English 322
Literature of the Enlightenment
The latter half of the Eighteenth Century was one of the great transitional periods of modern times: an age of terrific intellectual and social ferment. It saw the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the opening decades of the Industrial Revolution. While conservative beliefs were collapsing (like that of the "great chain of Being" which dated from classical times), the new doctrines that inspired the Romantic Revival were being born. All the previous notions about God's relation to His world, about man's duty to his rulers, and about the psychological make-up of the individual were being called into question. This course will attempt to chronicle this struggle between revolution and reaction, using primarily prose fiction and autobiography.
Required Texts:
The following books have been ordered from the QC Bookstore and are presumably available there. Let me know if anything is not in stock a.s.a.p. If you find other available editions of our readings, however, well and good.
For the computer-savvy. The fact is that most of the texts for this course are in the public domain and are therefore available online at various websites. Clicking on the hot link will bring up a file or link to one.
Alexander Pope: Essay on Man (Dover Thrift Editions)
Samuel Johnson: Rasselas, Poems, and Selected Prose (Penguin)
Voltaire: Candide (Dover Thrift Editions)
Denis Diderot: Rameau's Nephew (Penguin)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Confessions (Wordsworth Editions Ltd)
Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography (Dover Thrift Editions)
James Boswell: The Life of Samuel Johnson, LLD (Selections; Wordsworth Editions Ltd)
Edward Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Chapters V and XV in handout)
David Hume: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (Haackett)
Choderlos de Laclos: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Oxford)
Mary Wollstonecraft: Maria, or, The Wrongs of Woman (Norton)
Note: Because the Enlightenment was an international movement, and not merely a British one, the reading list also includes some American and Continental sources.
Tentative Schedule
September 5: Introduction to the Course. The confidence of the Enlightenment in Europe. The Great Chain of Being and the promise of heavenly and earthly harmony. Reading: John Dryden, "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day" (1697), with a musical offering from Mr. Handel. Enlightenment Optimism. Reading: Alexander Pope: Essay on Man (1735).
September 12: Pope continued. The rebuttals to optimism. Readings: Samuel Johnson: "Review of Soame Jenyns' Free Enquiry into the Origin and Nature of Evil and "The Vanity of Human Wishes."
September 19: Rebuttals to optimism II. Reading: Samuel Johnson: Rasselas.
September 26: Rebuttals to optimism III. Reading: Voltaire: Candide.
October 3: The rational and the irrational in the human personality. Reading: Diderot: Rameau's Nephew.
October 10: Columbus Day Celebrated: No classes.
October 17: Rousseau as the first romantic. Desire and the irrational. Autobiography as a mode of self-expression, self-aggrandisement, and self-concealment. Reading: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Confessions, Books I-IV.
October 24: Other sorts of Enlightenment lives: "I seem to be a verb." Reading:The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
October 31: Biography and autobiography as literary and psychological art forms. Readings: Selections from James Boswell, selections from The Life of Samuel Johnson, L.L.D. along with passages from Boswell's Journals and readings for comparison of Boswell with other Johnson biographies.
November 7: Election Day: no classes.
November 14: Cynicism, infidelity and the art of history. Reading: Chapters 5 and 15 from Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
November 21: Natural religion and its critics. Reading: David Hume, Dialogues concerning Natural Religion.
November 28: Love, sex, and the paradoxes of desire. Reading: Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
December 5: Immanuel Kant: "What Is Enlightenment?"
December 12: Mary Wollstonecraft: Maria, or, The Wrongs of Woman
REQUIRED WRITTEN WORK AND OTHER ANNOYANCES
You will be required to produce:
One term paper of around 18 pages, tightly written and properly
documented, on a topic of the student's choice, chosen in
consultation with me; due December 14 and returnable on the
day of the final examination.
One take-home final examination, consisting of around five
questions answerable in a paragraph or thereabouts, to be
turned in on the scheduled day of the final examination.
You will also be required to show up in class with the readings
read and more-or-less assimilated, in shape to talk about
them with me and your fellow students. This will be a
discussion class with formal lecture held to a minimum.
Class participation will positively or negatively affect
your grades.
OFFICE HOURS AND OTHER INFORMATION
I am on campus only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but I am here for long stretches of both days, from 10 in the morning till 9:30 at night. Since I am also graduate advisor, I have to be here until fairly late in the evening. You can see me informally before or after class most days, but my officially scheduled office hours will be 2-3 Tuesday and 5-6 on Wednesday. My office is in Klapper 604. Phone is 718-997-4667. Email address is mailto:david_richter@qc.edu