EN 790.01 Fashioning the Nation:18th Century Studies (Spring 2011-2012: 3)
What currently characterizes the interdisciplinary field of eighteenth-century
studies? In this class, we will answer this question through an examination
of six key concepts: gender, consumerism, nationality, writers and readers,
and theatricality. As ideas that saw significant revision over the course
of the long eighteenth century (1688-1820), these concepts can be charted
in literary, cultural, and visual texts. For example, Frances Burney's Evelinapositions
its eponymous heroine in a world of hoop petticoats and big hair, and it
illuminates exciting new opportunities for leisure, like shops, pleasure
gardens, and the opera, with its star performer--the castrato. But Evelina
also depicts dangerous new ground for women who must make their way through
society. At the same time, Addison and Steele seize the image of female
fashion--and of the hoop petticoat in particular--to anchor their discussion
of emerging market principles. Meanwhile, for Jonathan Swift, the female
body signifies everything fearful about the human propensity to consume.
As Britain's powerful navy begins to assume global dominance, questions
about national identity surface, while writers ponder their own contribution
to an emerging national story, and readers scramble to process what it means
to be human in a world of proliferating things. Weaving through all of these
conversations is an underlying anxiety about social performance: as money
alters a common understanding of rank and position, how does true worth
make itself known?In this seminar, we'll read poetry (by Alexander Pope
Jonathan Swift, and Oliver Goldsmith), prose (by Addison and Steele, Dr.
Johnson, and others), plays (by Colley Cibber, George Lillo, John Gay,
and Hannah Cowley) and two novels (Evelina and Tom Jones.)
Student responsibilities include short presentations and a twenty-page
research paper, to be written in consultation with the instructor over the
course of the semester.
Elizabeth Kowaleski Wallace
Last Updated: 21-JAN-11