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:

Most of us think of poetry as peripheral to our lives, something we find in greeting cards and school texts, but in the long eighteenth century in Britain poetry was much more central. Like today’s YouTube videos, poetry gave people lessons, influenced public opinion, and could make some of its creators into celebrities. Books of poetry poured off the presses, new poems appeared each week in newspapers and magazines, and politicians paid attention to what poets were saying… White male middle-class and upper-class poets, that is. Women poets more often passed handwritten poems among their friends and family, because publishing was fraught with dangers. Men saw a woman selling her words as the equivalent of selling her body: “Punk [prostitute] and Poetess agree so Pat, / You cannot well be this and not be that” (Robert Gould, 1683). Lower-class and Black poets were treated more like strange amusements than genuine poets. However, the world of the White patriarchy was slowly starting to open up during this period. This course explores very different kinds of poetry in the long eighteenth century, from private elegies to political satire, from quiet contemplation to anguish and anger.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

1/ to introduce students to literary issues involving poetry and to social issues from Restoration and eighteenth-century Britain, 

2/ to develop existing skills in reading texts critically, 

3/ to develop existing skills in expressing and supporting critical opinions, 

4/ to give students the opportunity to adapt coursework to their own needs and learning styles.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: