Tuesday, March 2nd
Salvator Rosa, Rocky Landscape with Waterfall, c. 1640
Ann Radcliffe, A Sicilian Romance
(Chapters I-IX; pages 1-124)
ODNB on Radcliffe
Website information on the Sublime, the Picturesque, and the Gothic
Other helpful information about the sublime, the beautiful, and the gothic:
On Burke, on Gilpin, and on the Gothic.
Links to other images of interest: Salvator Rosa (here), Joseph Wright ( here, here, and here), Claude Lorrain (here and here), and David Caspar Friedrich (here and here).
Weekly Writing Prompts:
- Who is the speaker/narrator of A Sicilian Romance?
- What connections can you make between A Sicilian Romance and the other texts we’ve read so far this semester? Please focus on either the representation of the novel’s protagonists or its depiction of family relationships.
View of the Temple Ruins at Agrigento in Sicily, Jakob Hackert, 1778
Thursday, March 4th
Radcliffe, A Sicilian Romance (Conclude novel)
Presentation:
Anne Damer (1749-1828) / Emily Burns’s Presentation
**
Tuesday, March 9th
Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story (Preface pp. 55-57, Volume I, Volume II pp. 135-188)
ODNB on Inchbald
CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING
Weekly Writing Prompts:
- Keeping in mind other texts we’ve read this semester, first describe and then analyze the power dynamic in the text between Dorriforth and Miss Milner. Some things you might want to consider: how is authority constructed in this text? What is each protagonist’s relationship to authority?
2. Describe the narrative style (i.e. narrative voice, use of free indirect discourse, direct discourse, etc. etc.) of this text. How does narrative style contribute to the text’s representation of its two main characters?
Presentations:
Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) / Matthew Jackson’s presentation
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (1757-1806) / Haley Luther’s Presentation
Thursday, March 11th
Inchbald, A Simple Story (Finish Volume II, pp. 188-220)
Read material on eighteenth-century masquerades (A Simple Story, Broadview 416-420)
Portrait Paintings of Women Dressed as Diana or Artemis
Presentations:
Mary Robinson (1756/?1758-1800) / Madison Dye’s presentation
Susanna Rowson (bap. 1762, d. 1824) / Savannah Thornton’s presentation
<Instructional Break: Friday, March 12th>
**
Tuesday, March 16th
Finish A Simple Story (Volumes III and IV, pp. 221-342)
Read the excerpt from Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay Graham, Letters on Education (A Simple Story, Broadview 405-411)
Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825) / Rebecca Moon’s presentation
Weekly Writing Assignment: Please post a paragraph description of your first essay. Link to Assignment.
Mary Wollstonecraft c.1790-1
Thursday, March 18th
Selections from Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Letter to Tallyrand Perigord, the Introduction, and Chapters 1 through 4
Printable PDF of selections from Vindication
It is necessary emphatically to repeat, that there are rights which men inherit at their birth, as rational creatures, who were raised above the brute creation by their improvable faculties; and that, in receiving these, not from forefathers but, from God, prescription can never undermine natural rights.
A father may dissipate his property without his child having any right to complain; — but should he attempt to sell him for a slave, or fetter him with laws contrary to reason; nature, in enabling him to discern good from evil, teaches him to break the ignoble chain. . . (Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men 1790)
Presentations:
Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) /Micayla Kane’s presentation
Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) / Suzanne Godard’s presentation
Saturday, March 20th
First Essay due by 9:00pm, electronic submission
**
Tuesday, March 23rd
Mary Hays, Memoirs of Emma Courtney (Volume I)
ODNB on Mary Hays
On Sensibility (Memoirs of Emma Courtney, Broadview 302-305) and On Melancholy (Memoirs of Emma Courtney, Broadview 317-318)
Presentation on Mary Hays and Mary Wollstonecraft:
Katie Hurlock (Graduate Student, English Department)
Harriett Abrams (c. 1758-1821) / Taylor Morris’s presentation
Weekly Writing Prompt:
Mary Hays and Mary Wollstonecraft were part of the same circle of progressive thinkers at the end of the eighteenth century. In what ways does Memoirs of Emma Courtney reflect and sometimes extend the ideas found in Wollstonecraft’s Mary and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman? In addition to reflecting on the influence of Wollstonecraft’s pedagogical and political assertions upon Hays, you may want to consider the specific ways in which Hays deploys the novel and narrative technique.
Thursday, March 25th
Hays, Memoirs of Emma Courtney (Volume II)
Maria Cosway (1760-1838) / Abigail Maschino’s presentation
**
Tuesday, March 30th
Wollstonecraft, Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (Letter I through Letter XV, pp. 49-136)
Read Appendix C (Letters, Broadview)
In her Advertisement to her Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Wollstonecraft suggests that “attention” is “won” when “affection” is gained. Choose one letter and provide a close analysis: how does it “win” the reader’s attention to the socio-political critiques of the author by inspiring the reader with “affection.”
Helen Maria Williams (1759-1827) / Hunter Green’s presentation
Homepage, January Schedule, February Schedule,
April and May Schedule