"The Enthusiastick Fit" : The Function and Fate of the Poet in Johnson's "Rasselas"

Abstract

This paper interprets the poetic theory expounded by Samuel Johnson in Rasselas as it relates to two different contexts. The first consists of other theoretical statements by Johnson and their place in the critica[ panorama of the age. The second context is Rasselas itself considered as a whole in which the section on poetics fulfils a literary function. Johnson's attitude to neoclassicism is thereby revaluated, the result being a more adequate understanding of the relationship between his poetics and his overall outlook on life.