EНГЛЕСКИ ДОПРИНОС КЊИЖЕВНОЈ ИСТОРИЈИ У 18. ВЕКУ
ENGLAND’S CONTRIBUTION TO LITERARY HISTORY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the perspectives, insights and judgments of Joseph Warton and Samuel Johnson concerning both literary history and historical thought more broadly. Recognised as leading critics of the English literary scene during the Enlightenment, Warton and Johnson are particularly relevant to this study for two main reasons. First, their reflections on literary history anticipate the later Romantic conception of the discipline as a dynamic and evolving process – an understanding that contrasts sharply with the prevailing Neoclassical view, which regarded literary history as confined to the authoritative models of ancient Greece and Rome. In this respect, both critics may be seen as transitional figures whose ideas helped prepare the intellectual ground for a more historically conscious literary criticism. Second, both authors produced significant works in the field of literary history, which are analysed in detail in this paper. These texts not only engage with the literary achievements of past writers but also demonstrate an emerging sense of literary development over time. From these works, key historical insights are identified and discussed. Based on this analysis, the paper offers a general assessment of their contributions to the development of literary history. According to the renowned literary historian and critic René Wellek (1903–1995), both Thomas Warton and Samuel Johnson reached the height of their literary output at a time when historical consciousness in England was still emerging. In the latter half of the eighteenth century, their works contributed significantly to reshaping the prevailing Neoclassical understanding of literary history. Warton, for instance, published Observations on the Fairy Queen of Spenser (1754), which laid the foundation for his seminal work, The History of English Poetry (1774–1782). At the time, this was considered the most comprehensive study of national literary history in England.

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