English 123 - Fall, 2014

18th Century British Literature

Class Information

Instructor: Johns, Alessa
Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Location: 106 Olson

Description

London: From the Great Fire to the Great Exhibition

This course will consider how literature of the long eighteenth century both documented and enabled London’s rise from the ashes of the Great Fire to its status as a world city hosting the Great Exhibition. Topics will include Grub Street journalism, criminal underworlds, court spectacle, commerce and luxury, theatrical life, imperial activity, immigration, and tourism, and we will read such authors as Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Daniel Defoe, John Gay, Samuel Johnson, Frances Burney, Olaudah Equiano, Dean Mahomet, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, and Anna Jameson, accounting for the views of foreign visitors as well as artistic representations, architectural innovation, and urban development.

Grading

In-class assignments, homework, and quizzes (15%), Exams (30%), Two papers (40%), Attendance and participation (15%)

Texts

Jane Austen, Lady Susan
Frances Burney, Evelina
Daniel Defoe, Roxana
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
John Gay, The Beggar's Opera
A course reader, including excerpts from Pepys, Addison, Steele, Swift, Johnson, Equiano, Mahomet, Blake, Wordsworth, Jameson