English Literature, 1660-1745

English 325, Autumn 1998

Jack Lynch

Go directly to:

September -- October -- November -- December

Office: (973) 353-5279x516; 516 Hill Hall. Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 11:30-12:30, and by appointment (appointments are always good).

Home: (609) 750-1263 (before 11 p.m.!).

E-mail: jlynch@andromeda.rutgers.edu (the best way to reach me).

Listserv: lynch325@andromeda.rutgers.edu

Course Requirements

English 325 involves the following responsibilities on your part:

Written Assignments: There will be two papers, the first of five to seven pages, the second of ten to twelve.
Final Exam: A final examination will include short answers, matching, identification of quotations, and short essays.
In-Class Reports: You'll be expected to give a brief presentation on the day's reading. Details are below.
Class Participation: Regular and active class participation (including doing the readings) is essential, and counts for a large part of your grade. Class participation obviously includes class attendance; if you're not there, you're not participating.
E-Mail Participation: All students will be required to have an E-mail account by the end of the second week of classes; E-mail participation will count toward the class participation grade, and some essential information will be available only electronically. I'll provide any computing help you need.

Readings

Seven books -- William Congreve, The Way of the World (Dover); Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (Norton); John Gay, The Beggar's Opera (Tuttle); Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (Oxford); Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (Dover); Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (Dover); and Samuel Richardson, Pamela (Penguin) -- are available from the Rutgers Newark Bookstore in Bradley Hall. The remainder of the required readings are available in a photocopy pack; many are also on reserve in Dana Library and on-line at the URL above. The additional readings are in Dana Library.

Additional Readings

After each day's readings is an additional item, usually an article from a scholarly journal. These readings are optional, although recommended, for most members of the class. Those doing an in-class report, however, are required to do the additional readings for that day.

Reports

Each student will do an in-class report of between five and ten minutes. The point of a report is to start the day's discussion; the topic is anything relevant to the day's reading material. Since you will have read the day's additional reading, you might want to integrate it into your talk, but don't just summarize it. Feel free to read a short (one-page-ish) prepared report, to speak from notes, or to extemporize -- whatever makes you comfortable. A good report will raise as many fruitful questions as possible and get discussion rolling. The best way to start a discussion is to have something specific to say about a broad topic. These are not research projects; you needn't do any outside reading. If you feel some outside reading will improve your ability to start conversation, feel free. Anything else that will help -- handouts, short readings for the rest of the class -- is welcome and encouraged.

Computing

This class has a mailing list called lynch325@andromeda.rutgers.edu; all students are required to have an E-mail account by the send of the second week of classes and to participate in the discussions on the list. Although I have the greatest sympathy for those suffering from technological nightmares, don't expect to use computer problems as an excuse for not doing the reading or writing. If you have a computer problem, contact me as soon as possible.

Grading

Final grades will be based on the following:

40%, The two papers (the final paper will be weighted more heavily)
25%, The final exam
15%, The in-class report
20%, Class participation (including E-mail participation)

