British Writing and the Enlightenment
Set Texts:
Robert DeMaria Jr (ed) British Literature 1640-1789, Second edition, Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. [D]
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, Penguin Classics.
Voltaire, Candide, or Optimism, Penguin Classics.
A small amount of material will also be distributed separately in time for seminar discussion.
The unit is organised around four major topics:
Introduction: Reason and the Classical Inspiration: Ancient Greece & Rome, and modern France.
Politics: ‘The Universal Rights of Man’ (and women).
Sexuality: ‘The Man (and woman) of Feeling’.
4. Religion and Philosophy: ‘the best of all possible worlds’.
The lectures will introduce the historical and philosophical context of these topics and offer detailed readings of certain important texts.
The main textual discussion however will take place in the seminars. Reading for these is closely specified in the weekly programme (overleaf). You must do the set reading thoroughly and carefully each week and come prepared with your own notes.
Programme of Lectures and Seminars
D = DeMaria
Introduction: Reason and the Classical Inspiration: Ancient Greece & Rome, and modern France.
1. Sept 30 Learning and Ignorance
Dryden, ‘To My Honoured Friend …’ D 174-5; ‘Pygmalion and the Statue’, D 211-3.
Rochester, ‘A Satyr Against Reason and Mankind’, D 281-5.
2. Oct 7 The Tree of Knowledge
Milton, Paradise Lost Bk IX D 105-29.
[also see Addison on PL D 506; Johnson on Milton D 716]
Swift, A Modest Proposal… D 425-9.
Politics: ‘The Universal Rights of Man’ (and women).
3. Oct 14 Who rules?
Filmer, from Patriarcha, D 9-10.
Hobbes, from Leviathan, D 6-8.
Marvell, ‘An Horatian Ode…’ D 146-8.
4. Oct 21 Master and Slave
Locke, from An Essay … Civil Government, D 214-9
More, ‘The Slave Trade’ D 882-6.
Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of…the African D 871-80
Burke, from Reflections on the Revolution in France …’ D 803-13.
Mary Woolstonecroft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men, D 923-
Sexuality: ‘The Man (and woman) of Feeling’.
5. Oct 28 ‘All that love could say’
Aphra Behn, Oroonoko, D 245-78.
31October - 4 November Progression & Assessment Week
7.Nov 11 Barons and Belles
Pope, The Rape of the Lock D 531-49.
Jones, ‘After the Small Pox’, D 637.
Swift, ‘The Lady’s Dressing Room’; ‘A Beautiful Young Nymph…’ D 430-5.
Montagu, ‘The Reasons that Induced Dr Swift to Write …The Lady’s Dressing-Room’, D 596-8.
8.Nov 18 Companionate Marriage?
Fielding, The Female Husband (NB to be distributed).
Religion and Philosophy:
9. Nov 25 Travelling Hopefully
Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
10. Dec 2 Faith and Reason
Finch, ‘The Atheist and the Acorn’ D 343.
Smart, from Jubilate Agno’ D 785-9.
Gibbon, from Decline and fall of the Roman Empire, D 834-44.
11. Dec 9 ‘the best of all possible worlds’.
Voltaire, Candide (Penguin)
12. Dec 16 Revision and Essay Tutorials
Robert DeMaria Jr (ed) British Literature 1640-1789, Second edition, Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. [D]
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, Penguin Classics.
Voltaire, Candide, or Optimism, Penguin Classics.
A small amount of material will also be distributed separately in time for seminar discussion.
The unit is organised around four major topics:
Introduction: Reason and the Classical Inspiration: Ancient Greece & Rome, and modern France.
Politics: ‘The Universal Rights of Man’ (and women).
Sexuality: ‘The Man (and woman) of Feeling’.
4. Religion and Philosophy: ‘the best of all possible worlds’.
The lectures will introduce the historical and philosophical context of these topics and offer detailed readings of certain important texts.
The main textual discussion however will take place in the seminars. Reading for these is closely specified in the weekly programme (overleaf). You must do the set reading thoroughly and carefully each week and come prepared with your own notes.
Programme of Lectures and Seminars
D = DeMaria
Introduction: Reason and the Classical Inspiration: Ancient Greece & Rome, and modern France.
1. Sept 30 Learning and Ignorance
Dryden, ‘To My Honoured Friend …’ D 174-5; ‘Pygmalion and the Statue’, D 211-3.
Rochester, ‘A Satyr Against Reason and Mankind’, D 281-5.
2. Oct 7 The Tree of Knowledge
Milton, Paradise Lost Bk IX D 105-29.
[also see Addison on PL D 506; Johnson on Milton D 716]
Swift, A Modest Proposal… D 425-9.
Politics: ‘The Universal Rights of Man’ (and women).
3. Oct 14 Who rules?
Filmer, from Patriarcha, D 9-10.
Hobbes, from Leviathan, D 6-8.
Marvell, ‘An Horatian Ode…’ D 146-8.
4. Oct 21 Master and Slave
Locke, from An Essay … Civil Government, D 214-9
More, ‘The Slave Trade’ D 882-6.
Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of…the African D 871-80
Burke, from Reflections on the Revolution in France …’ D 803-13.
Mary Woolstonecroft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men, D 923-
Sexuality: ‘The Man (and woman) of Feeling’.
5. Oct 28 ‘All that love could say’
Aphra Behn, Oroonoko, D 245-78.
31October - 4 November Progression & Assessment Week
7.Nov 11 Barons and Belles
Pope, The Rape of the Lock D 531-49.
Jones, ‘After the Small Pox’, D 637.
Swift, ‘The Lady’s Dressing Room’; ‘A Beautiful Young Nymph…’ D 430-5.
Montagu, ‘The Reasons that Induced Dr Swift to Write …The Lady’s Dressing-Room’, D 596-8.
8.Nov 18 Companionate Marriage?
Fielding, The Female Husband (NB to be distributed).
Religion and Philosophy:
9. Nov 25 Travelling Hopefully
Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
10. Dec 2 Faith and Reason
Finch, ‘The Atheist and the Acorn’ D 343.
Smart, from Jubilate Agno’ D 785-9.
Gibbon, from Decline and fall of the Roman Empire, D 834-44.
11. Dec 9 ‘the best of all possible worlds’.
Voltaire, Candide (Penguin)
12. Dec 16 Revision and Essay Tutorials