College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Graduation Date

3-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Department/Program Conferring Degree

English

Keywords

neoclassicism, realism, eighteenth century literature, John Cleland, William Hogarth

Abstract

This paper does a comparative study of literary conventions in the eighteenth century realism. The central works of this paper are John Cleland’s two novels and two of William Hogarth’s engraving series. The paper gives an overview of theories on realism from the Greek philosophers, Aristotle and Horace, until its re-­‐emerge in eighteenth century in England. The study does a close reading of Fanny Hill, Memoirs of a Coxcomb, A Harlot’s Progress and A Rake’s Progress showing the areas where the Cleland or Hogarth followed or deviated from the eighteenth century conventions. In addition, this study covers some areas of Cleland and Hogarth’s biographies before and after publishing their works. It also provides the reception history and different critical views of their works.

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