Dr. Laura L. Runge
Office: CPR 301J
Phone: 813-974-9496

Required Materials Electronic Media Schedule

Assignments Related Sites Paper Guidelines

Sample Papers

Course Description

Based in Enlightenment ideas, the literature of this course explores large questions, like "what is truth?" "what is virtue?" and "what is order?" From kings to milkmaids, God to slaves, the literature reflects and participates in the changing dynamics of emerging modernity. It anticipates contemporary concerns of gender, race and class as well as questions of beauty and literary form. We will study epic, satire, lyric and fictional narratives.

With a self-consciousness that anticipates the post-modern aesthetic, Restoration and eighteenth-century authors are also interested in what makes good literature, a question that likewise concerns us as students of literature. The course is aimed toward revealing how eighteenth-century writers envision virtue and pleasure and how literature teaches us the various shades of truth.

Just as the eighteenth-century witnessed the effects of new print technologies, we in the 21st century are experiencing the revolution in electronic media; this class will be integrated with these new forms in an effort to expose students to the capacities of the internet and worldwide web, as well as to maximize our appreciation of the literature through extended electronic discussions and greater access to eighteenth-century texts. Students should be prepared for extensive use of computers; I recommend that students new to the internet visit the library for instruction and to acquire their free computer accounts.

Objectives

This course is designed to meet the following objectives:


for students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the variety of literature produced in Great Britain during the Restoration and eighteenth century;

for students to demonstrate an understanding of the history of British literature and the historical contexts of the works of these periods;

for students to form and express critical opinions about the themes and developments in the literature through cooperative learning strategies in the classroom and through weekly electronic discussions;

for students to develop formal writing skills through the writing-intensive focus of the classroom;

Required Materials

(All assignments must be read in full before the date of discussion.)

British Literature 1640-1789: An Anthology, Second edition; Ed. by Robert Demaria, Jr., 1996

Recommended

Harvey Birenbaum, The Happy Critic,(Mayfield Publishing Company, 1997)
ON RESERVE

Donald Greene, The Age of Exuberance: Backgrounds to Eighteenth-Century Literature, 1660-1785 McGraw Hill Companies, 1970
ON RESERVE

Liza Picard, Dr. Johnson's London: Coffee Houses and Climbing Boys, St. Martin's Press, 2002
Liza Picard, Restoration London: Engaging Anecdotes and Tantalizing Trivia, Morrow/Avon, 2000
ON RESERVE

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, (Dover or any edition)

Alexander Pope, Essay on Man & Other Poems, (Dover or any edition of his poems)
Most of these literature texts are available on-line. See related sites and hyperlinks within syllabus.

Electronic Media

For an general introduction to List-serv and Internet functions, see USF Academic Computing Home Page.

Course List-serv -- information on this to follow --

My website: information on class, assignments and links to other important sites on literature, etc.

Other important websites are listed in the schedule of reading and following the assignments.

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Schedule

NOTE: Individual class notes are being updated for 2004. Check date last updated to be certain you have the 2004 notes.

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*****LITERATURE AND IDEAS -- A BEGINNING*****

Jan. 6: Introductions

Joseph Addison: Account of the Greatest English Poets (1694)

Jan. 8:

John Dryden, "Mac Flecknoe" (1676?)
Demaria, p. 175


The Happy Critic, introduction and chaps. 1 & 2;
(on reserve)


DUE: Weekly Post #1


*** READ Chapter 7 of The Happy Critic, as soon as possible.

Jan. 13:

Thomas Sprat: from The History of the Royal Society (1667)
See notes. (First edition Demaria, p. 401.)

John Locke: from An Essay Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government (1690)
Demaria, p. 214
Greene, chaps. 1 & 2. (on reserve)

Jan. 15:

Alexander Pope: Essay on Criticism Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

DUE: Weekly Post #2

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***** VIRTUE AND TRUTH -- THE EPIC *****
Jan. 20:

John Milton, from Paradise Lost (1667) -- see handout for selections
Demaria, pp. 42-130

Jan. 22: Milton, cont.

DUE: Weekly Post #3

Jan. 27: Milton, cont.

Jan. 29: Milton, cont.

On Reserve: Greene, chaps. 3 & 4

DUE: Weekly Post #4

Feb. 3:

John Dryden, from preface to Annus Mirabilis (1667)
see class notes

Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, Spectator #267, #279 (1712)
Demaria, p. 503

Samuel Johnson, from Milton (1781)
Demaria, p. 716

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*****VIRTUE AND THE TRIVIAL -- THE MOCK-EPIC*****
Feb. 5:

Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (1714)
Demaria, p. 531

DUE: Weekly Post #5

Feb. 10: Rape of the Lock, cont.

