English 410 (001); GSJ 410 (001)
Fall 2021
T Th 2:30 - 3:50 pm
HH 1102
Instructor: Dr. F. Easton
TA: Ms. S. Lodoen
English Department
University of Waterloo
Eighteenth-Century Women Writers
SYLLABUS
Notes: (1) all course readings (apart from the novels by Radcliffe and Austen, handouts, and links to webpages) are from Robert DeMaria, Jr., ed., British Literature 1640-1789, 4th ed. (Wiley, 2016); (2) some of the works we are reading this term deal with mature themes, sexual content, sexual violence, and racial, religious, gender, and class stereotypes and epithets; if you wish to request an accommodation with respect to any such material, please email the instructor before the end of the first full week of classes (September 17th); and (3) please be aware that by taking this course you are agreeing to read, and participate in discussions about, the material below, including four long texts: the novels by Radcliffe, Austen, and Behn, and Behn’s play The Rover.
September 9 & 14: Introduction: New Contexts, New Energies
- Behn, “To the Fair Clarinda, Who Made Love to me, Imagined More than Woman” (also in DeMaria)
- Finch, “The Introduction”
- Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America”
I. Utopias and Dystopias
September 16: Till Death
- “The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony” (the marriage service) (H = handout)
September 21 & 23: The Status of Women
- Cavendish, from The Description of a New World, called the Blazing World
- Astell, from A Serious Proposal to the Ladies
- Chudleigh, “To the Ladies”
September 28 & 30: Women’s Powers
- Philips, “To Mrs. Wogan, My Honoured Friend, on the Death of Her Husband,” “Orinda to Lucasia,” “Parting with Lucasia: A Song”
- Collier, “The Woman’s Labour”
II. Romance and the Rise of Women’s Fiction
October 5 & 7: Gothic Lives
- Radcliffe, A Sicilian Romance
October 12 & 14: Reading Week--no classes
October 19 & 21: Gothic Emblems
- Austen, Northanger Abbey
III. Confronting Others
October 26 & 28: Noble, African, Anti-Christian
- Behn, Oroonoko
November 2 & 4: Subaltern Voices
- Wheatley, “To S.M., A Young African Painter, On Seeing his Works,”
- “To Maecenas”; Smith, “Letter to Thomas Clarkson” (H)
November 9: Eastern Visions
- Montagu, from Letters (“To the Lady X---,” “To the Lady ---,” and “To Lady Mar”)
IV. The Rights of Woman
November 11, 16 & 18: The Bechdel Test
- Behn, The Rover; or, The Banished Cavaliers
November 23, 25 & 30: (Re)Placing Men
- Finch, “To the Nightingale,” “The Unequal Fetters,” “The Answer,” “The Spleen”
- Montagu, “The Reasons that Induced Dr. S[wift] to Write a Poem Called the Lady’s Dressing Room”
December 2: The Rights of Men and Women:
- Wollstonecraft, from A Vindication of the Rights of Men
December 7: Make up class (if necessary)