American Literature 1700-1820

1
American Literature 1700-1820

• The Enlightenment and the
• Age of Reason

2
A new way of seeing the basic nature of the world

• The eighteenth century (1700s) in America is
  known as the Age of Enlightenment. In this
  period, a whole new way of seeing the basic
  nature of the world (including God) emerged. In
  this new view both kings and the aristocracy
  the entrenched ruling class lost their
  authority to rule.
•  
• Likewise, the Christian church that is, the
  Catholic church and all other Christian
  denominations (Protestants) lost much of its
  power over peoples lives.
•  
• At the same time, modern science began to emerge,
  with its emphasis on empirical thinking (seeing
  is believing) and rational deduction. In this new
  atmosphere things like the spectral evidence of
  the Salem Witch Trials would have been laughed
  out of the courtroom.

3
A one-two-three punch

• In the place of the old religious dogmas, there
  sprang up religious rationalists. In the place of
  the aristocracy and its notions of a permanent
  ruling class (based in part on primogeniture)
  there arose political philosophers. And in the
  place of superstition came scientists.
• This was like a one-two-three punch (head, guts,
  head) to the ideological framework that power
  structures (governing systems) had been using all
  over the place since the Middle Ages.
• Dogma Stance pronounced by an 'authority' as the
  definitive word on a subject to be accepted
  without question, often unsupported by
  corroborating facts or in defiance of evidence to
  the contrary. It is often imposed by an
  institution (such as a church, corporation or
  family) into a set of inflexible rules.

4
The Aristocracy perpetuates itself

• The English practice of primogeniture Latin for
  first born required that all of a mans wealth
  be passed to his eldest son upon his death, and
  this requirement applied to the land in
  perpetuity. This rule also applied in the
  Colonies.
• So over time a few of the families who had lived
  in the colony the longest accumulated great
  wealth and power, forming a permanent aristocracy
  in Virginia and the other Colonies. The King
  picked his advisors from among these people to
  run the state.

5
Jefferson objected to the idea of entrenched
powers

• Thomas Jefferson (along with Benjamin Franklin,
  James Madison, John Adams, Thomas Paine and some
  of the other major Bad Dudes who formed our
  country) objected to the idea of entrenched
  powers, like the English monarchy and the
  aristocracy which supported it, including the
  governors loyal to the king who ran the
  colonies.
• But noble birthright and hereditary power were so
  firmly entrenched in 18th century European
  thought that to go against them was dangerous.
  (Thomas Paine had a price on his head in England
  for some of the things he wrote in America). And,
  of course, when these ideas were put into action,
  it caused the Revolutionary War.

6
So what caused this new revolution in thought?

• But people like Paine and Jefferson would not be
  stopped. Some of the radical ideas of these new
  men were rooted in the classical worlds of Rome
  and Greece, which almost all of them had studied
  since youth.
• John Locke, an English philosopher, took the
  ideas of the Roman Senator Cicero, and brought
  them to his modern audience. Lockes biggest
  contributions were the ideas of natural rights
  and the social contract.

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Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BCE
According to the Law of Nature, it is only fair
that no one should become enriched through
damages and injuries suffered by another.''
Cicero ''The strictest law often causes the
most serious wrong.'' - Cicero
http//sites.la.utexas.edu/cicero/images/
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All people are inherently equal and free

• Locke argued that all people are inherently equal
  and free and that legitimate governments were not
  based on divine hierarchies where God appointed
  Kings, but came from agreements among men where
  they surrendered only some freedoms to protect
  their natural right to life, liberty, and
  property.
• They do this by forming a social contract in
  which they consent to give up a certain amount of
  power to a government dedicated to maintaining
  the well-being of the whole.
• They also give up one right, the right to judge
  and punish other persons, which is permitted in
  the state of nature.  

