My immediate response to Neo-Classical/Restoration literature is one of great curiosity because of the circumstances that fueled the writers associated with this time period.

Neo-Classical literature was a response to the major social and political changes England was experiencing. In the writings is the evidence of an artistic and intellectual release that could be expressed after the restoration of the English Monarchy with Charles II, which also lends the name to the literary period.

Various types of literature emerged from the Restoration period of literature ranging from religious, risque, and my personal favorite, satirical. 

Authors such as John Dryden expressed their opinions with satires such as Mac Flecknoe in which he targets his once friend Thomas Shadwell. A master of wit, Dryden mixes crude "fat jokes" with allusions to classic literature such as the Aenid, to insult his once friend.

Nor let thy mountain belly make pretence
Of likeness; thine's a tympany of sense.
A tun of man in thy large bulk is writ,
But sure thou 'rt but a kilderkin of wit. (193-196)

The politically charged satire of the Neo-Classical time is evident in today’s time in literature like that of the Chicago based 'newspaper source” The Onion, and the even more popular television show,“Saturday Night Live”.



These popular media outlets depict what is going on with our political climate with an, often times, dark humorous twist.



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