Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Addresses specific issues in 18th century literature in English. May be organized by author, genre, or critical approach. Students with credit for ENGL 420 may not take this course for further credit. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

Before Brexit: Forging the British Nation in the Eighteenth Century 

On September 18, 2014, Scottish residents went to the polls to determine the future of their nation. The question on the referendum ballot — “Should Scotland be an independent country?” – ignited a debate during which both sides drew on representations of the national past to fuel their arguments about how to go forward into the future. Ultimately, Scots on referendum day voted on the side of staying in the Union by a margin of 55% to 45%. Predictably, however, given the complex historical relationship between the two nations, the Scottish referendum also triggered a re-evaluation of English national identity which led to the referendum on Britain’s leaving the European Union or “Brexit.”           
   This course goes back to 1707 when Scotland and England were first united under one monarch and one parliament as the nation of Great Britain. We explore the way that literary culture both reflected and contributed to changing identity in both nations, as we examine some of the many diverse literary and cultural texts produced by eighteenth-century Scots and their English counterparts. We engage with, among other texts, the outraged speeches of Lord Belhaven, the lyric productions of Allan Ramsay, John Home’s ill-fated play, Douglas, the so-called “forgeries” of James “Ossian” Macpherson, the literary peregrinations of Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, Scottish ballads, as well songs by Robert Burns. As Scotland emerged as a site of unprecedented creativity and intellectual endeavor during this time period, we also pay attention to the understudied voices of women writers of the time period such as Elizabeth Wardlaw, Janet Little and Anne MacVicar Grant.

     This course invites students to rethink the canon of eighteenth-century English literature by examining texts from a peripheral region of Britain and by engaging with material that challenges our ideas about literature (eg. texts from popular culture, printed speeches, ballads, etc.).  At the same time, we will consider how echoes of the eighteenth-century discourse on national identity continues to haunt the present in the current attempts to achieve a Brexit settlement.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: