Title: RESTORATION AND 18th CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE

PRQ:

Between 1660 and 1800, English writers—men and women—produced some of the greatest masterpieces of English literature and created these masterpieces in an exciting variety of new and old genres. This course treats the “greats” and the “not so greats” of this period, sometimes called the Age of Reason, sometimes the Enlightenment, and sometimes as the Restoration and the Eighteenth Century.  Using the irreverent and sometimes scabrous, prints of William Hogarth as its lens (with which we will begin every class period), the course will look at the literature of the men and women who are representative of the Restoration and 18th Century, treating satire, letters, diaries, and verse in popular and high forms. In discussion and lecture, the class focuses on the poetry and prose of John Dryden, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Thomas Gray, and Samuel Johnson. And others.

The course calls for a midterm (optional), a final examination, and a research or interpretive paper of eight pages. You will earn credit for class participation, but you must participate actively.

TBA