Age of Reason + Rise of Novel + Robinson Crusoe 2020 L1
Age of Reason + Rise of Novel + Robinson Crusoe 2020 L1
Age of Reason + Rise of Novel + Robinson Crusoe 2020 L1
Department of English
Lmd 1 Lit.St – ALL GROUPS
The Enlightenment (The Age of Reason) and the Rise of the Novel
The late sixteenth to the seventeenth century in Europe witnessed the Renaissance, which is a scientific,
cultural and intellectual movement, considered as the birth of sciences in Europe. The next period in
Europe, and England in particular is that of the Enlightenment, often referred to as the Age of Reason (and
Modernity), is a consequence of the Renaissance. The birth of sciences enhanced the intellectual life in
Europe, many philosophers and thinkers started to write about reason and scientific truth. The spirit of this
age centered around science as the only truth man can be sure of, thus any knowledge which is not
calculable, or scientifically proven, is not reasonable. Reason thus became synonym to truth, and science
becoming a definition of truth.
For Emmanuel Kant, the Enlightenment is “Man’s emergence from one’s own self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another. This
immaturity is self imposed if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolution and courage to
use it without the guidance of another. The motto of the enlightenment is therefore: Sapere Aude! Have
courage to use your own understanding”. (Aufklarung is the German translation of the word
Enlightenment)
The Main Figures of the Enlightenment:
There have been many thinkers in the Enlightenment age who wrote about this movement. The literature of
this period was rather rational and intellectual instead of fictional. The first thinkers to define the
Enlightenment are French, German, and English philosophers and scientists, who—together—formed a
movement they called Philosophes.
This movement included Jean Jacques Rousseau (French), Renée Descartes (French), John Voltaire, Denis
Diderot, and others. These philosophers defined the Enlightenment starting from Descartes’ principle (I
think therefore I am), thus relating man’s existence to his ability to think for himself (which leads back to
Kant’s definition of the Enlightenment)
Other British thinkers like John Locke, Isaac Newton, David Hume, related the Enlightenment to science
and truth, having Newton’s theory of the Gravity, and his essays about science, as an inspiration leading
them to conclude that natural and human laws contribute in making things happen.
Principles of the Enlightenment:
The Consequences of the Age of Reason (also factors of the rise of a new literary genre: the novel)
1. The rise of a new social class, the Bourgeois class, constituted of tradesmen of the middle class, with
limited education and large wealth
2. The spread of intellectual cafés which enhanced political and intellectual debates
3. The invention of the printing machine and the translation of the bible
4. Higher education rate among the commons
5. The need of a literature that represents the middle class to entertain them
References:
http://www.westga.edu/~mmcfar/Worksheet%20on%20the%20Age%20of%20Reason.htm
http://www.ministrytopostmoderns.com/explained/literature/155-literature-and-postmodernism
Fitzpatrick, Martin. The Enlightenment World. London: Routledge, 2004.
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The novel is defined as “a narrative in prose, based on a story, in which the author may portray character,
and the life of an age, and analyse sentiments and passions, and the reactions of men and women to their
environment” (Evans 1976: 212).
Thus, the novel is a long narrative based on the daily lives of some characters, it represents their joys and
sorrows; successes and failures, and it portrays a certain period in history.
Why did the novel rise precisely at that period? Critics argue that the novel developed with the increase of
the reading public, this reading public that consisted of the rising middle-class, the novel became ‘an art-
form written by and for the now-powerful commercial bourgeoisie’ (Kettle 1969: 28).
Industrial revolution
It is one of the chief reasons that helped to the rise of the novel through the development of industries.
With the new equipment the work could be achieved rapidly and people could have time for relaxation and
entertainment during which people preferred reading novels.
Printing press
It was obtainable to manufacture several copies at a cheaper price. Even people with low salaries could
afford themselves books unlike in the past when only aristocrats were the reading community.
Decline of drama
It was also one reason that helped the rise of the novel. During the rule of Cromwell in the 17 th century,
theatres (the most entertaining popular settings during the Elizabethan era) were forbidden and closed.
Additionally, the novel could attain a larger audience, unlike theatre which could attain only a restricted
audience.
