Postgraduate Course: Writing Enlightenment 1688 - 1789 (ENLI11050)
Course Outline
| School |
School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College |
College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type |
Standard |
Availability |
Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) |
SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits |
20 |
| Home subject area |
English Literature |
Other subject area |
None |
| Course website |
None |
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| Course description |
This course introduces students to the new conceptions of social formation developed in the literature of this period, and in particular the challenge of contractarian liberalism and political economy to an inherited civic humanism as ways of conceiving the relation between the subject and the state. It examines the genres which emerge to negotiate this relationship, introducing students to the role of the novel and the new periodical press in naturalising economic individualism, or georgic in conceiving of a mercantile British Empire, for example. In particular, it concentrates on the impact of a "Scottish philosophy" (Hume, Smith, Ferguson) on the wider British literary field, and asks to what extent "modern" conceptions of British society are a product of Scottish responses to the Union of 1707. And it asks students to consider the ways in which these "modern" conceptualisations of the social whole have been adapted, adopted and challenged by those twentieth-century thinkers who underpin contemporary literary-critical practice. |
Entry Requirements
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites |
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| Prohibited Combinations |
|
Other requirements |
None
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| Additional Costs |
Essential course texts. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2010/11 Semester 1, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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WebCT enabled: No |
Quota: None |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| No Classes have been defined for this Course |
| First Class |
First class information not currently available |
| Additional information |
1 hour(s) per week for 10 week(s). |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
- an understanding of how literary and cultural works document the complex and changing relationship between England, Ireland and Scotland from the 'Glorious revolution' of 1688 to the French Revolution of 1789.
- an understanding of how debates concerning the nation also explored a range of ideas concerning the adequacy of social and gender hierarchies.
- An understanding of the variety of enlightenment modes and genres in which ideas of the national and national difference were articulated.
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Assessment Information
| One course essay of 4,000 words (100%) |
Special Arrangements
| Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser |
Dr Robert Irvine
Tel: (0131 6)50 3605
Email: R.P.Irvine@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary |
Ms June Haigh
Tel: (0131 6)50 3612
Email: j.haigh@ed.ac.uk |
|
copyright 2010 The University of Edinburgh -
1 September 2010 6:01 am
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