A study of the dominant topics in some typical works of augustan period (1700 1745) = nghiên cứu về những chủ đề nổi bật trong một số tác phẩm điển hình thời kì augustan (1700 1745)

Acknowledgement This thesis could not be finished without the assistance of my teachers in foreign language department, my family and friends Firstly, I would like to express my deep thanks to my supervisor - M.A TrÇn Ngäc T-ëng, whose lectures of English literature attracted me so much, led me to the decision of choosing English literature for my thesis, and made so many valuable comments on each single unit of this thesis Secondly, I would like to express my truthful thank to all the teachers of English at the Foreign Language Departure and the directorial board for giving the opportunity to this thesis And finally, I want to thank to my beloved family and my friends who help and encourage me so much during the process of studying this thesis table of content Acknowledgement Part I: introduction I The rationale of choosing the thesis II The aims of the thesis III The objectives of the thesis IV The scope of the thesis V The methods of studying Part II: content Chapter I: Background of Augustan period I The division of English literature periods II Some important events in the Augustan period New scientific and philosophical discoveries Industrial and Agricultural Revolution The growth of British Empire Conflicts in society 4.1 Political conflict 4.2 Religious conflict 4.3 Social class division III The Enlightenment movement IV An overview of the main topics in Augustan prose Chapter II: The progressive topics expressed in some typical literary works of Augustan period I Praising human being II Appreciating women III Heightening the importance of education and learning Chapter III: The negative topics expressed in some typical literary works of Augustan period I Discrimination of man by man II Colonialism and Materialism Colonialism Materialism III Political and religious conflict Political conflict Religious conflict Part III: conclusion References Part I: introduction I The rationale of choosing the thesis Literature, as well as music, is a vital part of our daily life It makes the life more beautiful, guides human being to Genuineness, Honesty and Aestheticism Literature enriches people's mind and soul That is the reason why I love to enjoy reading literary works when I am sad, tired and hopeless When being a secondary school girl, I had chance to get in touch with foreign literature and found it really interesting Now, I am a student of foreign language department and have opportunity to study more about Western, especially English literature I find there the sound of life of a traditional and cultural nation It burns my desire and leads me to the decision of choosing English literature to study in this thesis Besides, literature is the truthful mirror of social life Each period in history of English literature is a vivid picture of people and society The first half of the eighteenth century with the growing of British Empire, the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment movement is the fertile ground for the development of literature I have ever read some of the most interesting literary works in this phase and realized that most of them, more or less, are influenced by the Enlightenment's ideas That is so interesting to me and I'd love to study about it All of above things are the reasons why I choose "A study of the important topics in some typical works of Augustan period (1700-1745)" for my graduation thesis II The aims of the thesis -To understand more about England in the first half of the eighteenth century, Enlightenment movement and how they influenced on contemporary literature -To study about some important topics expressed in some typical works of Augustan period and find out the difference between the progressive theory of Enlightenment and the real life III the objectives of the thesis - Background of Augustan period - The progressive topics expressed in some typical literary works of Augustan period - The negative topics expressed in some typical literary works of Augustan period IV the scope of the thesis In the frame of this thesis, it is beyond our ability to cover all genres and all works of Augustan period Thus, we concentrate on some typical novels and essays: "Robinson Crusoe", "Gulliver's Travels ", "Pamela", "Clarissa", "The shortest way with the Dissenters" and " Education of Women" V the method of studying -Collective method -Analysis, contrastive and synthetic methods Part ii: content Chapter I: background of Augustan period There is a close relationship between real life and literature The history of literature development is parallel to the development of human society Literature appears even earlier than letters or any type of writing and becomes a vital part of our daily life Literature belongs to spiritual aspect but it reflects the society as a whole and people, from soul to physical life On the other hand, life supplies the endless sources for writers Genuine literary works must root from and about the real life, aim to make life better and conducts people to Genuineness, Honesty and Aestheticism That is why any literary work must be analyzed in its circumstance of writing In this paper, we will study the Augustan period of English literature, so in the first chapter we will have a glance on the division of English literature periods, some important background events, the Enlightenment movement and an overview of the main literary topics in the period of Augustan I Division of English literature periods As we already know, the long history of English literature is an uninterrupted process, which is greatly