LIT 373 Topics in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century Literature

3 hours 

Topics in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century Literature introduces students to a pivotal period that witnessed the development of modern politics and democracy, the rise of the novel, the appearance of the professional woman writer, and the emergence of Enlightenment philosophy and literature. As a means of understanding the literature of the period, the course may focus on a literary genre or mode (e.g., the novel, satire, sentimentality) or on an important theme (e.g., nationalism, colonialism, human rights, parliamentary democracy, status and class, revolution, the rise of Enlightenment thought, the Black Atlantic, New Science and the human). The specific focus of the course will be determined by the individual professor, and specific syllabi may draw on British literature and Western literature more broadly, as well as on Anglophone literature and/or literature in translation originating from locations and cultures around the globe. The course will approach the canon of this period as a body of work consistently open to reevaluation and critique; alternative texts, voices, and perspectives relevant to the topic(s) will be included. Topics in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Literature is one of six historically specific Topics courses; students majoring in English are required to take four.