British literature

18th-century

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   The Augustan age: 1700-1750
   

Main articles: Augustan literature and Augustan prose

The late 17th, early 18th century (1689-1750) in En­glish literature is known as the Augustan Age. Writ­ers at this time “greatly admired their Roman counter­parts, imitated their works and frequently drew paral­lels between” contemporary world and the age of the Roman emperor Augustus (27 AD - BC 14)^[51] (see Augustan literature (ancient Rome) ). Some of the ma­jor writers in this period were John Dryden (1631­1700), the Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift (1667­1745), William Congreve, (1670-1729), Joseph Addison (1672-1719), Richard Steele (1672-1729), Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Henry Fielding (1707-54), Samuel Johnson (1709-84).

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   1707: Birth of Britain
   

The Union of the Parliaments of Scotland and England in 1707 to form a single Kingdom of Great Britain and the creation of a joint state by the Acts of Union had lit­tle impact on the literature of England nor on national consciousness among English writers. The situation in Scotland was different: the desire to maintain a cul­tural identity while partaking of the advantages offered by the English literary market and English literary stan­dard language led to what has been described as the “in­vention of British literature” by Scottish writers. English writers, if they considered Britain at all, tended to as­sume it was merely England writ large; Scottish writers were more clearly aware of the new state as a “cultural amalgam comprising more than just England”.^[52] James Thomson's "Rule Britannia!" is an example of the Scot­tish championing of this new national and literary iden­tity. With the invention of British literature came the de­velopment of the first British novels, in contrast to the English novel of the 18th century which continued to deal

Portrait of Tobias Smollett.

with England and English concerns rather than exploring the changed political, social and literary environment.^[52] Tobias Smollett (1721-71) was a Scottish pioneer of the British novel, exploring the prejudices inherent within the new social structure of Britain through comic picaresque novels. His The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) is the first major novel written in English to have a Scots­man as hero,^[52] and the multinational voices represented in the narrative confront Anglocentric prejudices only two years after the Battle of Culloden. The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771) brings together characters from the extremes of Britain to question how cultural and linguistic differences can be accommodated within the new British identity, and influenced Charles Dickens.^[53] Richard Cumberland wrote patriotic comedies depicting characters taken from the “outskirts of the empire,” and intended to vindicate the good elements of the Scots, Irish, and colonials from English prejudice.^[54] His most popular play, "The West Indian" (1771) was performed in North America and the West Indies.

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