influenced by social history There are some ways that have their own rationale to divide English literature into periods In our thesis, we approve the following division, which is accepted by almost scholars, writers and readers and consider it the basic rationale for our thesis: Anglo-Saxon literature (449-1066) Medieval literature (1066- 1485) Jacobean literature (1603-1625) Caroline literature (1625-1642) Literature in the Commonwealth and Protectorate Restoration literature (1660-1700) Augustan literature (1700-1745) Age of Sensibility Romanticism (1798-1832) 10 Victorian literature (1832-1900) 11 Edwardian literature 12 Georgian literature 13 Modernist literature 14.Post-modern literature From Wikipedia Website In fact, the division is not completely exact but only relative No one can give the concrete years of beginning and ending of a literature period As an illustration, the Augustan was from the end of 17th to the middle of 18th century which correlative with the first phase of Enlightenment movement in literature Thus, in our thesis, the term "Augustan" or the "blooming phase of Enlightenment " both refer to the period 1700-1750, which in some other documents count from 1690 to 1745 II Some important events in the Augustan period New scientific and philosophical discoveries Philosophy and science are usually the aspects whose new theories and discoveries lead to the change of society and open a new era in history of mankind The revolution of science is thought to begin when Copernicus gave the idea that the earth rotated on its axis beneath the unmoving sun In the eighteenth century, new discoveries of scientists among whom, the most dominant one was Isaac Newton, proved that nature had its own law's which was different from what religion church had taught before Newton's "Principia" (1687) and "Optic's" (1704) suggested that:" There were indeed intelligible laws in nature which could be demonstrated by physics and mathematics, and, moreover, that the universe exhibited a magnificent symmetry and a mechanical certainty."(1) This provided a framework of a system that seemed capable of explaining everything in the universe and it was also the basic principle of Enlighteners In the field of philosophy, thinkers, especially Rousseau and Voltaire in France, praised the equality, democracy and ability of man In England, John Lock, Francis, Bacon, Anthony Ashley Cooper gave the birth for Empiricism They explained the way the mind acquired "all materials of Reason and Knowledge is from Experience " They also provided an intellectual basis for easily digested theories of politics, religion and aesthetic and for precepts pertaining to social happiness In short, the philosophers and scientists used nature and universe law and human being center to observe and explain everything They celebrated Reason, ability of man to use his scientific knowledge to discover natural phenomenon which had been associated to supernatural power before, simultaneously opposed to intolerance, restrain, spiritual authority and disoriented religious belief These ideas were gradually acquired and changed the way of thinking of people They believed that their ability, not supernatural authority or the God, could drive their fate The main character Robinson Crusoe in the namecoincided novel by Daniel Defoe is a typical image of a hero who fights bravely to overcome harsh destiny They believed in education and learning which could help them to understand and control nature, believe in human's ability to drive their fate and improve society And it was not only necessary to man but also woman We can find in "Robinson Crusoe", "Gulliver's Travels", "Pamela" and especially, in the essay "The Education of Women" by Daniel Defoe the spirit of praising learning and education which were thought could improve society and bring to people a brighter future Industrial and Agricultural Revolution Britain is the first place on the world where the Industrial Revolution took place This was an important event that made a great influence on changing the whole country's face Power was seen as the first field touched by the Revolution with James Watt's invention of steam engine Since then, the application of new inventions and discoveries into many aspects created a major change in producing method Machines released people from hard works in factories and also made a huge jump in industrial development, especially in coalmine, textile or transportation industries The industrialization with its enormous strength made Britain become the workshop of the world Under the effect of the industrial revolution, Britain gained position in top of the richest countries At the same time, it was the foremost condition to carry out an Agricultural revolution Throughout the country, the "open field" system was re-divided Labouredly productivity was raised and more food was produced It was said that Britain had a new face under the two revolutions' influence Until the middle of eighteen century, Britain was still an agricultural country with most of population lived in villages or small towns and earned their living working on land Nearly seventy percents of population inhabited in big towns and cities in the end of the century A large number of factories were built, a lot of towns and large cities developed rapidly, such as Birmingham, London, and Leeds, so on However, this means that the land for farming was restricted The farmers lost their land, became unemployed Some of them went to cities to get a job as workers with low salary; some were sold to America or India to work as slavers Most of them had a poor life This situation led to another important issue of society which was class division