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Mobile libraries
The innovation of mobile libraries made the increase in reading public easy. Reading was encouraged by
providing easy access to books since books were delivered to the homes if people are members in the
mobile library. It was very beneficial mostly for women. Even though the industrial revolution caused the
decline in romance and drama, the rise of the middle class and mobile libraries played a paramount role in
the rise of the novel. Finally, four authors precisely Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, and Sterne took the novel
to “the highest point of glory” (Roy, 2016, p. 8).
These lectures were elaborated based on the courses of Prof Serir, Dr Mouro, Dr Kheladi, Ms
Mengouchi, Dr Belmerabet.
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Lecture 2: Aspects of the Novel
The novel, as previously stated differs from its previous forms because of its numerous characteristics. It is
made of a plot, a setting and, most important, a set of different characters.
Plot:
Plot is a series of events or episodes that make up the action of a work of fiction and E. M. Forster defines
it as “a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality” (1966: 93). The reader questions the reasons
of the happenings of the events and this is called curiosity. It requires intelligence and memory.
Plot refers to the action or “story line” of the literary work. Both drama and fiction have plots, but
sometimes poems also do. Plot often involves conflict between two or more characters or between a
character and himself or between a character and external opposing forces. One has to bear in mind that
there is no action without conflict. Conflict in literature might include the following:
Setting:
The setting is time and place. The novelist is concerned with men in a particular place at a particular time,
and according to Walter Allen, the greatest novelist is the one who is able to write about his time in a way
to distinguish it from another (1958: 23-24).
Characters:
Characterization went through different stages in order to reach the kind of ‘people’ we have in novels.
The first break with the old tradition was to select characters from lower classes, no more kings and
queens, nor knights. The new hero of the new genre was an ordinary man that we might meet throughout
our lives, and the importance of the realistic aspect of characters is demonstrated by Lionel Stevenson: “no
matter how believable the action may be in itself, it does not win the reader’s full credulity unless it is
performed by distinct individuals who are recognizable in terms of our experience” (1960: 8). The
character in a novel resembles strangely and realistically human beings in real life.
The Different Types of the Novel:
The epistolary novel: it is made up of letters exchanged by the characters, such as Pamela (1740)
and Clarissa (1748) by Richardson
The picaresque novel: from picaro (dishonest and unusual) a kind of journey in search of an ideal,
with characters rather foolish and involved in situations too complex to be resolved.
The comic novel: the characters and/or the situations they live are absurd.
The historical novel: fictional narrative which constructs history and recreates it imaginatively.
The psychological novel: modern and postmodern, it is fiction devoted to the investigation of
spiritual, emotional and mental life of characters caring nothing for plot or actions (Virginia
Woolf).
Thesis novel: it deals with social, religious or political issue having a didactic purpose (Hard Times
by Dickens)
The sentimental novel
The gothic novel:
The detective / thriller novel
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motivation in prose story form” (Smith & co 1974: 172-3), as well as sentimentality influenced all the
coming novelists. He was considered as sexual moralist and for women he was a prophet of emotion.
Henry Fielding (1707-1754) introduced irony and satire (the comic form) and used many characters to
represent all social classes. He wrote Shamela (1741); a total imitation of Pamela in which he ridicules
Richardson’s simplistic reduction of virtue to female virginity and it was a failure. Then, he wrote Joseph
Andrews (1742), The History of Tom Jones (1749), and many others. Fielding wanted to reform manners
whereas Richardson worked to improve them.
Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1759) a comic novel on morals
in which he introduced sentimentality, and Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) a moralist and satirist who used
comedy to talk about what disgusted him in society as in The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748).
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Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe, as a young and impulsive wanderer, defied his parents and went to sea. He was involved
in a series of violent storms at sea and was warned by the captain that he should not be a seafaring man.
Ashamed to go home, Crusoe boarded another ship and returned from a successful trip to Africa. Taking
off again, Crusoe met with bad luck and was taken prisoner in Sallee. His captors sent Crusoe out to fish,
and he used this to his advantage and escaped, along with a slave.
