Department of English

The period between 1700 and 1900 witnessed massive political revolutions in America, France, and Haiti. It also witnessed massive revolutions in both culture and in literature. This course surveys of the most significant aesthetic and historical developments in both Britain and in America during this time. What marks a literary text as “revolutionary”? How are revolutions waged not with weapons but with words?

Topics will include the following: the “Augustan” ideal, the querelle between the ancients and the moderns, the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions, British Romanticism, American Transcendentalism, slavery, emancipation, and democracy. Authors studied will include Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, William Blake, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Oscar Wilde. Evaluation will be based on regular quizzes, two short essays, two exams, and frequent attendance and participation.

While L312 has no formal prerequisite, it is recommended that you take this course only after completing L260, Introduction to the Advanced Study of Literature, or at least one other 200-level English class. This course fulfills the CASE A&H requirement.

• A&H
• What are CASE requirements?