Literature of the 18th century

The eighteenth century is the age of the Enlightenment. He absorbed the ancient culture and all the achievements of the Renaissance. An enormous influence on the science, morality and morality of society was provided by the literature of the 18th century, which made its invaluable contribution to world culture. The Enlightenment gave impetus to the Great French Revolution, which completely changed the social structure of Europe.

Literature of the 18th century was mainly educational, its heralds were great philosophers and writers. They themselves had an incredible baggage of knowledge, sometimes encyclopedic, and with good reason believed that only an enlightened person could change this world. They carried their humanistic ideas through literature, which consisted mainly of philosophical treatises. These works were written for a fairly wide range of readers who are able to think and reason. The authors hoped thus to be heard by a large number of people.

The period from 1720 to 1730-ies is called enlightening classicism. Its main content was that writers ridiculed the absolute monarchy, based on examples of ancient literature and art. In these works, there is a feeling of pathetic and heroism, which are aimed at the idea of creating a state of paradise.

Foreign literature of the 18th century has done a lot. She was able to show heroes who are real patriots. For this category of people, Equality, Brotherhood and Freedom are the top priority. True, it should be noted that these heroes are completely devoid of individuality, character, they are possessed only by lofty passions.

The enlightening classicism is replaced by educational realism, which brings literature closer to people's concepts. Foreign literature of the 18th century receives a new direction, more realistic and democratic. Writers turn to face a person, describe his life, tell of his sufferings and sufferings. With the language of novels and poems, writers call their readers to compassion and compassion. Enlightened people of the 18th century begin to read the works of Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu, Lessing, Fielding and Defoe. The main characters are ordinary people who can not resist public morality, are very vulnerable and often weak-willed. The authors of these works are still very far from the realistic literary images of the heroes of the 19th and 20th centuries, but there is already a noticeable shift towards the description of the more vital characters.

Russian literature of the 18th century originates from the reforms of Peter I, gradually replacing the positions of enlightened classicism with realism. Bright representatives of this period were such authors as Antiochus Cantemir, Trediakovsky and Sumarokov. They created a fertile soil on Russian soil for the development of literary talents. Indisputable merit of Lomonosov, Fonvizin, Derzhavin, Radishchev and Karamzin. We still admire their talents and civic position.

English literature of the 18th century was distinguished by the formation of several different directions at once. The British were the first to use such genres as social and family novels in which the talents of Richardson, Smollett, Stevenson, and, undoubtedly, Swift, Defoe and Fielding were manifested. The writers of England were among the first to criticize not the bourgeois system, but the bourgeois themselves, their moral and moral values. True, Jonathan Swift waved his irony and the very bourgeois system, showing in his works the most negative aspects of it. English literature of the 18th century is also represented by a phenomenon called sentimentalism. It is filled with pessimism, disbelief in ideals and is aimed only at feelings, as a rule, of love content.