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The first neo-classicist in English literature is B. Jonson.

There are several important key words in neoclassicism.

1- Follow the rules: It is the theory of Horace, saying studying the works of ancient will make you a poet. So it means one should follow the past to become a poet. It is a very important feature.

2- Imitate the ancients

3- Literature for the sake of the society to improve it (writing satire). Laughter must

The greatest writers of this period are Dryden, Alexander Pope, Dr. Johnson and Jonathan Swift.

It was age of optimism.

Another feature of it was decorum: the fitness of subject and style, which was also important in Renaissance.

The other feature is that literature must give pleasure and delight.

Simplicity and clarity are among other features.

Literature should instruct and correct the society.

The neo-classicists interested in nature as rules and standards for judgement.

Shakespeare and Horace’s works are important for them.

One of the most important features is reason: literature, life and even religion which is rational. The second half of the 18^th century is called age of reason. The other name for this period is Age of Prose. Periodicals, novels and satires emerged.

Enlightenment: Reason is enough to guide you through your life. Literature of the head, not heart. You must prune your readers and teach morality.

There was a drama called sentimental drama called sentimental drama appealing emotions which replaced comedy of manners. Blank verse was replaced by heroic couplet which was simple, direct and brief.

Novel was born in the neo-classical period.

According to neo-classical period, a person must be trained to become a poet.

Neo-classical literature is objective, in contrast with Romantic literature which is subjective.

“Whatever is is right” said Alexander Pope, a deformed man. He is the writer who summed up rules and doctrines of neoclassical period. He added nothing, but summed up what was said before him, especially by the French writer, Boileau.

“Nature methodised”. It means a nature which is cut, formed, shaped and regulated.

Dryden is the greatest restoration writer. He is the first great critic of English literature.

They believe in conventions and forms.

Washington Irving (1783-1859)

He was a knickerbockers writer (writers in New York from 1810-1840). He was a short story writer, essayist, poet, travel-book writer, biographer and columnist. He is the first American short story writer- first American to be recognized abroad. He was born in New York City and had 10 brothers and sisters. His parents loved G.

Washington so he was named after him. He lived in England, France and Spain. His style is popular and elegant, based on the style of Addison and Goldsmith. His works are usually about English lives and customs.

His famous works is ‘A Legend of Sleepy Hollow’. It is about a legendary headless horseman.

The other famous short story by him is Rip Van Winkle, about a man who fell asleep in the woods for 20 years. It is based on a Greek folk tale.

He wrote ‘A History of Christopher Columbus’, and ‘The Conquest of Granada’.

He has a book called The Sketch Book, which has 35 short stories.

He was a US Minister in Madrid. He wrote ‘A History of New York’ which is comic.

He wrote ‘The Alhambra’, when he was in Spain. The setting is Spanish.

James Fennimore Cooper (1789-1851)

He is called the American Walter Scott (British romantic novelist). He was the first true American novelist. He wrote the first sea novel of American culture ‘The Pirate’.

He wrote the first trilogy in American Literature. He wrote the five volume epic called

‘The Leather Stocking Tales’.

The first volume of it is The Pioneers, the protagonist of which is Natty Bumppo. He is the ideal man of democracy.

He also wrote ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ which is the second book of The Leather Stocking Tales. It is a romance between Uncas (an Indian man) and Corae (a white girl). The setting is the war between British and French. It is an action novel, and Uncas is the last of the Mohicans.

The third book is called The Freri, the fourth one is The Path Finder and the fifth one is The Deer Slayer.

He has a trilogy which consists of Bravo, Heindermauer and the Headsman.

He has a book called Gleanings in Europe about his travels to Europe.

His themes are American society and history, frontier and sea.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

He was a transcendentalist, philosopher, poet, essayist and lecturer. He believed that human relations to nature should transcend the idea of usefulness, so transcendentalism is optimist. It is influenced by eastern mysticism. It is romanticism, but optimistic and influenced by eastern mysticism (like Sepehri).

There are two groups of transcendentalists. Emerson and Thoreau believe in social reform and people like Whitman believe in individualism.

