Joseph Severn, “The Deserted Village,” 1859

Monday, September 3rd / Labor Day, No class

Wednesday, September 5th

Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, 1770 (BABL 18th-C: 873-878)
<Outline of The Deserted Village>

from William Morlay, The Infortunate, 1743 (BABL 18th-C: 840-842)

from Benjamin Franklin, Information to Those Who Would Remove to America, 1782 (BABL 18th-C: 846-48)

In-Class Writing: You read three works dealing with emigration from England to North America. How would you characterize the tone of each piece? Support your assertion with at least 1 or 2 pieces of evidence.

**

Frontispiece from Equiano’s “Interesting Narrative”

Monday, September 10th

from John Newton, from A Slave Trader’s Journal, 1751 (BABL B: 346-347)

Newton’s page on The Abolition Project website

Trailer from Amazing Grace (2007)

from Quobna  Ottabah Cugoano, Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, 1787, (BABL B: 347)

from Alexander Falconbridge, Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, 1788, (BABL B: 348-49)

William Cowper, “Sweet Meat Has Sour Sauce, or The Slave-Trader in the Dumps,” 1788, (BABL B: 349-350)

from William Wilberforce, “Speech to the House of Commons,” 13 May 1789, (BABL B: 350-351)

Anna Laetitia Barbauld, “Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq., on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade, 1791, (BABL B: 355-56)

Added Material: An (Incomplete) Timeline of British Slavery and Abolition

Wednesday, September 12th

Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Chapter 2, 1789 (BABL (18th-C: 953-968)

Richard Price, from Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution, 1785 (BABL 18th-C: 871)

Phillis Wheatley, “To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth”, 1773 (BABL 18th-C: 1017-1018)

In-Class WritingIn what ways does Equiano’s narrative employ eighteenth-century literary values and techniques? In your response you should make explicit connections to at least two other texts read this semester.

**

Monday, September 17th

First Semester Exam (Description)

First Essay Assigned: Due by 9:00 pm Saturday, September 29th  (Description)

Anonymous, “The Storming of the Bastille,” c. 1800

Wednesday, September 19th

The French Revolution: Contexts, Selections from Richard Price, Edmund Burke, and Thomas Paine, 1789-1792 (BABL B 47-56)

Mary Wollstonecraft, READ ONLY from the Introduction to  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792 (BABL B 87-90), and pages 90-95 of Chapter 2 (ending with the last full paragraph, which concludes “. . . appears less wild.”

“It is time to effect a revolution in female manners — time to restore to them their lost dignity — and make them, as a part of the human species, labor by reforming themselves to reform the world” (Chapter III)

William Godwin, from Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, 1793 <Godwin_RevControversy>.
READ ONLY sections on Justice and Obedience  (155-158); Revolutions and Political Associations (160-163); Dissolution of Government and the Appendix on Marriage (166-169)

Historical Context

Group Work: Organize into groups of three or four students. Choose 2 works read for today and discuss ways in which they are characterized by eighteenth-century literary conventions and preoccupations. How do they differ, if at all?

**

Monday, September 24th

Added 9/19: <Return to discussion of Wollstonecraft and Godwin. Please bring Godwin excerpts to class. I’ve asked you to identify two analogies used by Wollstonecraft (i.e. “Women in England are like . . . “) and 2-3 main ideas in Godwin.>

Introduction to Romantic Poetry

Introduction to Romanticism (BABL B 1-30)

Charlotte Smith, Sonnet 1 (“The partial Muse, has from my earliest hours”)  and Sonnet 70 (“On being cautioned against walking on an headland overlooking the sea”), pub. 1784-1797, (BABL B: 44 and 46)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Fears in Solitude,” 1798 (BABL B 280-283)

 William Cowper, “The Castaway” , 1799, BABL 18th-C: 886-888; or click on title for .pdf)

Glossary: Sonnet, Lyric, and Ode

Forms of Lyric Poetry

Wednesday, September 26th (Revised 9/24 after class)

We’ll be returning to our discussion of Romantic lyric poetry: re-read the definitions of sonnet, lyric, and ode (both in the Glossary and on the website link above); re-read Smith, Coleridge, and Cowper poems. [Outline of “Fears in Solitude”]

Link to August’s Schedule

Link to October’s Schedule

Link to Course Homepage