Pope
Doğaç Hüseyin KUTLU
Professor Metin TOPRAK
3. Class Evening
090112062
December 21, 2012
Ideas of Alexander Pope in Essay On Criticism
1. Introduction to Age of Enlightenment & Essay on Criticism
The Age of Enlightenment was a widespread literary and intellectual movement took place in Europe and England. This age encouraged intellectual freedom as well as freedom from prejudice, religious beliefs, and politics. In that age, Neoclassical Movement which on literature and art was dominant began in western literatures during Renaissance and ends in 1798, but concept of human nature as main idea of art changes radically in the very beginning of 18th century with the impact of rationalism in philosophy and empiricism in psychology (Kantarcioglu 59). Neoclassical Movement in English Literature, on the other hand; divided into three parts: Restoration Age (1660-1700), the Augustan Age (1700-1750) and the Age of Johnson (1750-1798). Importantly, with the lights of Essay on Criticism by Pope the Augustan Age’s way of thinking clarifies the Age of Enlightenment and Neoclassical Movement in England during the term of puritan worldview (Cody). Alexander Pope as the subject matter is a poet, translator, wit and a catholic was born in London in 1688. In the protestant-controlled England, he was raised by a catholic family, could not get a university education and mostly affected by the Ancient Greek and Roman literary critics, poets and philosophers (Bresley 24). One of his earlier masterpieces Essay on Man was written in the way of Horace’s Ars Poetica that Pope identifies original sin of man as pride and seizes ethic principals based on hierarchical universe. On the other hand his later critic Essay on Criticism examines the form of criticism that Pope identifies general principals of good critism and main flaws a critic prone to (Habib 291). To understand the basic unit of Enlightenment in England and Pope’s literary concept, the masterpiece of
Professor Metin TOPRAK
3. Class Evening
090112062
December 21, 2012
Ideas of Alexander Pope in Essay On Criticism
1. Introduction to Age of Enlightenment & Essay on Criticism
The Age of Enlightenment was a widespread literary and intellectual movement took place in Europe and England. This age encouraged intellectual freedom as well as freedom from prejudice, religious beliefs, and politics. In that age, Neoclassical Movement which on literature and art was dominant began in western literatures during Renaissance and ends in 1798, but concept of human nature as main idea of art changes radically in the very beginning of 18th century with the impact of rationalism in philosophy and empiricism in psychology (Kantarcioglu 59). Neoclassical Movement in English Literature, on the other hand; divided into three parts: Restoration Age (1660-1700), the Augustan Age (1700-1750) and the Age of Johnson (1750-1798). Importantly, with the lights of Essay on Criticism by Pope the Augustan Age’s way of thinking clarifies the Age of Enlightenment and Neoclassical Movement in England during the term of puritan worldview (Cody). Alexander Pope as the subject matter is a poet, translator, wit and a catholic was born in London in 1688. In the protestant-controlled England, he was raised by a catholic family, could not get a university education and mostly affected by the Ancient Greek and Roman literary critics, poets and philosophers (Bresley 24). One of his earlier masterpieces Essay on Man was written in the way of Horace’s Ars Poetica that Pope identifies original sin of man as pride and seizes ethic principals based on hierarchical universe. On the other hand his later critic Essay on Criticism examines the form of criticism that Pope identifies general principals of good critism and main flaws a critic prone to (Habib 291). To understand the basic unit of Enlightenment in England and Pope’s literary concept, the masterpiece of
Cited: Bresler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 4th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2007. Cody, David. Alexander Pope 's "Essay on Criticism": An Introduction. U of Hartwick. Jul. 2000 < http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/pope/eoc.html>. Habib, Rafey A. M. Modern Literary Criticism and Theory. Malden; Blackwell, 2005. Kantarcioglu, Sevim. Literary Criticism: The Major Literary Movements In Western Literatures. Ankara: Hatipoğlu, 1997. Pope, Alexander. Essay on Criticism. 1711 <http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/popea/critic.htm#line70>.