Joseph Addison seminar

The Joseph Addison seminar helped to widen my understanding of the paper ‘The spectator’ which I previously had very little knowledge. Led by Sam, the group managed to come with many good points about Joseph Addison and this paper, as well as some surprising facts about the paper itself.

Addison was one of the first journalists; and his journalism in the spectator was mainly based on fashion and public observation and he gave a social commentary with a preciseness and method about his writing. This was seen in the spectator number 476, which describes the methods of writing, and writing with method is an obvious preference of Joseph Addison, however the majority of the group were surprised to find that the paper was mainly aimed towards middle class women. Despite the large mention of males and the believed lack of rights for women, the topic of fashion, the paper was not directed towards men; this was very surprising for the group.

We saw that Addison’s work was accurate but also was an example of the restoration of calm after the reign of Cromwell. The writing has the aim to make money and therefore is a typical example of early journalism. Fictional characters are used by Addison, who he says he has had conversation with as this allows him to describe what he has witnessed, but this allows him to do this in a conversational style, allowing him to open a point for discussion. Unlike papers today, buying a Spectator would be more like buying a book and would often be read by women during tea parties; again much to the surprise of the group who believed the audience were male. The Spectators include humour and nature which displays the cultural shift away from the puritans.

The sarcastic tone of some of Addison’s writing is again drifting away from that of the puritans as he does not want to be serious or sincere, but instead he would prefer to observe and enjoy what he sees so that he can comment on it, and this  view is what the spectator is composed of.