ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -In English literature, the term comedy of manners (also anti-sentimental comedy) describes a genre of realistic, satirical comedy of the Restoration period (1660–1710) that questions and comments upon the manners and social conventions of a greatly sophisticated, artificial society.

Detailed explanation-2: -"Restoration comedy” is English comedy written and performed in the Restoration period of 1660–1710. Comedy of manners is used as a synonym for this. After public stage performances were banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, reopening of the theatres in 1660 marked a renaissance of English drama.

Detailed explanation-3: -One of the greatest exponents of the comedy of manners was Molière, who satirized the hypocrisy and pretension of 17th-century French society in such plays as L’École des femmes (1662; The School for Wives) and Le Misanthrope (1666; The Misanthrope).

Detailed explanation-4: -Prose genres. Prose in the Restoration period is dominated by Christian religious writing, but the Restoration also saw the beginnings of two genres that would dominate later periods: fiction and journalism.