LITERARY MOVEMENTS - NEOCLASSICAL
Preamble In the literature of England, there are basically two trends to reckon with. These are classicism and romanticism. The established pattern is that in every epoch of English literary history, one of these two trends emerges as a dominant force by which the literature of that age comes to be defined. The difference between the two trends could be understood in the most basic terms as follows. Classicism as a trend can be said to uphold ideals such as order, norms, and critical sensibility as the seminal characteristics to be sought for, while romanticism as promoting ideals such as freedom, unconventionality and imagination. During the renaissance in England, it was the romantic trend that dominated as the major force in the writing of literature. This situation however changed after the renaissance came to its formal conclusion, with classicism taking over as the dominant trend. This change over from romanticism to classicism as the main tren...