Schedule

Reading should be completed by the dates unde which they are listed. Please check this page regularly as more specific titles will be added during the course of the semester and reading dates may change with the pace of the class.


Week 1 (Aug 26): The Age of Enlightenment

Introduction

Week 2 (Sep 2): Restoration Religious Mentalities

Extracts from Part I of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (pp. 32-55)

Week 3 (Sep 9): Reconsidering Identity

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: 'A Satire on Charles II', 'A Satire against Reason and Mankind', 'Love and Life: A Song', 'The Disabled Debauchee', 'The Imperfect Enjoyment', 'Impromptu on Charles II' (p. 231, pp. 233-237, pp. 240-241)
Aphra Behn: 'The Disappointment', 'On a Juniper Tree, Cut Down to Make Busks' (pp. 139-142)
Mary Astell: from A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, from Reflection upon Marriage (pp. 290-291, pp. 128-129)

Week 4 (Sep 16): The New World of Narrative

Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (pp. 144-178)

Week 5 (Sep 23): Observing Society and the Scientific Tradition

Samuel Pepys (pp. 112-120)
John Locke (pp. 124-127)
David Hume (pp. 134-135)

Week 6 (Sep 30): Reconsidering Literature

Dryden (pp. 69-86, pp. 101-108)

Week 7 (Oct 7)

Class Cancelled

Week 8 (Oct 14): Getting Dramatic

John Dryden: Marriage à la Mode
William Hogarth: Marriage à la Mode (pp. 719-724)

Week 9 (Oct 21): Social Manners and Social Satire

Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Lock (pp. 434-436, pp. 443-456)

Week 10 (Oct 28): Starbucks Pre-Visited, or Everybody’s Got an Opinion

Joseph Addison (pp. 427-433, pp. 539-540, pp. 543-545)
Opinions on Coffee-Houses (pp. 716-718)

Week 11 (Nov 4): Transforming Society, or Not

Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal (pp. 417-426), Book 4 of Gulliver’s Travels (pp. 378-413)

Week 12 (Nov 11)

Veteran’s Day: No Classes

Week 13 (Nov 18): Transforming Society, For Real?

Samuel Johnson (pp. 558-560, pp. 565-568, pp. 582-599)

Week 14 (Nov 25)

Thanksgiving: No Classes

Week 15 (Dec 2): The Legacy of the Enlightenment

Thomas Gray (pp. 603-604, pp. 607-609)

Return to Top