and the growing of working and bourgeois The poor farmers and workers were liable to a distress It was one of the root of social evils In addition, pragmatics and capitalism's idea of praising money devalued human beings' mortality and virtue Marriage even became an economic exchange The picture of the complicated society in this time was reflected truthfully in the literature works "The New Atalantis" by Mary de la Manley and "The Moll Flanders" by Daniel Defoe described a society with political crisis, homosexuality, rape, social evils, etc Some other works, such as "Gulliver Travel" and "A modest proposal" by Jonathan Swift showed devaluation of human being in front of the attraction of money and other authorities Even in "Robinson Crusoe" which many positive ideas of Enlightenment were expressed materialism and capitalism ideas could be found The growth of British Empire The colonial expansion was thought to begin in the second half of the fifteenth century when Christopher Columbus found out the America England started its progress to find colonies one century later than Spain, Portugal and France, but its achievement was enormous Then, the new epoch in which the man's ambition of discovering and invasion of new land, in order to serve the aim of ruling people and exploit treasure there, really started Simultaneously, it was the turning point of a miserable epoch: the age of colonialism's expansion Britain, like other powerful countries in Europe in the eighteenth century, under the effect of Industrial revolution, manufactured a huge amount of production and goods, which needed a large market to consume Moreover, there was a demand for raw material for factories in metropolis This led to the growing of British Empire The occupation of land was the first step that prepared for the invasion of market and economic interference later In fact, profit from colonies was so fat that many countries threw themselves into the war for land and market by Reldresal, the principle secretary of Lilliput He also asked Gulliver to help them reject this peril Finally, thanks to Gulliver's assistance, Lilliput won the war Not stop there, the King's ambition was to rule Blesfuco and the world:" His majesty desire I would take some other opportunities of bring all the rest of his enemy's ships into his ports And so, immeasurable is the ambition of prince that he seemed to think of nothing less than reducing the whole empire of Blesfuco into a province, and governing it big viceroy, of destroying the Big-endian exiles, and compelling that people to break the smaller end of their eggs, by which he would remain the sole monarch of the whole world"(9.1) The idea of becoming "the sole monarch of the whole world" and ruling others was exactly the tray of colloquialism The King's aspiration was uncountable even though he got great deal of booty including land, ships and other things The metaphorical image was of the war between England and France for Spanish succession The war expended a huge number of people and means of both countries Johnathan Swift indirectly protested against the colloquial war which was to satisfy the ruler's ambition and damage nation's peace The fight to exist on the desolate island of Robinson was an illustration of man's conquers new lands He showed us that human's ability was considerable in front of nature That was the positive side of human's conquers On the other hand, it also expressed the negative side that man's idea of pocession and ruling was so great that it became a criticized object in literature as well as in history of man After so long time living on the island, Robinson certainly thought that the island was his own property and he was the master of this "kingdom" He behaved to Friday, his father and the Spanish captain as if he was the landlord on the island The first word he taught Friday was "master" He approved slavery in which he was the master Before Friday and other inhabitant arrived and lived on the island, Robinson did everything himself, from cultivating to raising animals But since then, he had his work 41 done by others as if they were his servant or slavers He prided he was the landlord and gave laws for others to follow And of course, everything the others did had not to violate the island landlord's right and benefit The colloquialism, which expanded the world in the second half of 19th and the early part of 20th century, in this period, was only budding, but we could realize its enormous effect on social life and man's mind With the bitter satire of "Gulliver's Travels" and the realism of "Robinson Crusoe", the matter was exposed and through that the author supplied readers a truthful view in order to appeal a reject to colloquialism Materialism was a natural problem of capitalism and the twin brother of colonialism In the early 18th century, the theatres in London were full of performance which rebuilt the luxurious life of aristocrats, new bourgeois and upper-class and reflected materialism as a disease of contemporary society Although the mock was not so biting as in "Marriage a la mode", the materialism in "Clarissa" was described as a human spoilage This issue was also exploited in "Robinson Crusoe", a novel of realism 2.2 Materialism The development of Industrial Revolution, the growing of bourgeois and capitalism together with the penetrating of French luxurious style of upper class, led to the forming and rise of materialism in social life Mater and money worshiping spoilt noble values of life and human's moral They interfered all aspects of life, clung to human's mind and control their actions Reflected in literature, materialism was a criticized matter, the reason of women's misery, the intolerable