Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

The study of selected works of late seventeenth century and eighteenth century literature. May include some writing from outside Britain, and may be organized by various critical issues or approaches.

COURSE DETAILS:

“Sex, Sin, the Self, and the City”   After suffering through war, plague, and fire in the late seventeenth century, London arose like a phoenix out of the ashes, growing over the next century from a city of about 600,000 to an urban centre with a population of about one million people. By 1800, it was the largest city in Europe. London was not only the centre of British financial, political, and imperial power, but also a cultural centre that rivalled Rome and Paris. As printed materials of all kinds flowed out of London, advertising its entertainments, its fashions, and its political dramas, all eyes were turned to the city. London meant job opportunities, shopping, theatre, pleasure gardens, and the latest publications. But for young people of all social stations, from the servant classes to the nobility, it was above all about sex, danger, and determining their destiny. Each winter, when bad roads and bad weather made their country houses isolated and uncomfortable and Parliament was in session, families of the upper orders flocked to the capital for the London social season, which was essentially a marriage market. This was the place where young people of the gentry and nobility could be introduced by families wanting to create alliances of land and money. But it was also a place of chance meetings, where they might fall in love with someone of whom their family did not approve. And in London there also lurked the dangers of friends and potential partners who were not who they said they were—pick-pockets, prostitutes, fortune-hunters, and rakes were all prepared to seduce the unsuspecting country person into sexual and financial ruin. Thus London is the destination—and sometimes the downfall—of almost every hero or heroine of the eighteenth-century novel. Although it often serves as a structural and moral contrast to an idealized country life, the city for these heroines and heroes also becomes the site where they work out their identities as modern individuals and find their adult place in the world. This course will trace developments in the novel genre through a series of fictions structured around a young person’s journey to the city.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

By the end of this course the committed student will:
1. have good knowledge some of the most influential eighteenth-century novels;
2. be able to link plots and themes of novels to social changes such as urbanization, social mobility and inter-class tensions, individualism, gender expectations, and the commercialization of literature;
3. have developed skills in reading and analysing historical forms of fiction;
4. have gained experience in reading, analysing, and responding to arguments in literary criticism;
5. be able to reflect on current experiences of young adulthood in relation to those of the eighteenth century;
6. have improved skills in writing (planning, composing, revising).

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

The course will be focused on 4 works of fiction. These primary texts will be supplemented by contemporary graphic arts, poetry, and short prose pieces that portrayed and debated the meaning of the city. Students will also be guided in some critical reading as part of their class and assignment preparation. These supplemental materials will be made available through the course Canvas page.

Tom Jones, one of the course novels, is funny and a great read, but it is also long. For the purposes of this course, we will focus on the first third (ending with Book VII ch. 9) and final third of the novel (beginning with Book XII ch. 14). Students will be provided with a plot summary of the middle portion of the novel, but are encouraged, of course, to read the entire work. I recommend adding this novel to your holiday reading list!

REQUIRED READING: