Course Schedule and Catalog

Department: English

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Description: LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH ENLIGHTMENT ***** DISTRIBUTION COURSE GROUP 1 ***** This course will provide an introductory survey of the literature and culture of the Restoration and eighteenth century. We will read a representative range of prose and poetry from a volatile and exciting age of plots, revolution and literary transformation. As England struggled with the concept of monarchy, questioned the value of social and sexual hierarchy, and witnessed the increasing prominence of a "middling" or middle class, the category "literature" began to assume its modern integrity and coherence; our notions of "authorship" and the aesthetic took shape; and women and laboring men for the first time became significant forces in the reading and writing of literature. Our readings will cover poems of several genres, short prose narratives, essays, and philosophical treatises. Authors will include Bunyan, Butler, Rochester, Dryden, Behn, Finch, Astell, Swift, Defoe, Addison and Steele, Locke, Hume, Pope, Montagu, Duck, Collier, Leapor, Collins, Gray, Haywood, Johnson, Smith, Burke, Goldsmith, Crabbe, Boswell, and others.