Schedule of Class Meetings

Wed., 2 Sept.: Introduction (class business, &c.).
Mon., 7 Sept.: Labor Day -- no class.
Wed., 9 Sept.: "General Introduction" to Eighteenth-Century English Literature; selections from Locke and Sprat.
Mon., 14 Sept.: Denham, Cooper's Hill; Rochester, "A Satyr against Mankind," "Signior Dildo," "A Satyr on Charles II"; Katherine Philips, "Friendship's Mystery," "Orinda to Lucasia Parting"; Anne Finch, "Nocturnal Reverie." Additional Reading: Arthur Humphreys, "The Social Setting," from The New Pelican Guide to English Literature.
Wed., 16 Sept.: John Dryden, Alexander's Feast, "To the Pious Memory of . . . Mrs. Anne Killigrew." Additional Reading: Francis Noel Lees, "John Dryden," from The New Pelican Guide.
Mon., 21 Sept.: John Dryden, The Origin and Progress of Satire (selections); Mac Flecknoe. Additional Reading: Dustin Griffin, "Theories of Satire in Polemical Context," chapter 1 of Satire: A Critical Reintroduction.
Wed., 23 Sept.: Congreve, The Way of the World, acts I-II. Additional Reading: P. A. W. Collins, "Restoration Comedy," from The New Pelican Guide.
Mon., 28 Sept.: Congreve, The Way of the World, acts III-V. Additional Reading: Maximillian E. Novak, "The Way of the World: Art as Civilization," in William Congreve (Twayne's English Authors Series).
Wed., 30 Sept.: Aphra Behn, Oroonoko. Additional Reading: Laura Brown, "The Romance of Empire: Oroonoko and the Trade in Slaves."
Mon., 5 Oct.: Aphra Behn, Oroonoko; Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, pp. 1-97. Additional Reading: Ian Watt, "Robinson Crusoe, Individualism and the Novel," chapter 3 of The Rise of the Novel.
Wed., 7 Oct.: Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, pp. 97-194. Additional Reading: John Richetti, "Robinson Crusoe: The Self as Master," from Damrosch, Modern Essays on Eighteenth-Century Literature.
Mon., 12 Oct.: Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, pp. 194-306. Additional Reading: Max Novak, "Defoe as an Innovator of Fictional Form."
Wed., 14 Oct.: Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, The Tatler, nos. 1, 169, 217, and 263, and The Spectator, nos. 58, 61, 62, 70, 105, 159, and 160. Additional Reading: Jane H. Jack, "The Periodical Essayists," from The New Pelican Guide.
Mon., 19 Oct.: Jonathan Swift: "Description of the Morning," "Description of a City Shower," "The Progress of Beauty," "The Lady's Dressing-Room." Additional Reading: Donald Greene, "On Swift's 'Scatalogical' Poems," from Vieth, Essential Essays.
Wed., 21 Oct.: Jonathan Swift: "A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General," "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift," Gulliver's Travels, parts I and II. Additional Reading: Dustin Griffin, "The Rhetoric of Satire: Inquiry and Provocation," chapter 2 of Satire: A Critical Reintroduction.
Mon., 26 Oct.: Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, part III. Additional Reading: C. J. Horne, "Literature and Science," from The New Pelican Guide.
Wed., 28 Oct.: Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, part IV. Additional Reading: Samuel Holt Monk, "The Pride of Lemuel Gulliver," from Clifford, Eighteenth-Century English Literature. FIRST PAPER DUE (five to seven pages).
Mon., 2 Nov.: John Gay, The Beggar's Opera, act I. Additional Reading: Ian Donaldson, "'A Double Capacity': The Beggar's Opera," from Damrosch, Modern Essays on Eighteenth-Century Literature.
Wed., 4 Nov.: John Gay, The Beggar's Opera, act II; Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees and The Grumbling Hive (selections). Additional Reading: John Bender, "Generic Conflict and Reformist Discourse in Gay and Hogarth," chapter 4 of Imagining the Penitentiary.
Mon., 9 Nov.: Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism; John Dennis, part I of The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry; James Thomson, "Winter: A Poem." Additional Reading: Patricia Meyer Spacks, "Imagery and Method in An Essay on Criticism," from Mack and Winn, Pope: Recent Essays.
Wed., 11 Nov.: Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man. Additional Reading: Samuel Johnson, The Life of Pope (selections).
Mon., 16 Nov.: Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock. Additional Reading: Earl R. Wasserman, "The Limits of Allusion in The Rape of the Lock," from Mack and Winn, Pope: Recent Essays.
Wed., 18 Nov.: Alexander Pope, An Epistle . . . to Dr. Arbuthnot, An Epistle . . . to Burlington. Additional Reading: William A. Gibson, "Three Principles of Renaissance Architectural Theory in Pope's Epistle to Burlington," in Mack and Winn, Pope: Recent Essays.
Mon., 23 Nov.: Alexander Pope, Of the Characters of Women; Mary, Lady Chudleigh, The Ladies Defence (selection), "To the Ladies"; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, "Verses Addressed to the Imitator of . . . Horace." Additional Reading: Janet Todd, "The Female Wits: Women Writers of the Restoration and Early Eighteenth Century," chapter 2 of The Sign of Angellica.
Wed., 25 Nov.: No class (Friday schedule).
Mon., 30 Nov.: Samuel Richardson, Pamela, pp. 31-130. Additional Reading: Ian Watt, "Realism and the Novel Form," chapter 1 of The Rise of the Novel.
Wed., 2 Dec.: Samuel Richardson, Pamela, pp. 130-278. Additional Reading: A. M. Kearney, "Richardson's Pamela: The Aesthetic Case," from Carroll, Samuel Richardson: A Collection of Critical Essays.
Mon., 7 Dec.: Samuel Richardson, Pamela, pp. 279-392. Additional Reading: Roy Roussel, "Reflections on the Letter: The Reconciliation of Distance and Presence in Pamela," from Harold Bloom, Modern Critical Views: Samuel Richardson.
Wed., 9 Dec.: Samuel Richardson, Pamela, pp. 392-516. Additional Reading: Ian Watt, "Love and the Novel: Pamela," chapter 5 of The Rise of the Novel. SECOND PAPER DUE (ten to twelve pages).