Postgraduate Course: Enlightenment and Romanticism 1688 - 1815 (ENLI11140)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course introduces students to the new conceptions of social formation developed in the literature of this period, and in particular the literary response to the modern discourses of contractarian liberalism and political economy. It examines the genres which emerge to negotiate this relationship, including the novel and 'romantic' modes of verse. 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. |
| Course description |
Seminar 1 Introduction.
Immanuel Kant, 'What is Enlightenment?' (1784)
Seminar 2 The Liberal Subject.
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719)
John Locke, 'Second Treatise' from Two Treatises of Government (1690) chapters i'ix
Seminar 3 Gender and Modernity.
Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740)
Addison and Steele, from The Spectator (1711'14)
Michel Foucault, from The History of Sexuality Volume 1 (1976)
Seminar 4 Pastoral, Georgic, National Myth.
Alexander Pope, 'Spring' (1709), 'Windsor Forest' (1713)
James Thomson, from Spring (1726), Alfred (1740)
Thomas Gray, 'An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' (1751); 'The Bard', 'The Progress of Poesy'(1756)
James Macpherson, from Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1759)
Hugh Blair, from 'A Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian' (1763)
Seminar 5 The Fate of Virtue in an Age of Commerce.
Tobias Smollett, Humphry Clinker (1771)
Trenchard and Gordon, from Cato's Letters (1720'23)
Adam Ferguson, from Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)
Seminar 6 The poetry of 'low and rustic life'
Robert Burns, from Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786)
William Wordsworth, from Lyrical Ballads (1798); 'Preface' to Lyrical Ballads (1802)
Seminar 7 The Romantic Subject.
William Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805), books I, VI and X
Extracts from M.H. Abrams, Jerome McGann, and Alan Liu
Seminar 8 Romantic Nationalism.
Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent (1800)
Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan), The Wild Irish Girl (1806)
Edmund Burke, from Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Seminar 9 Gender and the Nation after the French Revolution.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
James Fordyce, from Sermons to Young Women (1766)
Mary Wollstonecraft, extracts from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1791)
Seminar 10 Political Economies.
Walter Scott, Waverley (1814)
Adam Smith, from The Wealth of Nations (1776)
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | This course is only available to students on the MSc in Literature and Society. No outside subject enrolments or auditors are permitted. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | This course is only available to students on the MSc in Literature and Society. No outside subject enrolments or auditors are permitted. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
4000 Word Essay (100%) |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- 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 end of the French wars in 1815.
- 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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Reading List
You will have to buy the primary texts for the course. They should be bought in the following editions:
Defoe, Robinson Crusoe ed. Thomas Keymer (Oxford World Classics)
Richardson, Pamela ed. Thomas Keymer (Oxford World Classics)
Smollett, Humphrey Clinker ed. Lewis M. Knapp (Oxford World Classics)
Wordsworth, The Major Works ed. Stephen Gill (Oxford World Classics)
Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent ed. George Watson (Oxford World Classics)
Owenson, The Wild Irish Girl ed. Kathryn Kirkpatrick (Oxford World Classics)
Austen, Pride and Prejudice ed. Christina Lupton and James Kinsley (Oxford World's Classics)
Scott, Waverley ed. Kathryn Sutherland (Oxford World's Classics)
Please if at all possible buy these editions. It is an enormous help in classroom discussion of long novels, often not divided into chapters, if we are all looking at the same edition, and can refer quickly to the same page numbers.
You might also consider investing in the following texts, though some copies are available to borrow from the university library:
John Locke, Second Treatise of Government ed. C.B. Macpherson (Hackett)
Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality Volume 1: The Will to Knowledge (Penguin)
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France ed. Conor Cruise O'Brien (Penguin)
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ed. Miriam Brody (Penguin)
All other poems and extracts listed in the course description will be circulated in advance of seminars via the virtual learning environment for the course, where you will also find further secondary reading.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Special Arrangements |
No UG version |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Robert Irvine
Tel: (0131 6)50 3605
Email: R.P.Irvine@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Vivien MacNish Porter
Tel: (0131 6)50 3528
Email: vivien.macnish-porter@ed.ac.uk |
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