1. What was the Enlightenment? (a.k.a. Neoclassical Period)

2. It began with a rejection of… dogma dogma superstition superstition traditional religion traditional religion factionalism factionalism (in some cases) monarchy (in some cases) monarchy disorder disorder

3. The 1600s had a different ideology -one steeped in supernatural politics. Alchemy, Angelology, Demonology, Divine Right of Kings

4. What was the Enlightenment attitude? (1) A desire for rationality, logic, consistency. (2) A rejection of emotionalism. (3) A preference for evidence over faith (4) Increased interest in science, mathematics, geometry… (5) An admiration for Greece and Rome and an abhorrence for everything medieval. (6) A preference for the artificial over the natural, technology over wilderness.

5. How did that translate socially? (1) (1) A preference for stability and harmony. (2) (2) A belief that nature should be controlled. (3) (3) A preference for civilized, polite discussion of ideas. Conclusions reached by intelligent debate-- not force. (4) (4) A preference for a rigid social hierarchy and aristocracy. (5) (5) An embrace of monotheistic Deism rather than traditional Trinitarian doctrines.

6. How did it translate aesthetically? (1) A desire for geometric shapes and orderly repetition in mathematical patterns. (2) A disdain of “messiness” and “chaos” in art and clothing and hairstyles as being unharmonious. (3) Greco-Roman architecture (Neoclassical) (4) Endless Heroic Couplets! (5) Satire as a means of social critique.

7. Enlightenment gardens.

8. Here, the “messiness” of the natural world must bow before pure geometry. In such a garden, the chaos of nature is tamed to match the orderly design of human intellect.

9. Straight lines and 90 degree corners could warm the heart of an Enlightenment thinker. Thus, hedge-mazes appear across Europe.

10. Even the untidiness of natural hair disturbs Enlightenment society. Thus, the tradition of the perfectly coiffed wig appears in the age of Washington and Jefferson and Marie Antoinette. Powdered porcelain make-up and other cosmetics become fashionable and artificial “beauty” patches (bits of black cloth with adhesive) are used to create artificial moles or freckles (or to hide natural ones.) It is an age of absolute artifice.

11. The Enlightenment is so devoted to Greco- Roman logic and philosophy that it is also referred to as the “Neoclassic Period.” A similar trend appears in their architecture, plays, and literature....

12. Take a look at the Arch of Emperor Constantine, built c. 312-315 CE.

13. Then look at the French Arc de Triomph du Carrousel. Note any similarities?

14. Top Left: the Parthenon of the Acropolis, built c. 447-438 BCE. Bottom left: Ragensberg Replica, Planned in the 1790s And built 1830 CE.

15. We also see it in their obsessive and rigorous attitudes to standardizing language: Samuel Johnson working on his dictionary of 1755. The French Academy Of Language

16. How do these tendencies affect the literature? In poetry: heroic couplets and “perfect” metrical patterns and a return to classical Greco- Roman epics, as in Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. In both poetry and prose, a focus on satire. Satire: (noun ) 1.the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. 2.a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule. 3.a literary genre comprising such compositions.