Main directions of the English Literature in the Early Middle ages

36.Peculiarities of the Age of Enlightenment in the English Literature.Eighteenth-century literature reflects the ideas and interests of the Age of Reason, the Age of Classicism, the Age of Elegance. Works show a sense of order and moderation; writers display their "wit", or cleverness. Prose is calm and logical; poems are carefully structured.This period saw a remarkable rise in literature. People wrote on many subjects and made great contributions in the fields of philosophy, history, natural sciences and the new science of political economy. Writers widely accepted those literary forms, in particular, prose forms, which were understandable to the people as a wholeDrama of the 18th century continued traditions of Restoration playwrights. Sentimental tragedies were popular with the growing audience.Outstanding in the early decades of the century is John Gay's "Beggar's Opera",a play with ballads (1728); Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer", and Richard Briensley Sheridan's "Rivals" and "School for Scandal". The play, with its moral emphasis and its melodramatic theme, made a wide and immediate appeal. The 18thcentury gave the world such brilliant English writers as Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Tobias Smollett and the famous dramatist Richard Briensley Sheridan. Eighteenth-century England is also often called the Augustan Age.We can conclude that English literature of the period of Enlightenment may be characterized by the following features:a) The rise of the political pamphlet and essay, but the leading genre of the Enlightenment became the novel. Poetry of the previous ages gave way to the prose age of the essayists and novelists. Poems were also created at this period, but the poets did not deal with strong human passions, they were more interested in the problems of everyday life, and discussed things in verse.b) The heroes of the literary works were no longer kings and princes, but the representatives of the middle class.c) Literature became instructive. The writers dealt with problems of good and evil. They tried to teach their readers what was good and what was bad from their own point of view.Some literary critics divide the literature of the age of the Enlightenment into three periods:The first period lasted from The Glorious Revolution (1688) till the end of the 1730s. It is characterized by classicism in poetry. The greatest follower of the classic style was Alexander Pope. Besides classical poetry there appeared new prose literature, the essays of Steele and Addison and the first realistic novels written by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift. Most of the writers of the time wrote political pamphlets.The second period of the Enlightenment was the perfect period. It includes the 40s and the 50s of the 18th century. The realistic social novel of the time was represented by Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollett.The third period refers to the last decade of the 18th century. It is marked by the appearance of a new trend, sentimentalism, represented by the works of Oliver Goldsmith and Laurence Sterne. The realistic drama of the time was represented by Richard Briensley Sheridan.