Metaphysics and Melancholy: Philosophy/Literature 1689-1764 (U01378)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : LLC-3-U01378

Setting out from Locke's Essay, the course will chart the erosion of religion by a newly energised relationship between the philosophy of "ideas" and literature in the eighteenth century. Topics covered will include the context of Locke's Essay; the rise of a rhetoric of "imagination" in Addison and Akenside; the influence of Locke's political philosophy upon Defoe's Robinson Crusoe; the erasure of the division between "poetic" style and "philosophic" content in Hume; the ideology of the beautiful / sublime in Burke, Thomson and the "Gothic" sensibility of Walpole. One of the principal themes of the course will be the way in which empiricism fostered a culture of subjectivity which, while encouraging a heightened emphasis on imagination in literature, in many ways proves to be self-undermining. At the same time attention will focus on the way in which the apparently subversive and revolutionary implications of Locke's philosophy of matter and sensation came to find a home in Burke's conservative aesthetic, leaving the Romantics to tease out the political contradictions of eighteenth-century empiricism.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : Passes in English or Scottish literature 1, and English or Scottish or American literature 2, with a mark of 50 or above at the first attempt in the second year course.

? Special Arrangements for Entry : Numbers are limited to 15, with priority given to students taking degrees involving English or Scottish Literature and Visiting Students placed by the Admissions Office. Students not in these categories need the written approval of the Head of English Literature before enrolling. In the case of excess applications places will be decided by ballot.

? Costs : Essential course texts

Subject Areas

Home subject area

English Literature, (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, Schedule G)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

? Other Required Attendance : 1 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Tuesday	14:00	15:50	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

This course aims to extend students' knowledge of the relationship between philosophy and literature in Britain through a close examination of how these two disciplines influence each other during the last decade of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century.