Neoclassical Tutorial

1
Neoclassical Tutorial
2
History Behind Neoclassicism

• What is important for you to know about the
  Neoclassical Period is that it was a time when
  the social order was undergoing great change.  
• The middle class was rising in power and
  prestige. 
• The creation of new wealth through trade was
  challenging established hierarchies. 
• And the idea of the "divine right of kings" (that
  kings were authorized to rule as God's
  representatives on earth) was losing its hold as
  the rule of kings became more precarious. 
• In 1649, for example, Charles I, King of England,
  was beheaded and his throne became the
  Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. 
• At the end of the Neoclassical period we see the
  American and French Revolutions.

3
The Reformation

• There were challenges to religious authority as
  well. 
• Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans were ousted in
  England as Charles II regained the throne in
  1660. 
• The Restoration of Charles II to the throne led
  to a new age of bawdiness in theatre, dress, and
  literature, a reaction to Puritan insistence on
  plainness and seemliness.

4
Historical Events Affecting Neoclassical Thought

• Other important events affecting the period
  include
• the Copernican Revolution in the Sixteenth
  Century (man learns he is not, in fact, the
  center of the universe, which has enormous
  ramifications regarding religious belief)
• the Cartesian Revolution of the Seventeenth
  Century
• Rene Descartes writes,  "I think, therefore I
  am," which brings into question any attempt to
  view the world objectively and initiates a new
  emphasis on subjectivity. 

5
Effects of Literature

• In literature, the "endless flux of event and
  feeling" which people were experiencing in the
  midst of such massive social change was reflected
  in  a new emphasis on strict conventions and
  forms. 
• As a result, the literature of the period may
  sometimes seem stylized to the modern reader, and
  not many students will consider this their
  favorite period of literary history.

6
Now and Then

• The biggest differences between the Neoclassical
  assumptions about reality and those common to our
  age include
• to Neoclassical minds, natural passions aren't
  necessarily good natural passions must be
  subordinated to social needs and strictly
  controlled.
• social needs are more important to Neoclassical
  society than individual needs. 
• This conflicts with our modern preoccupation with
  the individual in our time, the needs of the
  individual tend to be considered the most
  important, but this wasn't true in the
  Neoclassical period.

7
Order Rules

• Neoclassical thinkers believed that man could
  find meaning in order itself in the order of
• Nature
• social hierarchies
• Government
• Religion
• Even in the order within literary forms.

8
Neoclassical Thought

• Writers of the period often turned to the
  classical past for stability and the order they
  craved, both of which were threatened.
• With all of these ideas, it is important to
  remember that we're only talking about a very
  narrow segment of society (mostly the upper-class
  who are literate or whose lives were recorded in
  some way). 
• We are also talking primarily about a relatively
  small portion of the world, mostly England and
  France.

9
Religion

• In religion, there was a search for natural law,
  for something beyond kings and individual
  subjective experience in an attempt to stabilize
  existence. 
• Deism emerged as a dominant religious philosophy
  of the period, emphasizing ideas about God as the
  Great Planner or Watchmaker who assembles the
  universe, winds it up, and then leaves it ticking
  away on its own without interfering in its
  day-to-day operations. 
• The ideas of an impersonal God and a logical
  universe are central to Deism. 
• Many of the early founders of the United States,
  including Thomas Jefferson, were deists. 
• Deists tend to equate morality itself with reason
  and logic.