On Friday we'll catch up on our backlog of prose readings: Johnson (Ramblers 4 and 23), Brooke (the Preface), and Sterne ("True Shandeism," "Obadiah and the Cow," "the Northwest Passage to the Intellectual World," and "Uncle Toby and the Fly"); we'll try to draw some connections between this array of prose texts, the poetry that we've read already, and our emerging map of later C18 literature.
In preparation, I urge you to read any of the prose texts that you haven't yet gotten to, and respond to this post. I have replaced some of the Sterne excerpts with more readable PDFs.
Questions you might like to take on (pick one!):
1. How does Brooke illuminate or complicate the picture of C18 fiction that emerged in the course of class discussion today (Wednesday)?
2. How do the Johnson readings contribute to your understanding of "sensibility"?
3. How do the Sterne excerpts track with Brooke's discussion of novels?
4. What interesting connections have you perceived among our readings to date that haven't been mentioned in class discussion or on the blog?
5. What questions do you have at this stage?
Deadline: Friday (2/13), 10am.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I found an interesting corralation between Johnson's condescending attitude and Thomas Gray. Johnson I think underestimates his reader, he simplifies them to being an innocent youth; who is impressionable and needs guidance. I sensed this same White male patriarchal point of view that Thomas Gray seemed to have in his Elegy. This idea that as the artist or critic, I know what is best for you and this is what you need. In Gray's case this meant that the rich should honor the dead peasants and that they had lives of substance, even as he looked down on them. Similarly, Johnson argues that the reader needs guidance and that we should write at a simple easily accessible level yet even this demonstrates his condescending attitude.
I believe Brooke has illuminated the opinions of 18th cent. literature that we have studied so far. Elements in the preface relate to a few points of Samuel Johnson's that we discussed in class, while not as bold or restricting. At the end of the preface Brooke writes, "let the female to whom Heaven has lent a ray of the animating fire of genius...continue to intermix such studies as become her station in the scale of rational beings, with the domestic duties which those studies will diversify, but not interrupt...". The sensible attitudes of Johnson and Brooke are similar, and they are in accord with the attitude of 18th century authors. Johnson emphasized the moral importance of creating a character, and Brooke emphasizes the truth and "domestic duties" as being important in writing. Their writings focus on what is expected out of people and can act as a role model for the readers.
While at first I would have pegged Sterne's writing under Brooke's banner of a "vehicle of depravity and licentiousness," I've come to see that both readings have significant common ground. Brooke mentions that a goal of the writing is to "enlarge the knowledge of human nature." This reminded me of Tristram's idea of the "Northwest Passage to the intellectual world". The idea of literature as a means for expanding intellect parallels Walter Shandy's goal with the Tristrapaedia. Additionally, it hearkens back to a point where Tristram berates a hypothetical reader for reading his story merely for the plot, and not as a source of erudition.
Post a Comment