“MERIT WINS THE SOUL”: ALEXANDER POPE’S HUMOROUS REJECTION OF MODERNISM IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME

Selena Özbaş

EN TR

“MERIT WINS THE SOUL”: ALEXANDER POPE’S HUMOROUS REJECTION OF MODERNISM IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME

Abstract

The querelle between the ancients and the moderns which was introduced into pre-revolutionary France by Charles Perrault was later revived by Jonathan Swift in The Battle of the Books, published as a prolegomenon to A Tale of a Tub (1704). Swift’s revisiting of the French question as to whether the ancients championed over the moderns or the moderns were simply “dwarfs standing upon the shoulders of giants” in William Temple’s words, allowed an English reinterpretation of the quarrel. Alexander Pope, who industriously contributed to this process of reinterpretation, exposed the ways in which the eighteenth-century reception of the classics and forerunning literary models defeated the modernist upheaval in literature. In this context, the present study aims at focusing on Pope’s rejection of this modernist upheaval in his rarely examined re-writing of Chaucer’s House of Fame. Identifying Pope’s poetic mission in The Temple of Fame as a humorous counter-argument against the moderns, the encapsulation of the idea of classical “merit” which is achieved through an imitation and rewriting of the Chaucerian poetry will be examined. In conclusion, I will consider the points of intersection between Popean humour and the poetic / political design of the eighteenth-century poem

Keywords

"MERIT WINS THE SOUL": ALEXANDER POPE'S HUMOROUS REJECTION OF MODERNISM IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME

Abstract

Devrim öncesi Fransa’da Charles Perrault tarafından tartışmaya açılan antikler ve modernler tartışması, daha sonraları Jonathan Swift’in A Tale of a Tub’a (1704) önsöz olarak yazdığı The Battle of Books isimli kısa eserinde yeniden tartışmaya açılmıştır. Swift’in Fransa’da filizlenmiş olan ve antiklerin modernlere üstün mü geldiği, yoksa modernlerin William Temple’ın ifadesiyle “devlerin omuzlarında yükselen cüceler” mi oldukları ekseninde yeşermiş olan bu tartışmayı eserlerine taşımış olması, asıl tartışmaya İngilizler tarafından bir yorum getirilmesinin önünü açmıştır. Bu yoruma önemli ölçüde katkıda bulunmuş olan Alexander Pope ise on sekizinci yüzyıl entelektüelinin klasikleri ve antik edebi modelleri alımlayışının aynı dönem içerisinde edebiyatta gelişen modernist hattı nasıl kırdığı üzerine durmuştur. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışma Pope’un pek nadiren ele alınan ve Chaucer’ın House of Fame’inin yeniden yazımı olan bir eserini ele alarak, onun bu modernist görüşü ne biçimlerde reddettiğini ele almayı amaçlamaktadır. O nedenle, Pope’un The Temple of Fame isimli eserinde mizahı modernist görüşü çürütmek için bir karşı-argüman geliştirme aracı olarak kullandığını ifade ederek, onun klasik edebi “erdem” anlayışını Chaucer’ın öncü şiirsel modelinin taklidi ya da yeniden yazımı noktasında bulduğu savunulacaktır. Sonuç olarak, Pope’un mizah anlayışı ile on sekizinci yüzyıl şiirinin poetik / politik tasarımının ne ölçüde birbirleriyle uyuştuğu noktasına değinilecektir.

Keywords

References

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

-

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Selena Özbaş ^*
0000-0002-7710-9296
Türkiye

Publication Date

June 29, 2021

Submission Date

November 12, 2020

Acceptance Date

June 1, 2021

Published in Issue

Year 2021 Volume: 45 Number: 1

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA27HL55KG

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

APA

Özbaş, S. (2021). “MERIT WINS THE SOUL”: ALEXANDER POPE’S HUMOROUS REJECTION OF MODERNISM IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME. Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 45(1), 241-256. https://izlik.org/JA27HL55KG

AMA

1.Özbaş S. “MERIT WINS THE SOUL”: ALEXANDER POPE’S HUMOROUS REJECTION OF MODERNISM IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME. Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi. 2021;45(1):241-256. https://izlik.org/JA27HL55KG

Chicago

Özbaş, Selena. 2021. “‘MERIT WINS THE SOUL’: ALEXANDER POPE’S HUMOROUS REJECTION OF MODERNISM IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME”. Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 45 (1): 241-56. https://izlik.org/JA27HL55KG.

EndNote

Özbaş S (June 1, 2021) “MERIT WINS THE SOUL”: ALEXANDER POPE’S HUMOROUS REJECTION OF MODERNISM IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME. Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 45 1 241–256.

IEEE

[1]S. Özbaş, “‘MERIT WINS THE SOUL’: ALEXANDER POPE’S HUMOROUS REJECTION OF MODERNISM IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME”, Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 241–256, June 2021, [Online]. Available: https://izlik.org/JA27HL55KG

ISNAD

Özbaş, Selena. “‘MERIT WINS THE SOUL’: ALEXANDER POPE’S HUMOROUS REJECTION OF MODERNISM IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME”. Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 45/1 (June 1, 2021): 241-256. https://izlik.org/JA27HL55KG.

JAMA

1.Özbaş S. “MERIT WINS THE SOUL”: ALEXANDER POPE’S HUMOROUS REJECTION OF MODERNISM IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME. Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi. 2021;45:241–256.

MLA

Özbaş, Selena. “‘MERIT WINS THE SOUL’: ALEXANDER POPE’S HUMOROUS REJECTION OF MODERNISM IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME”. Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, vol. 45, no. 1, June 2021, pp. 241-56, https://izlik.org/JA27HL55KG.

Vancouver

1.Selena Özbaş. “MERIT WINS THE SOUL”: ALEXANDER POPE’S HUMOROUS REJECTION OF MODERNISM IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME. Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi [Internet]. 2021 Jun. 1;45(1):241-56. Available from: https://izlik.org/JA27HL55KG