Graduate Courses - ENG 555: Literature of the Enlightenment
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing or permission
Recent offerings:
Fall 2010, Rogers
From reason to violence, from innocence to rape, from sentiment to sadism, astounding change ignited the Restoration and eighteenth century, making this period a watershed that marks the transition from Renaissance to Modern. This seminar will consider literature against the background of this historical change, inheritance, and influence. Works by Pope, Behn, Cavendish, Finch, Congreve, Dryden, Swift, Defoe, Richardson, Johnson, and Radcliffe, among others. Both clarifying and complicating our understanding of the reflexive relationship between literature and politics, we will study literature in terms of gender, culture, genre, individualism, representation, and postcolonialism.
Required texts (subject to change):
- Price, The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century
- Behn, Oroonoko (or Equiano, The Interesting Narrative)
- Pope, Rape of the Lock
- Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
- Defoe, Moll Flanders
- Richardson, Clarissa
- Radcliffe, The Italian (or Udolpho)
Evaluation: Papers, book review, presentations, research paper