English 212A
Literature 1700-1900
Professor Staten
We will read a selection of representative works of British literature from the 18th and 19th centuries that reflect the vast social and cultural changes that were taking place during this crucial period of the formation of the modern world. Our primary focus will be on the slow change in the class structure of British society as it is represented in these works, originally with the aristocracy on top. The dominance of the aristocracy slowly begins to give way to the rise of the bourgeoisie (the capitalist class), and this change is reflected in the new political ideology of individual freedom codified by the philosopher John Locke, who established the basic principles on which the United States was founded. A secondary focus, taken up in the section on romanticism, will be the rise of materialist science and the decline of Christianity among the educated classes, as represented by the romantic poets’ attempt to preserve a sense of the “enchantment” of the world in the face of the scientific reduction of everything to the interactions of atoms. For example, the miracle of the rainbow (formerly understood as a miraculous phenomenon created by God) had now been explained in terms of light rays bending as they enter and exit water drops, an explanation that disillusioned many people.
This course involves quite a bit of reading, including three long novels. There will be frequent, unannounced, quizzes to stimulate you to keep up with the reading; these quizzes, and your participation in class, will count for 30 per cent of your final grade (but simply being in class every day and looking like you're paying attention--not just talking in class--will count as participation). Your mid-term paper of 4-5 pages will count for another 30 per cent, and your final, also of 4-5 pages, will count for the final forty per cent. There will be no final exam.
ADD CODES: No add codes will be given out in advance. The class is currently full and there will be only be as many add codes given out as there turn out to be students who drop; and you must come to class to confirm your interest.
Texts: The works we will read are all standards and easily available in many editions, as well as online. You may use any version of the texts you choose:
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Romanticism (poems and prose by Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats)
William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
George Eliot, Adam Bede
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure