Literature Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
Grouped by the shape of the gap rather than its subject: what sort of thing is unresolved.
Showing 21 to 22 of 22 open questions, page 2 of 2.
Not Yet Classified 6
Recorded as unresolved.
Neoclassicism
When did English literary neoclassicism (the Augustan Age) begin?
Open Neoclassicism
Why It Is Open Standard references date the Augustan Age's end precisely, to Alexander Pope's and Jonathan Swift's deaths in 1744 and 1745, but describe its starting boundary only as falling within the reigns of Anne, George I and George II, and the source's own text calls the period's boundary points generally vague.
What Would Settle It A literary-historical source anchoring the Augustan Age to a specific inaugurating work, event or year rather than a reign-level range.
Expertise Needed Literary history and periodization scholarship
Question posed in
Augustan Literature (Wikipedia), Lead section.
Metaphysical Poetry
What are the start and end dates of the Metaphysical poets movement?
Open Metaphysical Poetry
Why It Is Open Sources identify the Metaphysical poets only by century, as a loose group of 17th-century English poets extending loosely through the Commonwealth period, without stating specific years marking the group's beginning or end.
What Would Settle It A literary-historical source anchoring the movement to a specific founding publication (such as a first Donne manuscript circulation) or a closing event, rather than a century-level description.
Expertise Needed Literary history and periodization scholarship
Question posed in
Metaphysical Poets (Wikipedia), Lead section.