interference into love and marriage All of those were expressed in "Clarissa" and "Robinson Crusoe" Robinson was an ideal person for man's ability, optimistic and enthusiasm in labor, what we already know, but was also an emblem in the contemporary society wherein money became an important measure for other values He was a man of materialism 42 He was extremely practical The novel was Robinson's autobiography about his long time living alone on the isolate island He told a lot of about the difficulties and how he overcame them; about the way he built house, agriculture and became a master Mostly, his story turned around his physical life there He rarely mentioned to his spiritual life and beautiful scene of nature on the island where he was close-knit for such a long time To him, the island was a piece of real property longed to his procession only It was the place he could exploit to earn living, without others meanings He did not conceal that he loved money eventhough in his situation money had no value He found a number of coins which was rusted on the wrecked ship and decided to keep all of them And after more twenty-eight years living on the island, he returned England, not forgot to bring the money with him This detail showed us the enormous attraction of money to man There will be nothing to say if in all circumstance, love for money is limited and not harm anyone like is "Robinson Crusoe" We will see, in "Clarissa", money's power was enormous and it could change life of person, a poor young lady Clarissa was a young lady of merit and beauty, so she was a dream for every man, including Lovelace and Solmes Lovelace was a young handsome but not very rich Solmes was an upstart and wanted Clarissa to be his wife Despite of her rejection, her parents and brothers who loved Solmes' wealth forced her to get marriage to him The kind of arranged marriage as economic exchange was an intolerable interference of money If Clarissa's family's members were not the supporter of materialism and did not oblige and treated her mercilessly, she would not have escaped and fallen into her later tragedy To summary, materialism and colloquialism were related to each other because they were the result of capitalism whose oppressing nature was an obstacle needed to omit in mankind's civilization The advance writers in this period such as Defoe, Swift and Richardson put the first accusing of them 43 immediately since their budding phase by expressing their humanism and sympathy to the poor person and raising the voice to reject the exposition of them If colonialism and materialism were the common matters and the essential problem of capitalism all over the world, the religious and political conflict belonged and carried the particular feature of England They were the direct reasons of humble people's misery and division in society Religious and political conflict After the event of Monarchy Restoration, England became a Constituent Monarchy Nation This event had a great significant in social life of the country Together with the forming of Whigs and Tories, the political life was getting more complicated Following that, the religious issue, which was strongly affected by the government's policies and the Head of the country's attitude, contained serious conflicts The quarrels on these two important aspects caused a grave consequence to the life of people and nation's peace and stableness That was the root of war and rebellions in English history happened after the Restoration to the first half on 18th century They were transformed into literature as a negative topic In the Restoration literature, there was a large part called "religious writing" Moving to the Augustan period, the writers concentrated to criticize the wrong side of religion Among them, Johnathan Swift and Daniel Defoe were the representatives The above burning problems occurred everywhere and every when in social life as well as in literature, in which "Gulliver's Travels" and "The shortest way with the Dissenters" were the most typical works 3.1 Religious conflict In "A tale of a tub", Johnathan swift told a story of the diverging tastes and opinion of three brothers who represented Roman Catholiticism, Anglicanism and Calvinistic Dissent The story was also the real statement of religious conflicts and discrimination which already existed and more and 44 more serious in 18th in England Religion was such a serious problem that became a critical object of contemporary writers This topic was studied through the novels:" Gulliver's Travels" and" The shortest way with the Dissenters" The war between the Big-enders and the Little-enders and its serious result was the refection of the religious conflict in England during several centuries Daniel Defoe wrote the essay '' The shortest way with the Dissenters" in which he said that the best solution for Dissenters was to kill all of them The fact was that the writer wanted to against the merciless policies to the Non-conformists During this time in Liliput, Reldresal, a court man told him about their serious quarrel for many years, country Blesfuco and asked him to help them He said:"There are two sides to the quarrel, the Big-enders and the Littleenders The King himself is a Little-ender; and so are most of our people, but the Big-ender are helped by the island of Blesfuco War has already started with the quarrels inside the country and the war outside I am greatly afraid" At first, reading these line, readers could think that Swift was talking about a distanced land but in fact, he was re-describing England's statement at that time:" quarrel inside the country and the war out side" The quarrel was between the King and most of people And according