5.1 The Shift from Reason to Emotion in Literature

The 18th century saw a shift from reason to emotion in literature. This change reflected broader cultural trends, as the Enlightenment's focus on rationality gave way to a new emphasis on feelings and individual experiences.

Sentimental literature explored themes of love, family, and personal relationships. It used emotional language and focused on character development, aiming to evoke strong feelings in readers and celebrate the authenticity of individual experiences.

Sentimentalism in 18th-Century Literature

Cultural and Intellectual Factors

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• The Enlightenment's emphasis on reason and rationality led to a cultural backlash that valued emotion, sensibility, and individual experience
• The rise of the middle class and increasing literacy rates created a new audience for literature more interested in personal feelings and domestic life than abstract ideas or public affairs
• Moral philosophers such as Anthony Ashley Cooper, the third earl of Shaftesbury, argued that humans are inherently good and moral behavior is based on feelings rather than reason
• The popularity of epistolary novels (Samuel Richardson's "Pamela" and "Clarissa") explored the inner lives and emotions of characters through letters
• The emergence of the cult of sensibility valued emotional sensitivity, empathy, and the expression of feelings as signs of virtue and refinement

Impact on Literature

• The focus on emotion and individual experience led to a greater emphasis on character development and psychological depth, as opposed to more archetypal or allegorical characters of earlier literature
• Sentimental literature often explored themes of love, friendship, and family life, as well as social and moral challenges faced by individuals in personal relationships
• The shift from reason to emotion also led to a greater interest in the natural world and the beauty of rural life (poetry of William Cowper, novels of Henry Mackenzie)
• Sentimental literature often employed a more ornate and figurative language, with frequent use of exclamations, apostrophes, and hyperbole, to evoke strong emotional responses in the reader

Characteristics of Sentimental Literature

Emotional Expression and Language

• Strong emphasis on the expression of emotions (love, grief, sympathy) as a means of evoking a similar response in the reader
• Use of emotionally charged language (exclamations, interjections, sentimental clichés) to heighten the emotional impact of the text
• More subjective and introspective style of writing that privileged the expression of personal feelings over objective description or analysis

Themes and Subject Matter

• Focus on the domestic sphere and relationships between family members, friends, and lovers, rather than public or political affairs
• Idealization of nature as a source of emotional inspiration and moral guidance, in contrast to the corrupting influence of urban life and social conventions
• Celebration of individual subjectivity and the authenticity of personal experience, as opposed to universal truths and abstract principles of the Enlightenment
• Exploration of the conflict between individual desire and social obligation, particularly in relation to marriage, gender roles, and class distinctions

Reason vs Emotion in Literary Style

Augustan Age: Emphasis on Reason

• Valued wit, satire, and intellectual discourse as means of promoting social and moral reform
• Employed a more formal and rhetorical style, with an emphasis on balance, clarity, and decorum
• Saw reason as the foundation of social order and the key to human progress
• Often used literature as a vehicle for social and political commentary
• Valued the universal and the abstract

Age of Sensibility: Focus on Emotion

• Prioritized emotional authenticity and individual experience as the basis for moral behavior and personal fulfillment
• Favored a more expressive and effusive style, with an emphasis on emotional intensity and spontaneity
• Viewed emotion as the source of moral virtue and the means of achieving personal happiness and social harmony
• Tended to focus more on the inner lives and personal relationships of characters
• Celebrated the particular and the concrete (detailed descriptions of nature, attention to individual psychology)

Augustan Age vs Age of Sensibility

Literary Style and Language

• Augustan literature: formal, rhetorical, emphasis on balance, clarity, and decorum
• Sentimental literature: expressive, effusive, emphasis on emotional intensity and spontaneity

Themes and Subject Matter

• Augustan writers: social and political commentary, universal and abstract concepts
• Sentimental writers: inner lives and personal relationships of characters, particular and concrete details

Philosophical and Moral Foundations

• Augustan Age: reason as the foundation of social order and human progress
• Age of Sensibility: emotion as the source of moral virtue and means of achieving personal happiness and social harmony

Audience and Purpose

• Augustan literature: aimed at promoting social and moral reform through wit, satire, and intellectual discourse
• Sentimental literature: appealed to a growing middle-class audience interested in personal feelings and domestic life, with a focus on evoking emotional responses