epoch that featured the rapid development of the novel, an explosion in satire, the mutation of drama from political satire into melodrama and an evolution toward poetry of personal exploration. The chief characteristics that mark the age of Augustan are as follows:

The Political Time: The reign of Queen Anne in early 18th-century England is commonly known as Augustan age. During this period, the satirist Jonathan Swift, the poet Alexander Pope, and the essayists Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele were among the major literary figures. 

The Style in Motions: Their neoclassical style employed Roman forms, such as the ode, and emphasized common sense, moderation, reason over emotion and elegance over brevity. In the eighteenth century the subjects of study became more numerous and more systematic. And it was the good fortune of England that prose in the age had become a pliant and serviceable medium.  

The Transitional Time: It was a century full of speculation and fierce questioning a century with powerful minds that applied themselves to the problems of the nature of life, and set out solutions which have been the basis of much later thought. It was a century, above all others, when England led Europe in philosophical speculation. The first half of the eighteenth century was remarkable for the rapid social development in England.

............................................................................................................To Get Complete Note Contact Us