Seminar: The 18th Century

3 units

We live in period of weakening boundaries and increasing mobilities. The objects that today we are willing to host in our bodies; the electronic mediation of intimacy, sociability, and political action, the restless circulation of commodities and capital around the globe, the splicing of corporations across multiple nations, and the increasing contact between people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds all contribute to this. This class sees our growing boundlessness as an opportunity to reexamine the scientific, theological, and literary representation of species in the period between 1660 and 1832. The concept of species is central to the construction of boundaries between different things, and its close relationship to notions of variety, identity, kind, essence, rank, and genre make it an especially rewarding focus of investigation. The class will introduce students to the construction of research agendas around a single concept and show how such a focus can open up and sustain interdisciplinary inquiry. Readings will range widely and likely include works by Aristotle, Boyle, Locke, Defoe, Fielding, Swift, Darwin, Deleuze/ Guattari, Agamben, and others