An important concept for transcendentalists is oversoul. It means the unity within which every man’s particular being is contained and made one with all things. Man is a stream whose source is hidden.

Emerson believes in poetry and the philosophy of insight, not tradition, and a religion by revelation to us.

‘To be great is to be misunderstood’, ‘Never read any book that is not but a year old’,

‘We must free ourselves from the grip of tradition’, ‘Whose soul would be a man must be a non-conformist’ (famous quotations).

Some of his essays are Self Reliance, The Over Soul, American Scholar, Prudence, Friendship, Heroism, Intellect, Art.

Emerson was a spiritual teacher.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

He wan an American novelist and short story writer. He was born in Salem village which was the centre of Puritanism and witchcraft.

The major theme of Hawthorne is guilt. The theme of Young Goodman Brown: Man is by nature evil, sinful and corrupt.

“The past is inescapable and sin is omnipresent. Man can transcend it only by accepting its reality and in Hawthorne this often means a withdrawal into isolation as a way to both tenants and self discovery’.

His characters are in conflict with guilt (guilt complex). There is always a constant internal conflict.

He is the first American psychological novelist. His works are gothic, symbolic and allegorical.

My Kinsman Major Molineaux is about Robin who goes to a town to see a relative who is high ranking man. He sees tat he is feathered and bursts into a belly laughter, according to Oedipus complex. The boy wanted to get rid of authority of his father and his uncle. He becomes happy because his relative is degraded.

‘Twice Told Tales’ is one of his short stories which is important in literature. Poe referred to it when he introduced his sing effect theory. Hawthorne is one of the first short story writers together with Poe.

His most important work is Scarlet Letter. They put an A letter on Hester’s chest, who has committed adultery.

The House of Seven Gables, Rappaccini’s Daughter, The Minister’s Black Veil and The Great Stone Face, are his important works.

His works are explorations of moral and spiritual conflicts.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-186)

He was a transcendentalist and is famous for his Civil Disobedience, and his autobiographical work, Waldo. The former affected Ghandi and Luther King. He was an anarchist.

In the latter he says people must resist to governments that are more harmful than helpful and therefore not justified.

He was put into prison for not paying tax, which triggered Civil Disobedience.

He went to Waldo pond in the forest for 2 year, 2 months and 2 days. In it, he gives an account of his everyday life and criticizes American society. The book is about virtue and against materialism.

Walden

Walden is neither a novel nor a true autobiography, but a social critique of the Western World. It details Thoreau's life for two years, two months, two days in Walden. Thoreau examines other issues afflicting man in society raging from economy and reading to solitude and higher laws, so we can say it's against materialism.

He lived a mystic life.

He was an abolitionist and against slavery.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

He is the most famous and greatest American poet who is very American (democratic, individualistic etc.) The poem which summarizes him is Leaves of Grass. Famous poems from Leave of Grass are ‘O Captain My Captain’, ‘When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d’, and ‘Song of Myself’.

‘Leaves of Grass’ is a transcendental work.

He is the American national poet. ‘Leaves of Grass’ is the most influential book of

ends with the transcendental idea of self. In fact, it's a development of the theory of

"Over-soul".

Self is a key word in his works.

Song of Myself is his masterpiece. This extremely long poem announces all of the major themes of Whitman's work.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

He is one of the first short story writers, who with Hawthorne are the fathers of short story which is an American genre. He was a poet, critic, short story writer, novelist and essayist. He was the forerunner of ‘art for art’s sake’, symbolism, surrealism and psychological fiction. He influenced French symbolism.

Some famous quotations: ‘the ultimate purpose of art is aesthetics’. ‘Poetry is the rhythmic creation of beauty’.

His themes are terror, guilt and death.

He is the father of detective story. He was a gothic writer as well.

In short story he introduced the idea of single effect. His most famous poem is ‘The Raven’. Raven is the symbol of melancholy which is the philosophy of composition.

So we can call Poe a romantic figure as well.

He was alcoholic as well.

In his works, you can see preoccupation with death (death fixation).