Eighteenth Century British Literature

3 credits · Undergraduate

A time of rebels and reactionaries, Enlightenment Britain (1660-1800) saw writers respond to dramatic social change. In this brief but grand tour of literary modes and genres, students will encounter many of the ideas that underpin contemporary Eurocentric culture. The course will include works of satire and sentiment, amatory fiction and conduct books, political poetry, slave narratives, plays of wit, and the first periodicals. Featured authors may include Behn, Swift, Pope, Richardson, Fielding, Burney, and Johnson.