to the great man, the content was about a very solemn matter:" It is about a thing which come into the lives of all our people almost everyday It is about the way in which an egg should be opened for eating The Big-enders believed that the big end of the egg should be cut off, and the little Enders believed that it is the little end which should be cut"(9.1) Readers had to laugh at the foolish reason of the conflict between the Big-enders and Little-enders But that was not the aim Swift looked for He wanted them to think They considered the cause idiot but it was the same thing they and their leader did in reality They fight against each other because of an irrational and blind belief Using the word "believe", Swift wanted to imply to religious faith And the fight for such a absurd reason 45 caused a serious consequence:" The people also highly resented this law that as our historians tell us, these have been six rebellions raised on that account wherein one Emperor lost his life and another his crown…It is computed eleven thousand persons have; at several times, suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end." We know that, religious statement since the reign of Charles was very confused The conflict between the Church of England preceded by Monarch and the Calvinistic Non-conformists or Dissenters was getting grave Many Acts were born on the account of religious problem but they could not improve the situation On that case, Defoe wrote the essay:" The shortest way with the Dissenters" or "Proposal for the Establishment of the Church" which was publicly burned and its author imprisoned and exposed in the pillory The essay was written in a hyperbolical style, which the readers at first might think, that the author indignant attitude to Dissenters was virtual Defoe gave a lot of evident and argument to prove that Dissenters were actually dangerous enemy of Queen, church of England and peace of nation, and that the shortest way to them was to kill all:" It is cruelty to kill a snake or a toad in cold blood, but the poison of their nature makes it a charity to our neighbors, to destroy those creatures! Not for any personal injury received, but for prevention, not for the evil they have done, but the evil they may do! Serpents, toads, vipers and c., are noxious to the body, and poison of sensitive life: this poison the soul! Corrupt our posterity! Ensure our children! Destroy the vitals of our happiness, our future felicity!" Reading these words of disdain, it was very hard to realize the real goal of the writer He debated the evils of Non-conformists and how lenient the Queen was He talked a lot of Tolerant Act and some other good policies to Dissenters But after all, we find that the proof he gave also proved the volatility of the court's policies to the Dissenters; that the injustice, which they had to bear, was so bulky; and that the aim of the essay was to win the sympathy for his dissenting co-religionist 46 The religious quarrel, in fact, was also an aspect of political aims, because who won the most of people's belief and trust would have a good promotion on the political way And one of the most effective methods to get it was depending on religion's advantage Swift and Defoe showed that blind faith and belief and religious quarrel was the reason of clashes and rebellions in which the victims were most of pitiful people Similar to Religion, aspect political conflict was also a dominant matter in this period and was related to the above issue 3.2 Political conflict Johnathan Swift was not a famous writer but also a politician His keen ideas in political matters were put into satirical writing in order to fight against unfairness and good aim "Gulliver's Travels" was a persuasive evident for that After the death of Oliver Cromwell, the Monarch was restored Also King or Queen was the Head of nation The political power was actually held by Parliament The eclipsed power of Monarch, the immaturity of Parliament and the opposition of two parties: Tories and Whigs were the content of political problem that was satirized by Swift in "Gulliver's Travels " The conflict between the Whigs and the Tories was mocked in "Gulliver's Travels" through the plot of the quarrel between the Tramecksan and Slamecksan parties whose difference laid on the height of their shoes' heel Swift also accused the Head of the country of the low development of his Kingdom through the image of Lilliput's King A matter fact that the flourish of a nation depended much on its rulers who preceded by King and court The King of Lilliput was always proud that he was the delight of the universe and wanted to rule the world:" Golbasto Momaren Evlame gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gue-Most mighty Empiror of Lilliput, delight and terror of universe whose dominions extend five thousand - blustrugs (about twelve miles in circumference) to the extremities of the globe; monarch of all monarch; taller than the sons of men"(9.1) But in fact, 47 he was not taller than a snail In addition, his court was also unusual The royal dynasty was drawn with a luxurious atmosphere of the odd entertainments, which were often attended with fatal accidents The ropedancers were sent into the palace to perform in front of the Emperor and courtiers of both sexes Courtiers sometimes had to perform themselves The author also described another diversion that Gulliver said: "I have not observed the least resemblance of in any other country of the old or new world" The candidates, who wanted to get the prize of three fine silken threads, had to leap over or creep under a stick, backward and forward several times, according as the stick was advanced or depressed The stick