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The people legitimize the government (and not the
other way around)

• Apart from that, Locke argued, a person's
  individual right to freedom of thought, speech,
  and worship must be preserved. In addition, a
  person's private property must be preserved by
  the government. This contract between the people
  and their rulers legitimizes the government and
  explains the source of the rulers' power.
•  
• Jefferson used these ideas in the Declaration of
  Independence to assert two radical new ideas
  that all people were equal to one another in
  terms of their rights and that they must agree to
  be governed. From this point on the days of the
  royalty were numbered.
• Citizens began to see themselves on the same
  level as their leaders, subject to the same
  shortcomings and certainly subject to criticism
  if so deserved.
• Source http//legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.c
  om/JohnLocke

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Excerpt from Common Sense (1776)by Thomas Paine

• Some writers have so confounded society with
  government, as to leave little or no distinction
  between them whereas they are not only
  different, but have different origins. Society is
  produced by our wants, and government by our
  wickedness the former promotes our happiness
  positively by uniting our affections, the latter
  negatively by restraining our vices. The one
  encourages intercourse, the other creates
  distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a
  punisher.

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The Age of Reason Rejected

• Medieval authoritarianism was still a big
  influence in the New World. The Puritanistic
  ideas of predestination needed to be overcome.
• The leaders of the Age of Reason rejected the
  idea that the world was a mystery, and subject to
  a wrathful Gods every whim.
• They rejected unquestioning faith in miracles,
  holy books, and the divinity of priests.

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Age of Reason accepted

• That God exists and created and governs the
  universe.
• That God gave humans the ability to reason.
• The belief that the universe operated by a
  rational formula that can be understood by any
  intelligent person, an idea proposed by Sir Isaac
  Newton (whose work from 1687 is the basis for the
  entire science of Physics. The dude was wicked
  smart).
• The idea that order can be found everywhere in
  the natural world and they found it not in
  religion but in the new science.

13
What happened to the Church?

• Deism was the new religious movement that was a
  faith without church or churchmen. It was
  validated by mathematics, scientific observation,
  and logic instead of divine revelation. Jefferson
  and Franklin, among others, were deists.
• Deism holds that reason and observation of the
  natural world, without the need for organized
  religion, can determine that the universe is the
  product of an all-powerful creator. You dont
  need a priest or a church to tell you whats
  right.
• The dominating idea of Hell faded and the gentler
  God of natural philosophy replaced the wrathful
  God of the Puritans.

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The God-given power Reason

• God had made it possible for all people at all
  times to discover natural laws through God-given
  powerREASON (opposite of Puritan belief in a
  mysterious God)
• Man can deduce the existence of a supreme being
  from the fact that the universe exists rather
  than because of what the Bible says.
• They also believed in perfectibility of every
  individual through the use of reason

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Benjamin Franklin Drawing Down Electricity
from the Sky (Benjamin West, ca. 1816)
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I Just Believe in Science, Okay!?

• Know then thyself, presume not God to scan/The
  proper study of mankind is man. (Alexander Pope)
• What does that mean?

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Common Beliefs

• 1. Faith in natural goodness - a human is born
  without taint or sin the concept of tabula rasa
  or blank slate.
• 2. Perfectibility of a human being - it is
  possible to improve situations of birth, economy,
  society, and religion.
• 3. The sovereignty of reason God and His laws
  can be deduced by the thinking individual,
  without the need for a church
• 4. Universal benevolence - the attitude of
  helping everyone.
• 5. Outdated social institutions cause unsociable
  behavior - religious, social, economic, and
  political institutions which have not modernized
  force individuals into unacceptable behavior.

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Functions of the Writers of this period

• 1. A searching inquiry in all aspects of the
  world around.
• 2. Interest in the classical thought of Greece
  and Rome
• 3. Interest in Nature and natural rights
• 4. Interest in science and scientific
  experiments.
• 5. Optimism - experiments in utopian communities
• 6. Sense of a person's duty to succeed.
• 7. Constant search of the self - emphasis on
  individualism in a. personal religion b. study
  of the Bible for personal interpretation.

