Literary Philosophy

Paper Summary:

This paper studies the different ways that four works of literature from different genres reflect the dominant literary philosophy of the era of their authors. It argues that over the course of the last three centuries, from the 18th century to the present, the ways that literature has depicted the human condition has been characterized by an increasing focus on the interior, rather than the exterior life of fictional and non-fictional characters. It studies Voltaire's 'Candide', Anton Chekhov's 'Enemies' , Giancamo Leopardi's 'The Infinite' and Virginia Wolf's 'Kew Gardens'.

From the Paper:

"One of the most perfect expressions of the Enlightenment's Rationalism can be found in Voltaire's Candide. Voltaire depicts a society rife with hypocrisy, particularly religious hypocrisy. The length of Voltaire's work is that of a novella, but the prose has the quality of a satire, or an extended parody, in this case a parody of the philosopher Lebiniz's sensibility that the entire world is good, and that the world in which we dwell is the best of all possible worlds. Voltaire's authorial voice is present throughout the work, and even when the author is chronicling the inner voice of the characters, there is a strong sense of plot, of action, and of an author's philosophic "project" at work."

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