He was rescued by a Portuguese ship and started a new adventure. He landed in Brazil, and, after some
time, he became the owner of a sugar plantation. Hoping to increase his wealth by buying slaves, he
aligned himself with other planters and undertook a trip to Africa in order to bring back a shipload of
slaves. After surviving a storm, Crusoe and the others were shipwrecked. He was thrown upon shore only
to discover that he was the sole survivor of the wreck. Crusoe made immediate plans for food, and then
shelter, to protect himself from wild animals. He brought as many things as possible from the wrecked
ship, things that would be useful later to him. In addition, he began to develop talents that he had never
used in order to provide himself with necessities. Cut off from the company of men, he began to
communicate with God, thus beginning the first part of his religious conversion.
To keep his sanity and to entertain himself, he began a journal. In the journal, he recorded every task that
he performed each day since he had been marooned. As time passed, Crusoe became a skilled craftsman,
able to construct many useful things, and thus furnished himself with diverse comforts. He also learned
about farming, as a result of some seeds which he brought with him. An illness prompted some prophetic
dreams, and Crusoe began to reappraise his duty to God. Crusoe explored his island and discovered another
part of the island much richer and more fertile, and he built a summer home there. One of the first tasks he
undertook was to build himself a canoe in case an escape became possible, but the canoe was too heavy to
get to the water. He then constructed a small boat and journeyed around the island. Crusoe reflected on his
earlier, wicked life, disobeying his parents, and wondered if it might be related to his isolation on this
island. After spending about fifteen years on the island, Crusoe found a man's naked footprint, and he was
sorely beset by apprehensions, which kept him awake many nights. He considered many possibilities to
account for the footprint and he began to take extra precautions against a possible intruder. Sometime later,
Crusoe was horrified to find human bones scattered about the shore, evidently the remains of a savage
feast. He was plagued again with new fears. He explored the nature of cannibalism and debated his right to
interfere with the customs of another race.
Crusoe was cautious for several years, but encountered nothing more to alarm him. He found a cave, which
he used as a storage room, and in December of the same year, he spied cannibals sitting around a campfire.
He did not see them again for quite some time. Later, Crusoe saw a ship in distress, but everyone was
already drowned on the ship and Crusoe remained companionless. However, he was able to take many
provisions from this newly wrecked ship. Sometime later, cannibals landed on the island and a victim
escaped. Crusoe saved his life, named him Friday, and taught him English. Friday soon became Crusoe's
humble and devoted slave. Crusoe and Friday made plans to leave the island and, accordingly, they built
another boat. Crusoe also undertook Friday's religious education, converting the savage into a Protestant.
Their voyage was postponed due to the return of the savages. This time it was necessary to attack the
cannibals in order to save two prisoners since one was a white man. The white man was a Spaniard and the
other was Friday's father. Later the four of them planned a voyage to the mainland to rescue sixteen
compatriots of the Spaniard. First, however, they built up their food supply to assure enough food for the
extra people. Crusoe and Friday agreed to wait on the island while the Spaniard and Friday's father brought
back the other men.
A week later, they spied a ship but they quickly learned that there had been a mutiny on board. By devious
means, Crusoe and Friday rescued the captain and two other men, and after much scheming, regained
control of the ship. The grateful captain gave Crusoe many gifts and took him and Friday back to England.
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Some of the rebel crewmen were left marooned on the island. Crusoe returned to England and found that in
his absence he had become a wealthy man. After going to Lisbon to handle some of his affairs, Crusoe
began an overland journey back to England. Crusoe and his company encountered many hardships in
crossing the mountains, but they finally arrived safely in England. Crusoe sold his plantation in Brazil for a
good price, married, and had three children. Finally, however, he was persuaded to go on yet another
voyage, and he visited his old island, where there were promises of new adventures to be found in a later
account.
Characters
Robinson Crusoe: The narrator of the novel who gets shipwrecked.
Friday: Servant to Robinson Crusoe.
Xury: Former servant to Crusoe, helps him escape Sallee; is later sold to the Portuguese Captain.
The Widow: Friend to Robinson Crusoe. She looks over his assets while he is away.
Portuguese Sea Captain: Helps save Robinson Crusoe from slavery. Is very generous and close with
Crusoe; helps him with his money and plantation.
Ismael: Secures Robinson Crusoe a boat for escaping Sallee.
The Spaniard: Rescued by Robinson Crusoe and helps him escape his island.
Robinson Crusoe's father: A merchant named Kreutznaer.
These lectures were elaborated based on the courses of Prof Serir, Dr Mouro, Dr Kheladi, Ms
Mengouchi, Dr Belmerabet.