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Back to 2007-08 BM1 Introduction to the Critical and Scholarly Discussion of Literature, Part 1

Received Notions on Periods in Literary History

• Mittelalter, Renaissance, Barock, Aufklärung, Sturm und Drang, Klassik, Romantik, Vormärz/Biedermeier, Bürgerlicher Realismus? Naturalismus, Expressionismus...
• Middle Ages, Early Modern Period (Renaissance, Civil War/Interregnum, Restoration, Augustan Age/Classicism, 18th Century, Age of Enlightenment, Age of Sensibility), Modern Period (Romanticism, Victoran Age, Modernism, Postmodernism)

Typical Features:

• Middle Ages: Feudal Society, Christian dominance, restricted literacy, manuscripts, no united nation, wars of roses etc., Arthurian epics, danish invasions, norman invasion : medieval literature: either religious (legends of saints, prayer and mystical books...) or courtly (chaucer)
• Renaissance (c.1500- c.1650): discovery of antiquity and roman / greek poetry, rejection of medieval period, discovery of the invidual (Renaissance man), humanism, boom in drama (Shakespeare embodies it all) religious conflict: English reformation to Civil War, which establishes a puritan republic (1649-1660).
• Augustan Age/ Classicism: political stability and boom in poetry (Dryden, Pope as modern equivalents of Virgil, Horace or Ovid) French influence, 'art of poetry' poetics according to classicist rules, absolutist tendencies (england resists) dominance of form, rhetoric, poetic diction.
• Enlightenment: rationality, age of reason, sciences, philosophy, civil liberties, religious and political tolerance.
• sensibility: emotions (stereotypical), reacts to the deficits of enlightenment, sociability
• Romanticism: reacts to the deficits of enlightenment, radicalises emotions (and expresses them individually), turn to nature, individuality, heroism (outsiderdom), fragment and infinity, escapisms: exotism, medieval / pagan past, ; initially politically radical, then a conservative turn, -- turn to popular forms, rejection of poetic diction,

Second Thoughts

1. periods seem to react to one another
2. periods may be difficult to distinguish
3. Relation between individual text and the period it belongs to? a problematic circularity,
4. characterisations of periods can be used in debates and controversies
5. there are debates and controversies which are not between periods (example:

More complex or differentiated perspectives

The periods which we know, have not always been known. Some indications for the history of periodisation is roughly as follows:

• before 1500: a sense of unbroken continuity with Roman empire and society (no sense of cultural difference), search for legitimation by succession to the Roman empire
• 1500-1650: introduction of a three phased model: ancient - medieval - modern; exclusion of medieval period, modern period tries to revive ancient models
• 1650-1750: battle of the ancients and the moderns: sense of difference between the modern and the ancient world.
• 1750- : discovery of Middle Ages as national past; modernity as the phase of intensified period-formation

in each case the introduction and definition of periods serves a purpose: [details]

Consequences: we need to know about periods and their features we need to ask about when they were "invented" and what purpose their invention could serve

What do we do when we come across periods

reflect on what purpose they serve in a given context.

you may create your own periods!

you may prefer to identify and discuss historical developments.

beyond the scope of this lecture

Argument 1: Our historical periodisations are arbitrary

• Our present histories of literature show different and competing periodisations, two conflicting positions towards periods should be reflected:

• The characteristic features of periods can be seen in the characteristic literature which the period produces. The great works of a period help us - consequently - to better understand the frame of mind of each age.
• We produce ever changing periodisations to "prove" historical developments we want to claim as our cultural heritage. We base our notions of these developments on a canon of literary works which we select and interpret accordingly.

• History and the past have played entirely different roles over the centuries. The discussion of historical and future developments are relatively new fields of the cultural debate.

• If you do written work on the university level

• Do not enrich your seminar papers with explanations of the period - which you feel your reader might need to understand the work in question (your reader can be expected to inform himself on such trivia).
• You may critically discuss common or less common notions about periods (as to be found in Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia Britannica or in specific scientific works) - if you feel these notions distorted our view on materials you want to examine closer.

Different periodisations

A survey.

Patterns of periodisations

Periods follow traditions of how history is to be told and these arose in historical situations.

The existing patterns of periodisation are connected to different schools of thought and a matter of debate.

Periods - a matter of debate

Periods are used as agents, they act on each other within the histories we write and they do this to provide a certain development we try to prove. Our constructs of history are a matter of debate.

Two historical texts

What do we need to know about the period in which these titles were first published? Existing judgements - which do not really help us to understand these products.

William Salmon, The London Almanack for the Year of our Lord 1694 (1694)

A calender - a typical commercial product.

A close look on the calender's perspective on time, future, present and past.

A close look on the "Hieroglyphs" and their prognostics. What kind of questions is the author interested in? What interest does he (and his readers have in the future?

Samuel Madden, Memoirs of the Twentieth Century (1733)

The first novel with a futuristic setting.

Political satire rather than science fiction.

A striking lack of interest in the future?

Both texts share perspectives: some observations.

The production of history - whether past or future a 19th century affair

Pre-19th-century views of history

The definite beginning and the lack of developments

The lack of a future - due to a clear expectation of an end of history, characterised much more by the existing perspective on the past: a past of decisions and revolution rather than developments.

How to speak about periods productively

1. Avoid historical introductions which you can only fill with commonplace knowledge.
2. Quote sources like Wikipedia on periods only if you want to give a critical impression of circulating common perceptions (in contrast to more sophisticated concepts).
3. Create historical contexts to settle specific questions (for instance to show why Salmon's predictions sounded plausible in 1694 and why he might have avoided reprints in succeeding editions of his almanack).
4. Quote common and scholarly perspectives on historical periods to critically show how they influenced (or helped to avoid) readings of texts you are dealing with.