Overview
Voices in Print: Books and Readers, 1660-1800
During the 140 years following the restoration of Charles II, Britain first became a reading nation. Literacy rates rose rapidly as print insinuated itself into most parts of people's lives and everyday life became a life of print culture. This paper surveys poetry, fiction and plays that explore what reading meant, how authors tried to control meaning, and how professional authorship became a legitimate, albeit poorly paid, career. All of these developments are most visible in relation to the ways that authors tell stories, but are frequently most evident when authors write about women or try to give women their own voices. The paper does not propose a feminist approach to the eighteenth century, but rather a narratological approach that finds texts by and about women most revealing of the challenges involved in telling stories in print. The rise of the novel was neither straightforward nor unproblematic, but readers were clearly captivated by the new voices and perspectives that print made possible.
The full reading list is given below. Because so much of a book's meaning is connected to its physical features, the class will meet in Special Collections in the Central Library and students will be expected to develop a research project in relation to a rare book in Otago's collection.
About this paper
| Paper title | A Topic in English Literature 1660-1800 |
|---|---|
| Subject | English |
| EFTS | 0.1667 |
| Points | 20 points |
| Teaching period | Not offered in 2023 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees ( NZD ) | $1,206.91 |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Prerequisite
- 72 points from ENGL 311-368, EURO 302
- Eligibility
A student will usually have completed a BA in English prior to enrolling in ENGL 476
- Contact
- More information link
View more information on the English and Linguistics Programme website
- Teaching staff
Convenor and Lecturer: Associate Professor Shef Rogers
- Paper Structure
Weekly two-hour seminars, with individual meetings with students as needed. As a seminar, the paper builds continuously on previous material and is not separable into units. Students are expected to attend all sessions. Assessments will include a 15-min presentation on a rare book the student is researching (30%), a 3000-word research essay (50%), and a one-hour in-class test analysing an unseen passage in terms of the topics studied in the paper (20%).
- Teaching Arrangements
Special Collections is open 9-5 Mon-Fri, so students should anticipate that a reasonable amount of their research will be conducted during those hours in order to have access to the materials required.
- Textbooks
No texts to purchase; all will be available through Blackboard as PDFs. Students may choose to print them if they wish at their own cost. The readings will include:
- John Dryden, Translation, "Dido to Aeneas" from Ovid's Epistles(1680) plus book 4 of Virgil's Aeneis(1697); Sir Martin Mar-All (1668)
- William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1675)
- Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism (1711)
- Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (1722)
- Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740)
- Henry Fielding, Shamela (1741)
- Samuel Johnson, selected periodical essays (1750s)
- Frances Burney, Evelina (1778)
- Jane Austen, Persuasion (1817)
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Interdisciplinary perspective, Lifelong learning, Scholarship, Communication, Critical thinking, Information literacy, Research, Self-motivation.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete this paper will:
- Understand the evolution of narrative techniques across a variety of genres
- Develop experience with rare books and the meanings of physical qualities of texts as well as textual meanings
- Enhance and demonstrate advanced research skills
- Gain appreciation of the history of English literature in a key period of transition
- Reflect on aspects of gender in narrative techniques and how these relate to social attitudes toward gender differences over time
Timetable
Overview
The eighteenth century in Britain is a hard period to characterise. Europe was still living with the aftershocks of the renaissance and reformation, the cultural transformations that ended the very different medieval world, and was on the verge of the industrial revolution, when most of Europe became recognisably modern. Negotiating this boundary in their lives and writings are the two contrasting figures of the English literary titan and powerful representative of the tradition, Samuel Johnson, and his biographer and much younger friend, the proto-romantic Scot, James Boswell. The London they inhabited was Europe’s greatest metropolis, and alive with booksellers and coffee shops, catering for an unprecedented demand for knowledge, literature, and news. These few volumes and two writers will introduce students to fascinating and important works across a range of genres, published 1735-91, including poetry, criticism, lexicography, biography, travel, fiction, journalism, letters, political writing, periodical essays, and private journals.
These texts include some works of kinds that are traditionally regarded as “literary,” but also a great deal of material of kinds that are not usually studied. These texts are related in terms of the biographies of (and by) their two authors. But they provide a basis for us to consider ideas about genre, canonicity, reception, literary reputation, book history.
About this paper
| Paper title | A Topic in English Literature 1660-1800 |
|---|---|
| Subject | English |
| EFTS | 0.1667 |
| Points | 20 points |
| Teaching period | Not offered in 2024 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for 2024 have not yet been set |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Prerequisite
- 72 points from ENGL 311-368, EURO 302
- Eligibility
A student will usually have completed a BA in English prior to enrolling in ENGL 476
- Contact
- More information link
View more information on the English and Linguistics Programme website
- Teaching staff
Convener and Lecturer: Assoc. Prof Paul Tankard
- Paper Structure
Weekly two-hour seminar. Students are expected to attend all sessions. Assessments will include a series of seminar preparation /follow-up tasks, a 15-min presentation on set topic, a 3000-word research essay, and a short test or exam with passages for identification and contextual discussion.
- Teaching Arrangements
Special Collections is open 9-5 Mon-Fri, so students should anticipate that a reasonable amount of their research will be conducted during those hours in order to have access to the materials required.
- Textbooks
Johnson’s Major Works (Oxford Worlds Classics, ed. Greene) will be supplied. Some complete and authoritative edition of Boswell’s Life of Johnson (e.g., Oxford Worlds Classics, or Penguin Classics).
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Interdisciplinary perspective, Lifelong learning, Scholarship, Communication, Critical thinking, Information literacy, Research, Self-motivation.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete this paper will:
- Understand the evolution of narrative techniques across a variety of genres
- Develop experience with rare books and the meanings of physical qualities of texts as well as textual meanings
- Enhance and demonstrate advanced research skills
- Gain appreciation of the history of English literature in a key period of transition
- Reflect on aspects of gender in narrative techniques and how these relate to social attitudes toward gender differences over time