British Literature in the Long Eighteenth Century: Preliminary Considerations

Abstract

This paper is based on an introductory lecture from a lecture course with Katalin G. Kállay on 18th and 19th century British and American literature. It considers the problems of defining distinct periods in literary history such as the Augustan age or Romanticism. Through the example The Battel of the Books by Jonathan Swift, it highlights the inherent tensions shaping the literary canon and argues that key concepts of literary history are created retroactively, through the interplay of conflicting perspectives. The second half of the paper discusses aspects of the Restoration and the literature of the long 18th century highlighting the dynamic between modernization and the return to past models. The writings of John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and Samuel Johnson are used to illustrate key points.