Individualism and Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper charts the growth of individualism through literature. It puts individualism forward as the characteristic trait of Western civilization, and then discovers its origins in the humanism of the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation and stresses that literature played an active role in this regard. The paper looks at how Ben Jonson created individuated spaces of expression while composing praise poems to the new aristocracy and how John Donne and George Herbert composed religious poems that are informed by metaphysical speculation. The paper also examines how the emancipation of women is a crucial factor, because it is through female sensibility that the novel develops its full potential, and eventually becomes the ideal medium of individual expression. The paper analyzes the key writers and their innovations, and carefully puts them into the context of political history.

From the Paper:

"Ben Jonson, for example, composed poems of praise to aristocratic patrons. These are not meant for wider publication and only circulate within the aristocratic community, thus creating a space for secular expression. The ideals promulgated through this literature follow those of the classical world of Rome and Athens - urbanity, civility, order, temperance, clarity etc. "To Penshurst" is a paean to the ancestral home of Sir Robert Sidney. Jonson uses Latin descriptive names profusely, apportions classic virtues to the inhabitants, and overall gives the impression of "Rome transplanted". It is not the gaudy ostentation of the homes of the uncultured nobles, but rather reflects rationality and moderation: "their lords have built, but thy lord dwells" (264)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon. Claudia L. Johnson (Ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Barber, Charles. The English Language: A Historical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko, the Rover, and Other Works. New York: Penguin Classics, 1992.
• Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. The Victorian Age in Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966.
• Donne, John. The Major Works. John Carey (Ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

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