Paper topic #1 DUE

Feb. 12:

Anna Barbauld, "Washing Day" (1797)
Demaria, p. 869

The Happy Critic, chaps. 3 & 4

DUE: Weekly Post #6

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*****VIRTUE AND LABOR -- GENDERED TRUTHS*****
Feb. 17:

Stephen Duck, "The Thresher's Labour" (1730)
Demaria, p. 634

Mary Collier, "The Woman's Labour" (1739)
Demaria, p. 726

DUE: Weekly Post #7

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NO CLASS February 19

Class invited to attend lectures on Transatlantic Crossings
during the DeBartolo Conference
at Embassy Suites

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Feb. 24:

Mary Leapor, "Epistle to a Lady," "An Essay on Woman"
Demaria, p. 775, 778

DUE: Paper 1

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*****VIRTUE, RACE AND POLITICS*****
Feb. 26:

Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (1688)
Demaria, p. 245

DUE: Weekly Post #8

Mar. 2:

Aphra Behn, Oroonoko cont.

The Happy Critic, chaps. 5 & 6

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*****SLAVERY AND SHADES OF TRUTH*****
Mar. 4

William Cowper, "The Negro's Complaint" (1789)
Demaria, p. 827

Olaudah Equiano, from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789)
Demaria, p. 871

Recommended:
William Blake, "Little Black Boy" (1787),
Demaria, p 912

DUE: Weekly Post #9

Mar. 16

Anna Barbauld, "Epistle to Wilberforce"

Hannah More, from "On the Slave Trade" (1790)
Demaria, p. 882

DUE: Weekly Post #10

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March 18:

DUE: Rewrite/Imitation/Recitation

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**VIRTUE AND KNOWLEDGE -- LIMITS OF REASON**
Mar. 23:

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels -- Book Four (1726) DUE: Weekly Post #11

Mar. 25: Gulliver's Travels cont.

DUE: Weekly Post #11
Due: Paper topic #2

Mar. 30:

Thomas Hobbes, from The Leviathan (1651)
Demaria, p. 6

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, "Satire Against Reason and Mankind" (1680?)
Demaria, p. 281

April 1:

Eliza Haywood, Fantomina (1724)
Demaria, p. 602

DUE: Weekly Post #12

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**VIRTUE AND HAPPINESS -- THE QUEST FOR TRUTH**
April 6:

Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas (1759)
Demaria, p. 660

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*****VIRTUES OF HEALTH -- MIND AND BODY*****
April 8:

George Cheyne, from The English Malady (1733)
See notes. (First edition Demaria, p. 659.)

Anne Finch, The Spleen (1713)
Demaria, p. 344

DUE: Weekly Post #13

April 13:

Hannah More, from Sensibility (1782)
Demaria, p. 881

Ann Yearsley, "Addressed to Sensibility" (1787)

DUE: Paper 2

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*****LITERATURE AND IDEAS: AN ENDING*****
April 15:

Edmund Burke, from A Philosophical Enquiry (1759)
Demaria, pp. 797-802

and "On Taste"

[CUT -- Mary Leapor, "Crumble Hall"
Demaria, p. 779]
Please note this represents a change in the schedule.

DUE: Weekly Post#14

April 20:

Thomas Gray, "An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" (1751)
Recommended: "The Progress of Poesy" (1768)
Demaria, pp. 750, 753
Please note this represents a change in the schedule.

April 22:

William Collins,"Ode to Evening" (1748)
Recommended: "Ode on a Poetical Character" (1747) Demaria, pp. 771,769
Please note this represents a change in the schedule.

DUE: Weekly Post#15

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Take-home final examination Due April 27.

Graded Assignments

Attendance/Participation/Quizzes 5%

Weekly Posts (15) 20%

Paper 1 (2-3 pp.) -- (close reading) 15%
Due Feb. 24

Rewrite/Imitation/Recitation 10%
Due March 18

Paper 2 (6-8 pp.) -- Relevance/Analysis/Biography 25%
Due April 13

Final Examination 25%
Due Dec. April 27

This syllabus is subject to change.

** Students who anticipate the necessity of being absent from class due to a major religious observance must provide notice of the date(s) to the instructor, in writing, by the second class meeting.

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Related Sites

• VoS English Literature: English Literature Page A highly organized and extensive collection of web sources for literature; with search engine.
• Eighteenth-Century Resources: Extensive collection of sites and text-databases related to all aspects of the eighteenth century; with search engine.

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