**
Monday, September 2nd
Labor Day / No Class
Wednesday, September 4th
Jane Collier, The Art of Ingeniously Tormenting. Link to ODNB entry.
Definition of Satire
“Satire can be described as the literary art of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn, or indignation. It differs from the comic in that comedy evokes laughter as an end in itself, while satire derides; that is, it uses laughter as a weapon, and against a butt that exists outside the work itself. That butt may be an individual (in “personal satire”), or a type of person, a class, an institution, a nation, or even . . . the entire human race.” (pp. 275)
(From M.H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms, Seventh Edition)
**
Monday, September 9th
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, The Turkish Embassy Letters (Letters 1 through 37; pg. 47-145). You must read the Introduction to this edition as well as Appendix A (221-224), which includes Mary Astell’s 1725 introduction.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Portraits and Eighteenth-Century Dress
Please choose 1 of the following prompts:
- How would you characterize Lady Mary Wortley Montagu as a traveller? What does she pay attention to? How does she characterize herself as a “witness” during her travels?
- Look at one pair of letters and briefly describe how they differ, focusing on tone and/or content: Lady Mar/Alexander Pope (Letters 30 and 31 or Letters 21 and 22)
Wednesday, September 11th
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, The Turkish Embassy Letters (Conclude the letters)
Presentations:
Eliza Haywood (1693?-1756), Erin Schilling. Erin will be discussing this selection from The Female Spectator. Please focus on where the X begins on pg. 54 to “Methinks” on pg. 56. She’ll be comparing this work of Haywood’s to Addison and Steele’s The Spectator nos. 57 and 66, which we read earlier this semester.
Frances Sheridan (1724-1766), Max Rabb
**
Monday, September 16th
Frances Burney, Evelina (Volume I; 89-242). ODNB entry.
Wednesday, September 18th
Frances Burney, Evelina (Begin Volume II; 245-296)
Presentations:
Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807), Emma Welborn
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (1757-1806), Jacob Kisic
Maria Cosway (1760-1838), Hillory Bingham
Video Re-creation of Dido Belle’s dressing for her portrait
**
Monday, September 23rd
Frances Burney, Evelina (Conclude the novel)
Frontispiece from the 4th edition (British Library)
Presentation:
Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761?-1804), Ayesha Jerald
Wednesday, September 25th
Phillis Wheatley, Read the Course Pack selections in their entirety. Please focus on poetics (i.e. how the poems are written) as well as thematics.
We discussed “On Being Brought from Africa to America” and “On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield”
Literary Terms for English 4460
Mary Collier, The Woman’s Labour; an Epistle to Mr. Stephen Duck; In Answer to his late Poem, called The Thresher’s Labour, please print and bring to class
Clara Reeve, from “To my Friend, Mrs. –, On her Holding an Argument in Favour of the Natural Equality of Both the Sexes.” There is a download link at the bottom of the page. Please print and bring to class.
Presentations:
Clara Reeve (1729-1807), Katie Pope
**
**
Monday, September 30th
Re-view Wheatley, “To Maecenas,” the ode to the Earl of Dartmouth, and “A Farewell to America”
Charlotte Smith, Elegiac Sonnets, Read the Course Pack selections of Smith’s poetry in their entirety
Review the definitions of the sonnet. Definition to be posted.
Anna Barbauld, “On the Death of Mrs. Jennings“. Please print up and bring to class.
Presentations:
Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825), Avery Simpson
Hannah More (1745-1833), Zach Green
Group Work: Discussion of Phillis Wheatley’s “To Maecenas” and Charlotte Smith’s Sonnet 1 (sometimes called “The Partial Muse”)
How would you characterize the poetic form, techniques, and language (inclusive of vocabulary as well as figurative language) of each of these two poets? What differences do you see? Similarities?
What larger argument can you make about these poets given what you’ve found?
**