ENGL 283 H01 13180

Humanities, EngLit, AIU

Special topics in British literature exemplifying persistent themes of British culture. May be repeated for credit. Content varies by title and semester. Prerequisite: ENGL 101 and 102 or equivalent. FS: 11/04/2015. CL: 2020.

Notes:

Course DescriptionIn this course, we will ask several questions about the Enlightenment: what is it, what was it, and why did it happen when and where it did, in eighteenth-century books, periodicals, coffeehouses, letters, and salons? In addition, we will look at the beginnings of a counter-Enlightenment, starting in the Romantic period and continuing into the present, a moment that has seen the initial question become more and more pressing, both in literary studies and in public discourse. To address all of these questions, we’ll read works by David Hume, Adam Smith, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, William Wordsworth, and Mary Shelley. In addition, we’ll take a look at some twentieth- and twenty-first-century attempts to explain, critique, and re-contextualize the Enlightenment.PrerequisitesEngl. 101, Engl. 102 .