The Enlightenment, 1700 -1799 (EAS2082)

The Enlightenment, 1700-1799 (EAS2082)

MODULE CODE EAS2082 MODULE 2
LEVEL

MODULE TITLE The Enlightenment, 1700-1799

LECTURER(S) Dr. Robert Mack (convenor), Dr. Henry Power, Dr. Corinna Wagner, et al.

CREDIT VALUE 30 ECTS VALUE 15

PRE- None
REQUISITES

CO-REQUISITES None

DURATION OF MODULE 11 weeks

TOTAL STUDENT STUDY 300 hours (including 1x2hr seminar and 1x1hr lecture a
TIME week)

AIMS

The module aims to offer an introduction to eighteenth-century literature, philosophy, and history
through the close examination of three canonical authors. Reading works by Alexander Pope,
Henry Fielding, and Samuel Johnson, students will be introduced to some of the most important
ideas and advances of Enlightenment thought. But we will not, by any means, confine ourselves to
these authors. All three were sociable and controversial figures, whose work and lives cannot be
studied in isolation. Alongside Pope's satires, pastorals, and literary criticism, we will look at the
work of his close friends Swift and Gay, as well as sampling the many anonymous attacks made on
him. As well as reading Fielding's great novel, Tom Jones (1749), we will consider his
collaborations with his sister, Sarah, and the contribution made by women writers to the rise of the
novel. We will also read some of the lesser-known fiction of the period, using the Eighteenth
Century Collections Online database. Johnson's work, fascinating in itself, also provides a window
through which we can look at the establishment of a canon of English literature, at representations
of London and of the world beyond it, and at the idea of literary celebrity.

The eighteenth century saw the birth of the world we now live in: Pope, Fielding, Johnson and
their contemporaries witnessed the emergence of a consumer society; the commercialisation of
literature and the arts; the rapid urbanisation of England (and, as a result, anxiety over increasing
distance from nature); an increased awareness of non-European cultures; a growing focus on issues
of gender in the public sphere. All of these issues (and many others) will be explored over the
course of the module.

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES (ILO's)

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Module-specific skills. By the end of the module students will be able to:

a. demonstrate informed appreciation of specific eighteenth-century literary texts and authors.

b. demonstrate an appreciation of essential eighteenth-century literary history.

c. demonstrate an informed appreciation of the relation between eighteenth-century literature
and important historical and intellectual developments of the time.

2. Discipline-specific skills. By the end of the module students will be able to:

a. demonstrate an ability to analyse the literature of an earlier era and to relate its concerns and
its modes of expression to its historical context.

b. demonstrate an ability to interrelate texts and discourses specific to their own discipline with
issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history.

c. demonstrate an ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply
these ideas to literary texts.

3. Personal and key skills. By the end of this module, students will be able to:

a. through seminar work, demonstrate communication skills, and an ability to work both
individually and in groups.

b. through essay-writing, demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills, a apacity to
construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and a capacity to write clear and correct prose.

c. through research for seminars and essays, demonstrate proficiency in information retrieval
and analysis.

d. through sitting their final examination, demonstrate proficiency in the use of memory and in
the development, organization, and expression of ideas under pressure of time.

LEARNING/TEACHING METHODS

Details of Learning and Teaching Methods:

Teaching is by weekly two-hour seminar and one-hour lecture. Students will be expected to
participate in class discussion and will be encouraged to hold independent small group meetings in
preparation for the seminars. Seminar attendance is compulsory.

ASSIGNMENTS & ASSESSMENTS

Formative or % Form of Size of the ILO's assessed Feedback method:
Contribution: Assessment:
assessment by this

e.g. assessment:

duration/length

Formative Essay 1,000 words 1a-c, 2a-c, Feedback sheet
3b-c with opportunity
for tutorial
follow-up.

50% Essay 2,000 words 1a-c, 2a-c, Feedback sheet
3b-c with opportunity
for tutorial
follow-up.

50% Exam 2 hrs 1a-c, 2a-c, Feedback sheet
3b, d with opportunity
for tutorial
follow-up.

SYLLABUS PLAN

Week 1: General Introduction: What is Enlightenment?

Week 2: Enlightenment ideas of literature

Week 3: Literature and the city

Week 4: Satire and print culture

Weeks 5 - 7: The rise of the novel

Week 8: The English language and the English canon

Week 9: Johnson's London

Week 10: Enlightenment and the world beyond

Week 11: Conclusions
INDICATIVE LEARNING RESOURCES
Primary texts:

Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, ed. John Bender and Simon Stern. Oxford: OUP, 1998. (Price: £ 6.99 -
Paperback). ISBN-13: 978019-2834973.

Samuel Johnson, The Major Works, ed. Donald Greene. Oxford: OUP, 2000. (Price: £11.99 -
Paperback). ISBN-13: 9780192840424

Alexander Pope, The Major Works, ed. Pat Rogers. Oxford: OUP, 2006. (Price: £10.99 -
Paperback) ISBN-13: 9780199203611

Module coursebook, containing works by a number of other eighteenth-century authors.

Selected secondary texts:

Roy Porter, Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World. London, 2000.

Norman Hampson. The Englightenment: An Evaluation of its Assumptions, Attitudes, and Values.
London, 1968;1990.

Donald Green. The Age of Exuberance: Backgrounds to Eighteenth-Century English Literature.
New York, 1970.

David Nokes, Raillery and Rage: A Study of Eighteenth-Century Satire. Brighton, 1988.

Howard Weinbrot, Britannia's Issue: The Rise of British Literature from Dryden to Ossian
Cambridge, 1993.

John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century.
London, 1997.

Liza Picard, Dr Johnson's London: Life in London, 1740-1770. London 2001.

Tom Keymer and Jon Mee (eds), The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1740-1830.

Cambridge, 2004.
John Sitter (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry. Cambridge, 2001.
John Richetti (ed), The Cambridge Companion to the Eighteenth-Century Novel. Cambridge, 1996.
DATE OF LAST REVISION 30/03/2010