Semester Two Schedule

17^th Century Literature Schedule: Semester Two 

Tuesdays 5:30-8:30 weekly

Before class on January 10^th, please read Samuel Daniel, The Civil War, Book   I.

Please also read the sections in Smith (pp. 105-64) and Kishlansky (pp. 134-58).

       

Jan. 10:   Lecture: Civil War and Poetry

Class Discussion: Samuel Daniel, Book I of The Civil War, available as a pdf online.
Daniel's text is available via Blackboard (Booth Online) or here as a Google Docs file.

To be completed in class: Read chapter one of Marx and Engel's "18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" and write a 1-2 page response to Daniel.

Jan. 17:   Class Discussion: Katherine Phillips, pp.655-668; John Dryden, pp.637-652; and Marvell, pp. 556-9 in the Norton Anthology of British Poetry 1603-1660.  

Civil War & Ecocriticsm: Is Dryden's poem anthropocentric or ecocentric? 

To what extent can any of these poems on civil war be read as ecocentric?

In class review of the following article:  William Kerrigan, “Transformations of Friendship in the Work of Katherine Philips”, pp. 955-970 in the Norton. 

Jan. 24:  Lecture: Margaret Cavendish: Gender and Genre
Class Discussion: Cavendish poems pp. 615-626 in the Norton Anthology of British Poetry AND The Convent of Pleasure in the Broadview Cavendish reader (pp. 97-135).

Jan. 31: Class Discussion: The London Jilt
Today we will talk about the genre of early modern prose fiction and more specifically, The London Jilt. There will be a student presentation on the text.

Lecture: John Bunyan & The Pilgrim’s Progress
Today I will talk about John Bunyan and the nonconformists of 17^th Century England. I will talk about Bunyan’s literary career and the literary place of his Pilgrim’s Progress.

Feb. 7:   Class Discussion: The Pilgrim’s Progress, Book I.
Firstly we will share your graphic episodes from PP with the class. Then we will discuss the text more generally and the idea of spiritual autobiography in class. 

In the second part of the seminar I will ask you to write 1-2 pages on your interpretation of the topic of spiritual autobiography in The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Please read about the topic in advance of class: Spiritual Autobiographies in John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.  Available Project Gutenberg, or at the library.

And for some lighter reading, a parody of Bunyan by Nathaniel Hawthorne  in "The Celestial Railroad"

Feb. 14: Class Discussion:  Aphra Behn: Oronooko and Other Writings
Each student will prepare seminar materials to share with your classmates on one of the Behn prose pieces in the anthology – you should familiarize yourselves with at least two of the texts so you can engage in class discussion. You should all read Oronooko.

 The Fair Jilt; Memoirs of the Court of the King of Bantam; The History of the Nun; The Adventure of the Black Lady

READING WEEK – Catch up on your reading / complete your essay
*NB: You may wish to read ahead because there are three utopian fictions to read in two weeks.

Feb. 28: Essay 1 is due today before class.
Lecture: Early Modern Utopias after Thomas More
Today I will talk about the genre of utopian fiction with reference to Thomas More's Utopia (included in your text). I will provide some biographical information for Henry Neville and Francis Bacon and discuss innovations of the 17th century that may help you to interpret the texts better.

Class Discussion: Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis & Cavendish’s The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World  (1666) (pp.151-252).

There will be a student presentation on Bacon's text followed by a group discussion. We will focus on genre, race, gender and new world discoveries. 

March 6: Class Discussion: Henry Neville, The Isle of Pines. There will be a student presentation on the prose fiction I asked you to read and we will address questions of genre, gender, and race in our group discussion of the text.  We will also compare Bacon's utopian fiction with the one by Neville discussed last week.         

March 13: Lecture:17th century Philosophy - an Introduction. In this lecture I will introduce you to concepts Cartesian method and scientific  inquiry. I will also discuss Hobbesian thought on religion and politics.

Class Discussion: Thomas Hobbes, pp. 41-68; 79-82; 111-157 from “Of Man”. We will discuss the reading and review Hobbes’ thinking on religion in the sections I asked you to read. Please pay special attention to chapters XIII-XVI (pp. 123-157). Seminar questions for the Leviathan can be found here.
Discussion topic: Hobbes & God
In class response: Thomas Tenison, pp. 618-20

March 20: Class Discussion: Hobbes, pp.157-231, “Of Commonwealth” &  pp. 315-20, "Of a Christian Commonwealth"

In class response: Edward Hyde, pp. 626-642

March 27: Class Discussion: John Locke, pp. 17-125, "A Second Treatise of Government"
Discussion topic: Natural Rights? Interpreting Locke through Hobbes

April 3:   Class Discussion: Locke, pp.125-167, "A Letter Concerning Toleration"
Discussion topic: Politics and Power

In class response: Richard Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity & David Wootton, Locke against Persecution.

Final Essay is due on April 13^th by 4 pm. Please submit electronically.