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Dr. J. Slagle
Roane State College
Spring 1997
Course Description: English 307 is a special topics course which investigates the lives of Restoration and 18th-century British women as reflected in writing by women of the period. Selected readings include drama, poetry, novels, essays, etc., and individual reports will focus on marriage, fashion, furniture, education, property laws, cosmetics, cookery, music, etc. The aim of the course is to consider sexuality, gender, family and public life in the context of the time period when a strong middle class was emerging and when English women were acquiring a stronger voice than before. The discussion-based sessions will address such questions as how women were expected to behave, how that conflicted with their self-determination, and how a feminist consciousness was developing.
Texts:
Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. New York: Penguin, 1980.
Haywood, Eliza. Love in Excess. Ed. David Oakleaf.
Canada & New York: Broadview, 1994.
Lyons, Paddy, and Fidelis Morgan, eds. Female Playwrights
of the Restoration. London: Everyman, 1991.
Morgan, Fidelis, ed. The Female Tatler. London:
Everyman, 1992.
Rogers, Katharine M., and William McCarthy. The Meridian
Anthology of Early Women Writers: British Literary Women
from Aphra Behn to Maria Edgeworth, 1660-1800. New York:
Penguin, 1987.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman. London: Everyman, 1995.
Course Requirements & Grading: You will take three exams, prepare a formal research paper (MLA format) of a minimum of 1,200 words, and provide a special topics report (~15 minutes) to be given in class on a designated evening. Grades will be based equally on these five requirements.
Scale:Class attendance is important; grades will be affected by attendance and tardiness. Since this is an evening class, more than two absences (for any reason) will lead to failure of the course. Late research papers will be lowered a letter grade for each day late and will not be accepted for a grade after they are a week late. Reports must be given on their specified night.
This is a readings course and some of the assignments are long, so don't get behind. Read as carefully as you can for content, and we will discuss details in class. Class discussion and participation is important, so be ready to talk about what you gathered from the reading.
Abbreviations for Anthologies:
MA (Meridian Anthology)
PR (Playwrights of the Restoration)
Week 1 January 10
Discussion of texts, requirements and
introduction to the Restoration and
18th century
Week 2 January 17
MA: Behn's Oroonoko
Week 3 January 24
PR: Behn's The Feigned Courtesans,
Pix's The Beau Defeated
Week 4 January 31
PR: Centlivre's The Basset Table and The
Busybody
Week 5 February 7
MA: Finch, pp. 77-111
Week 6 February 14
Exam 1
Week 7 February 21
Haywood's Love in Excess
Week 8 February 28
MA: Astell, pp. 112-141,
Manley, pp. 142-170
Week 9 March 6
MA: Montague, pp. 171-224
Barbauld, pp.
260-276
March 11-16 SPRING BREAK
Week 10 March 20
The Female Tatler
Week 11 March 27
Exam 2
Week 12 April 3
MA: Burney d'Arblay, pp. 277-333,
Edgeworth, pp.
358-372
Week 13 April 10
Wollstonecraft's Vindication, pp. vii-251
Week 14 April 17
Austen's Northanger Abbey (& film)
Week 15 April 24
MA: Miscellaneous poems, pp. 376-405,
Baillie, Letters & Plays (handouts),
Research Papers Due
Week 16 May 1
Final Exam (Exam 3)
*Subject to minor changes
NOTE: Graduate students enrolled in this course as "Directed Readings" will provide a research paper of a minimum of 10 pages and teach a work of their choosing from the above list. Graduate exams will be in the form of separate discussion sessions with the instructor.
Following are topics for individual special reports to be presented to the class on designated dates. Reports should be based on your research and can be somewhat informal, with handouts, visual aids or anything you might want to use to make your topic informative and interesting. These reports will count as 20% of your total course grade and should last from 15-20 minutes. Remember that your research should remain in the historical time frame of ~1660 to 1800.
| Topics | Dates | Reporter |
| Divorce & Marriage Laws | January 24 | _______________ |
| Cosmetics & Hair Styles | January 31 | _______________ |
| Music and/or Instruments | February 7 | _______________ |
| Property Rights for Women | February 21 | _______________ |
| Job Opportunities for Women | February 28 | _______________ |
| Education for Women | February 28 | _______________ |
| Raising Children/Discipline, Manners | March 6 | _______________ |
| Fashion & Dress | March 20 | _______________ |
| Furniture | April 3 | _______________ |
| Birth Control & Childbirth (Mortality) | April 10 | _______________ |
| Art and/or Architecture | April 10 | _______________ |
| Crime & Punishment by/for Women | April 17 | _______________ |
If there is another topic in which you are especially interested which relates to 18th-century women and culture, ask me about it, and we may be able to substitute.
Dr. Slagle
MTSU, Spring 1997
Read these Instructions carefully!!
Research papers will be due on Wednesday, April 24. Papers are to be a minimum of 1,200 words, typed (that's about five pages, plus a works-cited page). You will use internal documentation according to MLA, with a works cited page at the end for sources. (See me if you do not know MLA format!) Since I have not added extra time for peer editing, I will be glad to look at drafts any time before you hand in your final copy on April 24.
Essays will be graded on organization, content, mechanics and documentation. I expect the papers to say something and to draw upon material we have read for illustration and example (that is, use quotes from the work itself to back up your thesis). The work itself (novel, poem, play or whatever) will be your primary source, and you should have no less than three (3) secondary critical sources. If you have trouble finding sources, I have a few that might help; use the bibliography I handed out. Choose from the topics below. If you want to address another topic, check with me first.
1. British colonization in Oroonoko--try to tie together both historical accounts and Behn's fictional account. OR the British slave trade and Oroonoko--do some historical research and tie it to the novel.
2. The noble savage--trace this philosophy to Oroonoko and explain how Behn furthers the concept. The introduction to your edition actually gives you some places to begin. You might also turn this into a look at what Behn says about Christianity and how you think she is defining Christianity.
3. Take a comparison/contrast approach to Behn's Feigned Courtesans and one of Centlivre's plays. You might focus on theme, leading female characters, message or problems in the plays, for example. Don't try to do all of these, but choose a way in which to put the two works in parallel.
4. Finch was both a devoted wife and an educated political figure. What is revealed in her poetry?
5. Discuss fainting as an escape tactic in Love in Excess. You might do some research on the psychology of fainting in the 18th century. Her women are very "sexual" characters; what are the implications?
6. Evaluate Love in Excess as a type of "conduct book." Is Haywood trying to teach us something? What? How? What are some of the basic philosophies put forth?
7. Explore the themes of sexual and class exploitation in Manley's The Wife's Resentment.
8. Evaluate how the aims of Astell's works and Edgeworth's Essay on the Noble Science of Self-Justification are alike or different.
9. Take a biographical approach to Vindication. How did Wolstonecraft's life influence the work?
10. Compare/contrast Astell's and Wolstonecraft's theories on education. Draw your own conclusions.
11. Discuss Northanger Abbey as a Gothic novel which reveals a psychological need for fear. You will need to do some research on the Gothic genre in general first.
12. Take a narrative view of Northanger Abbey. There are obvious authorial intrusions, but explain who Austen's mouthpiece is--how/why? Is this a didactic novel?