Wednesday, September 6, 2006

Neoclassicism & Candide

(Originally Written September 6, 2006 in World Lit)

Neoclassicism (circa 1650-1789)

aka Enlightenment/Augustan Age/Age of Reason

Neoclassicism

- the understanding that real reason knows the limits of reason.
- there are other forces besides reason within us
- there are reasoning people around us
- there is a higher reason above our own

Voltaire

Voltaire is satirizing rationalism - the confident human claim that everything has a cause. Rationalism seems to claim that there is no reason higher than ours.

Candide

provincialism - the idea that what is true in your province is true everywhere

education vs. experience

overload of plot, overload of suffering and the idea of coincidence.

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