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And Furthermore

• Our business here on Earth is not to know all
  things, but those which concern our conduct.
  (Locke)
• So are these people entirely different from the
  Puritans? Whats similar?
• Founders and Faith?
• Natures God, natural rights and public
  religion

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Neo-Classicism

• What would be the best way for writers in this
  era to articulate their views?
• What is the function of their writing, and how
  does it differ from the function of Puritan
  writing?
• Are there similarities?

21
Rhetoric Today this term means the art of
speaking or writing effectively (especially
persuasive speaking or writing). In Franklins
time the term meant the same thing, but more
precisely it stood for the study of principles
and rules of composition formulated by critics of
ancient times.
Reason If one is rational, then he has the
ability to reason. What does it mean to reason?
Reasoning is a type of thinking used to seek a
truth through cause and effect and through
drawing conclusions.
Logic A system of rules used to express reasoning
Socratic Method A technique in which a debater
does not argue directly but instead asks a series
of questions, with the result that the opponent
comes either to the desired knowledge by
answering the questions or to a deeper awareness
of the limits of his knowledge.
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Those Greeks Had It Right

• These writers saw the lit. of the ancient Greeks
  and Romans as the ideal to which all must aspire.
• Emulation of these classical styles and
  traditions
• Restraint rather than emotion
• Dignified, refined and decorous language

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Should We Be Wearing Togas?

• Writing, especially poetry, was seen as having a
  public function it was not seen as a means for
  private, individual expression.
• A mode through which timeless truths could be
  imparted.
• self-help
• Chicken Soup for the Rational Soul?

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Artifacts of Different Eras

• Thou hast a house on high erect,
• Framed by that mighty Architect,
• With glory richly furnished,
• Stands permanent though this be fled.
• Its purchased and paid for too
• By Him who hath enough to do.
• A price so vast as is unknown
• Yet by His gift is made thine own
• Theres wealth enough, I need no more,
• Farewell, my pelf, farewell my store.
• The world no longer let me love,
• My hope and treasure lies above.
• (Bradstreet, 1666)

• While virtue warms the generous breast,
• There heaven-born freedom shall reside,
• Nor shall the voice of war molest,
• Nor Europes all-aspiring pride
• There Reason shall new laws devise,
• And order from confusion rise.
• Forsaking kings and regal state,
• With all their pomp and fancied bliss,
• The traveler admits, convinced though late,
• No realm so free, so blessed as this
• The east is half to slaves consigned,
• Where kings and priests enchain the mind.
• (On the Religion of Nature, Philip
  Freneau, 1785)

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Order and Virtue

• We should organize our lives into an ordered
  sequence of reasoned and virtuous thoughts and
  behaviors
• Aim is human perfection
• How would the Puritans have felt about the
  concept of humans perfecting themselves for
  themselves and by themselves?

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Sources

• www.businessdictionary.com/definition/dogma.htmli
  xzz2EPMWB6Oi
• http//www.nlnrac.org/classical/cicero
• http//www.nlnrac.org/american
• Jefferson and the Aristocracy Suite101
  http//suite101.com/article/thomas-jefferson-and-a
  ristocracy-a44071ixzz2EOLNsGoK
• http//www.online-literature.com/periods/enlighten
  ment.php
• http//legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Natu
  ralLaw
• http//sites.la.utexas.edu/cicero/images/
• http//dictionary.reference.com/browse/deism
• http//www.darienps.org/teachers/mpavia/age20of2
  0reason,20enlightenment20and20neoclassicism.ppt
  
• http//www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap2/2i
  ntro.html
• McMichael, George.The Literature of Reason and
  Revolution. The Anthology of American Literature
  vol. 1 sixth edition, Ed.
• _ Self-Made Americans. Elements of Literature,
  Fifth Course Literature of the United States
  with Literature of the Americas (2000). Holt
  Rinehart and Winston, New York.