SOCIAL PROTEST AND THE RISE OF THE NOVEL

The early eighteenth century witnessed the early development of the dominant literary form of modern times, the novel. The novel emerged as a form with structure and interplay between individuals and their relationships to society. As a new form, the novel tends to make some significant, critical, and social statements about the society. Hence, the novel is used to create a new environment that is related to life and people. Indeed, this is what makes the novel appeal to readers as a new genre. Novelists either try to deal with daily social problems that happen in the lives of people or pretend that they are telling real stories. It is not surprising to find that Daniel Defoe molds his Robinson Crusoe (1719)on a real story while Samuel Richardson in Pamela (1740) turns out to be didactic to meet the needs of the growing numbers of female readers. On his part, Henry Fielding tries to expose his society to the readers in his masterpiece The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749); from now on Tom Jones. Accordingly, the novel becomes popular at this time because it has something relevant to the mob; it deals with their social life, and they can identify themselves with its characters in the actual daily life. Through Tom Jones, Fielding presented “a true and realistic picture of human nature” (Kettle, 71). As long as its main concern is the existing society, novelists feel so involved that their criticism becomes direct, frank, and effective. My paper deals with these concerns as depicted in the novels mentioned above.

A stylistic analysis of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones: a socio-pragmatic view

The purpose of this study is three fold; first, it attempts to show to what extent Fielding’s writings unfold the basic characteristics of the eighteenth century lines of thinking, foremost of which is the importance of context for the determination of meaning. Second, it attempts to show Fielding’s philosophy of human nature which, according to him, is a mixture of man’s selfishness, greediness, honesty and charity, all of which are characteristics of the ‘characters’ nature. Third, the present study sheds some light on Fielding’s technique in writing. The importance of introducing ironic techniques is to stimulate the reader’s mental imagination to understand opposite meanings and in consequence adopt a proper evaluation of the character’s behaviour. Fielding discusses through irony some important concepts such as chastity, reason and gentility, yet no direct clue is given to the readers to give a precise interpretation about them. It is also through irony that the interpretation of these concepts are hindered by perplexing assumptions as connotations of meaning make it difficult for the readers to give any judgment or adopt any evaluation. The study shows that Fielding’s technique in ‘Tom Jones’ is incorporated within a third omniscience narrative, which gives the narrator the chance to preside over his creation and commenting on certain attitudes and actions. It concludes that the mark of shame bestowed by earlier critics on Fielding as intrusive narrator is eliminated on the grounds that his presence within the text is directed for teaching purposes.

‘They wanted a bigger, more ambitious film’: Film Finances and the American ‘Runaways’ That Ran Away

From the early 1960s, the British film industry was increasingly reliant on American studio financed ‘runaway’ productions. Alexander Walker identifies United Artists and Universal Pictures as two of the major players in the trend he dubbed ‘Hollywood England’. This article offers a close examination of the role of two studios in the financing of British film production by making extensive use of the Film Finances Archive. It focuses on two case studies: Tom Jones (1963) and Isadora (1968), both of which had completion guarantees from Film Finances, and will argue that Tony Richardson and Karel Reisz, two of the key British New Wave directors, lost their previous ability to direct films to budget and within schedule when they had the financial resources of American studios behind them. It will analyse how, due to a combination of ‘artistic’ intent and Hollywood money, Richardson and Reisz separately created two of the most notorious ‘runaways’ that ran away during the 1960s.

Tom Jones : A Subaltern Critique

Henry Feilding’s Tom Jones offers a picture of English society during the imperial times through a thought-provoking scrutiny of the marginalised voices and indirectly subverts the imperial authority of oppression. Fielding’s defining work which notably laid the foundation of the English novel has often been implored for nuances of morality and sin. This research paper explores the novel as a prelude to the postmodern subaltern voice against the dominion of the social and economically elite through the emancipatory empowerment of the roguish foundling hero of the picaresque tradition: Tom Jones. The paper seeks to establish the relevance of Tom Jones for the readers of the so- called Third World, as it offers a glimpse into the subaltern aspects of identity of the coloniser. In this context, this paper evaluates the narrative of Fielding’s Tom Jones with reference to two key concerns: exposition of the oppressive power structure and revelation of marginalised oppressed.

