Education of the republic of uzbekistan navoi state pedagogical institute faculty of english and literature

CONCULISION
 
The writers and philosophers of this age reflected the ideology of the middle 
class. They protested against the survival of feudalism. They thought that vice was 
due to ignorance, so they started a public movement for enlightening the people. 
The enlighteners wanted to bring knowledge that is ―light‖ to the people. To their 
understanding this would do away with all the evils of society, and social harmony 
would be achieved. The English Enlightenment was a relatively conservative 
compromise of new and old ideas with current conditions. Since the enlighteners 
believed in the power of reason, the period was also called the Age of Reason. The 
century had many other titles. It has been called the Age of Classicism, because 
many writers and poets of that time were fascinated by ancient Greece and Rome. 
It has been called the Age of Elegance, for the display of elegant style of life 
among the upper classes. 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. In the eighteenth century 
the subjects of study to which man applied himself became more numerous and 
more systematic, and it was the good fortune of England that prose in that age had 
become a pliant and serviceable medium. It was a century full of speculation and 
fierce questioning, a century with powerful minds that applied themselves to the 
problems of the nature of life, and set out solutions, which have been the basis of 
much later thought. It was a century, above all others, when England led Europe in 
philosophical speculation. The center of interest was human experience, and what 
could be learned from it of the nature of life. Richardson and Fielding explored 
human experience in fiction. Historians were attempting, more ambitiously than 
before, to interpret the past of life, and philosophers to expound the nature of 
reality itself. It was natural that in such a century the orthodox teachings of the 
Church should be open to criticism. Writers widely accepted those literary forms, 
in particular, prose forms, which were understandable to the people as a whole. 

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Manners, fashions, literature, stories, moral reflections, all took a turn as themes in 
brief papers, which were addressed consciously to a middle-class audience. The 
periodical essay was the eighteenth-century equivalent of the broadcast talk. 
Contact between writers and readers was established by famous English essayists 
Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. They started and directed several magazines 
for which they wrote pamphlets and essays. In 1709 Steele issued a magazine, 
―The Tatler‖. It was followed by others: ―The Spectator‖ (1711), ―The Guardian‖ 
(1713), and ―The Englishman‖ (1713). In the latter political problems were 
discussed. Periodical newspapers also helped to spread information among the 
general public.