The "Modern" 18th Century: Science, Consumer Culture, Individuality, and Enlightenment
ENGL 263
Spring 2012
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01
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Eighteenth-century England was changing rapidly: Isaac Newton discovered gravity; Adam Smith explained the WEALTH OF NATIONS; John Locke endorsed democratic governments, and Voltaire and David Hume celebrated the power of the human mind. Indeed, it is often said that 18th-century England was a crucial birthplace for science, consumer culture, the liberal individual, and enlightenment--for the modern world itself. This class will read key texts of this process of modernization (by the likes of Newton and Locke) as literature, but we will also attend to the literary reaction--texts celebrating, condemning, satirizing, or simply trying to make sense of these changes. Throughout, we will seek both the presence and the limits of the "modern" in the period. Sometimes weirdly backwards-looking ideas unpredictably jostle up against the seemingly progressive: exuberantly pious devotions punctuate serious science and economics, and strikingly unfamiliar assumptions about the individual influence political, philosophical, and literary thought. What was--and wasn't--"modern" about the 18th century, and how can this key modernizing moment help us better understand our world today? |
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Essential Capabilities:
Interpretation, Writing
This is a writing intensive course that develops students' skills in literary interpretation.
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Robert Hooke, MICROGRAPHIA
John Locke, SECOND TREATISE OF GOVERNMENT
Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, THE SPECTATOR
Jonathan Swift, GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
Bernard Mandeville, FABLE OF THE BEES
Laurence Sterne, SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY
Poems by Lord Rochester, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, and John Dyer
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Examinations and Assignments:
Regular short response papers and three formal papers (two 4-5 pp. and one 10pp.) |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the English major's Literary History II requirement and contributes to the fulfillment of its British Literature concentration; it offers the Research Option for Honors thesis writers. |
| Instructor(s): Smith,Courtney Weiss Times: ..T.R.. 02:40PM-04:00PM; Location: FISK404; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 25 | | SR major: 7 | JR major: 7 | | |
| Seats Available: 10 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 7 | FR: 0 |
| Web Resources: Syllabus |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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