was hold by the Emperor and the first minister Being governed by such an Emperor and court, the country could not develop and people could not have a happy life To illustrate, the laws were broken, the court's atmosphere of hostile between two parties, and their country would have lost in the war with Blesfuco without Gulliver's assistance Lilliput was a small kingdom of tiny person, but existing there political matter, which were not completely simple Beside the danger of invasion from the abroad, the rebellious of people, the quarrels between two parties in the court was a serious problem that lasted for "above seventy moon past" The two struggling parties were "Tramecksan and Slamecksan whose distinguish laid on the height of their shoes heels The high heel Tramecksan agreed to the nation's ancient constitution and opposed to the Slamecksan of whom Emperor was member The feud ran so high that they neither ate nor drank nor talked with each other The cause of the animosity was odd and foolish, which caused the laugh for readers, but its consequence was ugly Readers seemed to see through the author's implication that was toward the conflict between the Whigs and the Tories 48 The political and religious matters were the twinge of the contemporary society The reason rooted from the leader and the ruling class but innocent people had to burden the consequence And this period was recorded into the nation's history as a complicated phase of political and religious chaos In this chapter, we already consider some negative phenomenon conveyed in literature through the anti topics in the Augustan period Authors showed their opposite attitude to the bad and the humanism, the sympathy to the poor and weak people in society They also contributed an important role in protesting and omitting the backward, inhuman, ugly things in order to make the life more beautiful and better 49 Conclusion The first half of the eighteenth century in England was a period full of dominant events in which Enlightenment could be considered to create the most important influence on society as well as literature What English literature expressed was the consequence of the real events and situation Enlightenment was a progressive movement whose beautiful ideas raised human beings and their ability to a new high level They considered Reason was the most effective tool for human to explain everything in nature and society According to them man was good by nature and education could make that good nature become perfect; men and women were born equally and should be treated equally by the law; the relationship between man and man was brotherhood and friendship regardless of their race, place of resident, religion And these positive thoughts were reflected in literature through the topics of praising human being, appreciating women and heightening the importance of education and learning Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver were the typical image of human being with a lot of good qualities: intelligence, bravery, optimistic, enthusiasm for work, goodwill and peace love Pamela and Clarissa were the women of virtue and worthy to be extolled The importance of education was mentioned in many literary works, especially education for women This phase was evaluated one of the most brilliant time in English history with the growth of British Empire; the first results of Industrial Revolution which made England became the center of Europe However, that was only the surface The negative side of those events was a lot of painful problems, such as: injustice, oppression between man and man, wars, rebels co-existed with colonialism, materialism, religious and political conflicts and racial discrimination They were conveyed in "Robinson Crusoe" and "Clarissa", satirized in "Gulliver's Travels " and "The shortest way with the Dissenters" 50 In short, the difference between the beautiful ideas of Enlightenment and the real situation of society led to the opposite trends of topics The fact was that recreating the real life in words was the function of literature Furthermore, reflecting and blaming the bad was writers' aim to ignore the bad and improve the society 51 References Andrew Sander, (1996) The Short Oxford History of English Literature, Clarendon Press, Oxford G.C Thornley and Gwyneth Roberts, (1984) An Outline of English Literature, Longman House, Burnt Mill, Harlow, England Christopher Garwood, Guglelmo Gardani and Edda Peris, (1992) Aspects of Britain and the USA, Oxford University Press NguyÔn Xuân Thơm, (1997) A History of English and American Literature, the World Publisher Phùng Văn Tửu, (1997) Văn học ph-ơng Tây kỷ 18, Educational Pulisher Daniel Defoe, (2001) Robinson Crusoe, Literature Publisher Hµ Néi Johnathan Swif, (2000) Gulliver's Travels, Oxford University Press Lê Thị Thanh Tó, (2003) Graduation Paper: Johnathan Swift-The greatest satirist of the 18th English Enlightenment Website: 9.1 http:// www.Gutenberg.org/etext/6124 9.2 http:// www.Gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/clar210.txt 9.3 http:// www.Gutenberg.org/etext/17157 52 53 54 55 ... was the growing of colloquialism in practice as well as in literature What is more, the appearing of a great deal of books of travel and traveling was one of the favorite topics of readers The. .. discriminated from the uncanny race of local inhabitants about appearance, Swift wanted to indirectly blame an aspect of the discrimination That was the discriminating attitude of the powerful nation... movement IV An overview of the main topics in Augustan prose Chapter II: The progressive topics expressed in some typical literary works of Augustan period I Praising human being II Appreciating women