LT267-5-SP-CO:
Desire in the Age of Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Literature
2023/24
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 5
Current
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
15
18 March 2022
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BA QT37 English and United States Literature (Including Year Abroad),
BA T720 English and United States Literature,
BA T723 English and United States Literature (Including Placement Year),
BA T728 English and United States Literature (Including Foundation Year),
BA Q300 English Literature,
BA Q303 English Literature (Including Placement Year),
BA Q320 English Literature (Including Foundation Year),
BA Q321 English Literature (Including Year Abroad),
MLITQ391 Literature,
BA Q210 English and Comparative Literature,
BA Q211 English and Comparative Literature (Including Year Abroad),
BA Q212 English and Comparative Literature (Including Placement Year),
BA Q218 English and Comparative Literature (Including Foundation Year)
The Enlightenment has often been considered the age of reason, or a period in which thought overcomes earlier forms of superstition or mysticism and develops empirical, scientific modes of seeking out truth. Juxtaposed against the Dark Ages, the Enlightenment would shine a new, penetrating light over all domains of concern.
While certainly a time of radical change and rigorous re-examination, this simplified picture obscures a more complicated reality. For in the effort to relegate all forms of unreason to the past, the period witnesses an intense compression of the appetites that generate something of a counter-enlightenment--something like reason's own shadow.
This module focuses on how those aspects of human experience resistant to rationalization and economization and calculation emerge in and through a range of artworks in the period after the Restoration (1660) and up to and including first-generation Romanticism (1789-1800).
It also puts an emphasis on works by a segment of the population not well represented in the texts typically associated with the Enlightenment: women. Thematically, we concentrate on how desire--visceral, unruly, conflicted--takes aesthetic form. We will analyse artworks in their historical context, which means against the backdrop of scientific, political, and philosophical works central to the Enlightenment.
Module content note: topics may include sexualised violence, rape, stalking, xenophobia, racism, genocide, explicit sex, sexually transmitted infections, and scatology. Please contact the module supervisor if you have any questions.
This module encourages students to reflect on conflicting attitudes toward truth in the Enlightenment and how these conflicts inform artworks. Students will consider a range of genres, including poems, essays, treatises, novels, and dramas.
Upon successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. Demonstrate knowledge of the Enlightenment period, with an emphasis on literary productions.
2. Critically evaluate and analyse major themes in 17th and 18th-century culture, politics, and history.
3. Demonstrate the ability to discriminate between different literary forms.
4. Apply their knowledge to engage in scholarly conversation surrounding topics covered in the module.
No additional information available.
Anticipated teaching delivery: Weekly 1-hour lecture and 1-hour seminar
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Sir George Etherege (1635?-1691). The Imperfect Enjoyment. T.R. Smith, ed. 1921-22. Poetica Erotica: A Collection of Rare and Curious Amatory Verse (no date). Available at:
https://www.bartleby.com/334/192.html.
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Swift, J., Rawson, C.J. and Higgins, I. (no date)
Gulliver’s travels. New ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available at:
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=257838.
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Haywood, E.F. et al. (no date) Fantomina and other works. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press.
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Richardson, S. (1985)
Clarissa, or, The history of a young lady. Edited by A. Ross. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Available at:
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1116741&site=eds-live.
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America A Prophecy (no date). Available at:
http://www.blakearchive.org/work/america.
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Europe A Prophecy (no date). Available at:
http://www.blakearchive.org/work/europe.
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Joanna Baillie (2001) Plays on the Passions (1798 edition). Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press.
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Kant, I. (2013)
Critique of the Power of Judgment. Edited by P. Guyer and E. Matthews. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511804656.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Participation mark |
|
5% |
| Coursework |
Archive assignment (1,000 words) (TRAILING REASSESSMENT) |
|
|
| Coursework |
Essay (3,000 words) (TRAILING REASSESSMENT) |
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|
| Coursework |
Archive assignment (1,000 words) |
|
25% |
| Coursework |
Essay (3,000 words) |
|
70% |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Christopher Bundock, email: christopher.bundock@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Christopher Bundock
LiFTS General Office, email liftstt@essex.ac.uk
Telephone 01206 872626
LiFTS General Office, email liftstt@essex.ac.uk
Telephone 01206 872626
Yes
No
Yes
Dr Doug Haynes
University of Sussex
Reader in American Literature and Visual Culture
Available via Moodle
Of 20 hours, 18 (90%) hours available to students:
2 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
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