Fielding�s �Amelia�. Thematic Plurality of the Novel

Article deals with the attempt to describe the semantic �apacity of Fielding`s last novel �Amelia� that became the notable event in writer�s biography and remains the object of discussion among the researches starting from its first publication. Fielding was at the height of his fame as the magistrate for Westminster and Middlesex and as a celebrated novelist who was an opponent of Samuel Richardson. His novel �Tom Jones� (1749) despite some harsh criticism had been generally acclaimed. According to the title �Amelia� obviously differs from Fielding�s early novels: �Joseph Andrews�, �Jonathan Wild� and �Tom Jones�. With his central heroine Fielding has entered the territory associated with Richardson, whose distressed female characters, Pamela and Clarissa, had captured the attention of the reading public. It is well-known that Amelia Booth was modelled on Fielding�s first wife, Charlotte Craddock, while his hero, Captain Booth, was inspired be the author himself as well as his father, Lieutenant General Edmund Fielding. Trying to defend �Amelia� Fielding in the Covent-Garden Journal insists that he has followed the rules for the epic of Homer and Virgil, saying that the �learned reader will see that the latter was the noble model�. Like the �Aeneid�, �Amelia� consists of twelve books, and the opening section of the novel, set in Newgate, is a parallel to Virgil. The author being in the heyday of his glory brought before the public his new, experimental text, giving up the form of comic epic poem in prose that was immortalized in �The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling�. Denying the technique that was deeply rooted in the English prose due to the narrative skill and the omniscient author (who acted as theorist of the novel), theatrically performing the game with the reader through metanarrative, Fielding in �Amelia� prefers restrained position of the narrator using the recourses of dramatical art. Choosing the plain plot about the everyday difficulties, poverty and humiliations of a young married couple that is peculiar for European sentimentalism, Fielding � due to the thematic tightness of the novel, its allusive fullness, the ambiguity of characters, the poetics of concealment � the narrative about the life of a libertine in a family (W. Scott) presents not so much as the moral lesson for the protagonist that is guided by passions but as ethical transformation that comes with the experience of the �art of life�. In recent decades �Amelia� has been the subject of many investigations, its experimental qualities made it attractive to critics of both the development of the 18th century novel and Fielding�s career. Modern readers however, have shown less interest for the work. Critical hostility to �Amelia� often seems to imply disappointment that it is not like �Tom Jones�. �Amelia� is often called a sequel to his masterpiece �Tom Jones� (Walter Scott) but Fielding adopted a new form of verisimilitude and changed his narrative technique, setting and tone. Historians agree that �Tom Jones� is loosely an epic, with a plot drawn from romance, while �Amelia� is modelled on a classical epic � Virgil�s �Aeneid� � and effects to eschew romance (Martin Battestin, Claude Rawson, Peter Sabor, Ronald Paulson, Simon Varey). The instability of reputation of Fielding�s �Amelia� demonstrates that the novel was traditionally estimated as writer�s failure but nowadays it is viewed as complicated literary form addressed to the highbrow reader. According to Peter Sabor, �Amelia� might never become the �favourite Child� of Fielding�s readers, as it was of Fielding himself, but what remains convincing about his last and most problematic novel is its harsh, world-weary picture of a venal society. Fielding�s darkened view of the people�s community influenced the later samples of the genre and reached successful treatment of the similar themes in the English novel of the 19th century. All the more it is the universal experience of the renewal of genre poetics and the reading of �Amelia� represents Fielding�s original conception of the novel. According to the declared problem the author of the present article uses historical and literary, sociocultural and hermeneutic approaches in the synthesis with the technique of close reading.

«The good comic novel»: la narrativa comica di Henry Fielding e l’importanza dell’esempio cervantino

«The good comic novel». La narrativa comica di Henry Fielding e l’importanza dell’esempio cervantino analyses the influence of Don Quixote on Henry Fielding’s fiction, starting with a survey of the reception of the Spanish novel in England. Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones are analyzed and compared with the Spanish novel, from which Fielding overtly borrowed some characters, episodes, and Cervantes’ parodic strategies. Fielding’s and Cervantes’s narrative proceeded from the parodic deconstruction and subsequent innovation of previous literature, with the main purpose of teaching and amusing the reader at the same time. Finally, the volume examines the role of Fielding and Cervantes in the rise of the fictional and the self-conscious novel.

The Sociable Philosopher

David Hume’s philosophical essays of the 1740s offer to bring intellectual reflection into ‘the conversible world’, posing the question of whether this compromises or exemplifies the task of philosophy. Comparisons are drawn with Shaftesbury’s philosophical worldliness, facilitated by the selective nature of the ‘Club’ for whom he writes, Johnson’s more strenuous negotiations between intellectual and social being, and the edgy raillery with which Fielding addresses his public in the essay-chapters of Tom Jones. Against these contexts, the urbanity of Hume’s essay-writing is explored in relation to the implications of the Treatise; the importance of convention and civility; and qualities of ‘reserve’ or ‘modesty’ and the kind of detachment implied in Hume’s ‘delicacy of taste’. The sense of an elusive intentionality, poised against the overt hospitality to contingency and spontaneity which the essay-form equally enables, is traced in particular in the essays that make up the first Enquiry.