ENGL 334 - The Age of Unreason: Studies in 18th-Century Literature

FDR: HL
Credits: 3

Prerequisites: ENGL 299. The “long eighteenth century” began roughly twenty years after a revolution unseated England’s king and reflects subsequent upheavals in England’s culture and literature. This course examines these revolutions through poems, plays, art, and philosophy that extol the birth of science; satirize experiment and reason; and debate the status of slaves and what it means to be human. We consider contemporary gossip, read scurrilous love poetry, witness a host of scandals, and even peek into the lives of London’s city dwellers, considering how these works reflected and shaped the turbulent world of an increasingly modern age. Authors are likely to include Pope, Swift, Defoe, Behn, Haywood, Gay, Addison, Johnson, and Sterne. Keiser.