Restoration & Augustan Literature: 1660-1740

3 units

Our subject in this course is the relation between literature and biography in early modern England. We will read examples of early modern biography -- Aubrey's BRIEF LIVES, Walton's lives of Herbert and Donne, Burnet's life of Rochester, Clarendon's biographical sketches in THE HISTORY OF THE REBELLION - but we will also be concerned with the ways in which constructions of the life of a writer can be made from their own work, and from a variety of contemporary materials including letters, diaries, gossip, and slander. In addition to Aubrey, Walton, Burnet, and Clarendon, we will read Jonson, Donne, Herbert, Milton, Marvell, Rochester, and Dryden.