Oakland University
Department of English
Course Information
English 644--Restoration & Eighteenth-Century Drama and the Emergence of Modernity
Fall, 2005
265 SFH, Tuesdays, 6:30 PM
Oakland University Course Information English 644--Restoration & Eighteenth-Century Drama and the Emergence of Modernity
Fall, 2005
265 SFH, Tuesdays, 6:30 PM
Department of English
Course Description: Scholars of the literary period formerly known as the Renaissance have redefined their period as Early Modern, but the transition to modernity in Great Britain is fully realized only in the course of the eighteenth century; consequently modernity itself can be defined only on the basis of changes (cultural, political, social, aesthetic, and literary) witnessed by this period. In the prose narrative, this change is typically charted by attention to the emergence of the genre of the novel and its privileging of the “realistic” experience of women and members of the “lower orders,” including the “rising middle class.” In this course, we’ll take the road less travelled, reading voraciously in the drama of the period 1660 to 1777 as we try to define modernity and determine what it looks like. Along the way, we’ll consider matters of genre (heroic tragedy, tragedy, comedy, satire, ballad opera, farce), changing aesthetics (neoclassicism, sentimentalism), politics (roundheads, cavaliers, tories, whigs, Walpole), class (“high” culture and “popular” culture, manners, taste), and gender, philosophy (Hobbes, Locke), and morality (Collier, Steele). Class meetings will be discussion-based. Students will make one presentation, write a term paper, and complete two take-home tests.
Text: The Broadview Anthology of Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Drama. General editor, J. Douglas Canfield. (Full edition – not the "concise" edition).
Some related links:
September
T 6 Orientation: When was the Restoration? Multimedia extravaganza.
T 13 Tatham, The Rump T 15 Last day for “no grade” drop.
T 20 Dryden, Marriage a la Mode Recommended: T 27 Behn, “Love Arm’d” Recommended: Th 29 Maurice Brown Memorial Poetry Reading, Wendy Barker, 4:00 PM, Varner Recital Hall October T 4 Behn, The Rover and The Lucky Chance Recommended: T 11 Dryden, All for Love Recommended:
T 18 Test 1 is due. T 25 Cibber, Love’s Last Shift Recommended: November T 1 Recommended: Th 3 Last day for official withdrawal from class. T 8 Pix, The Beau Defeated Recommended: T 15 Centlivre, A Bold Stroke for a Wife T 22 Term paper due!!! Recommended:
T 29 Gay, The Beggar’s Opera
Recommended: December T 6 Lillo, The London Merchant Recommended : T 13 Test 2 is due, 521 WH, 7:00 - 10:00 PM
Updated August 22, 2005
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Howard, The Committee
Hobbes, from Leviathan, Chapter 13 ("Of the Natural Condition of Mankind . . .)"
Hobbes, "On laughter" (handout)
Locke, Bk 1, Ch 2; Bk 2, ch. 1; Bk 2, ch. 33, Essay on Human Understanding
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Langhans, “The Theatre,” in English Restoration Theatre, 1-18
Styan, “The Playhouse and the Performance,” Restoration Comedy in Performance, 19-42
Rochester, “The Imperfect Enjoyment” [WARNING: Adult content, explicit lyrics]
“A Satyre on Charles II”
"A Letter from Artemesia in the Town to Chloe in the Country”
A Satyr against Reason and Mankind
Behn, “The Disappointment”
Filmer, from Patriarcha, Chapter 1, sections 1-4, 9-10; Chapter 2, sections 2, 15; Chapter 3, sections 1-2.
Astell, Some Serious Reflections upon Marriage . . .
Wycherley, The Country Wife
Gill, “William Wycherley: Country Matters and other Nebulous Dealings,” in Interpreting Ladies, 54-96
Holland, “The Country Wife,” in First Modern Comedies 73-85
Novak, “Libertinism and Sexuality,” Companion 53-68 -- Presentation by Sandi H.
Roach, “The Performance,” in English Restoration Theatre, 19-39.
Fisk, “The Restoration Actress,” Companion 69-91.
Kroll, “Instituting Empiricism: Hobbes’s Leviathan and Dryden’s Marriage a la Mode,” in Cultural Readings, 39-66
Payne, “Reified Object or Emergent Professional? Retheorizing the Restoration Actress,” in
Cultural Readings, 13-38.
Styan, “The Actor,” Restoration Comedy in Performance, 43-88.
Styan, “The Actress,” Restoration Comedy in Performance, 89-142
Rochester, “Against Constancy”
Etherege, The Man of Mode
Canfield, “Restoration Comedy,” Companion 211-227
Gill, “George Etherege: Desiring Women,” in Interpreting Ladies, 22-53
Gill, “Gender, Sexuality, and Marriage,” in English Restoration Theatre, 191-208 -- Presentation by Jane A.
Holland, “The Man of Mode,” in First Modern Comedies 86-95
Markley, “‘Still on the Criminal’s Side, against the Innocent’: Etherege, Wycherley, and the Ironies of Wit,” Companion 326-339
Downer, “Nature to Advantage Dressed: Eighteenth-Century Acting,” in Loftis, Restoration Drama, 328-371
Gill, “Aphra Behn: Desiring Women II,” in Interpreting Ladies, 137-158
Rosenthal, “Masculinity in Restoration Drama,” Companion 92-108
Brown, “Affective Tragedy,” in English Dramatic Form, 1660-1760, 69-101
Otway, Venice Preserved
Locke, Chs. 5, 6, & 9, First Treatise on Civil Government (handout)
Term paper proposal due.
Vanbrugh, The Relapse
Collier, from A Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage &c (on reserve):
Chapter 1: Introduction, pp. 1-10
Chapter 2: Prophaneness, pp. 36-39, 51-52
Chapter 4: Immorality, pp. 91-95
Chapter 5, Section 3: The Relapse, 136-151
Term paper working bibliography due.
Cordner, “Playwright versus Priest: Profanity and the Wit of Restoration Comedy,” in English Restoration Theatre, 209-225
Straub, “Actors and Homophobia,” in Cultural Readings, 258-280 -- presentation by Stacey T.
Brown, “Dramatic Social Satire,” in English Dramatic Form, 1660-1760, 28-65
Gill, “William Congreve: Double Dealing, or The Way of the Word,” in Interpreting Ladies, 97-136
Holland, “The Way of the World,” in First Modern Comedies 175-198
Farquhar, The Beaux’ Stratagem
Term paper draft due.
Corman, “Comedy,” in English Restoration Theatre 52-69.
Steele, The Conscious Lovers
Brown, “Transitional Comedy,” in English Dramatic Form, 1660-1760, 102-142
Dugaw, “Popular Songs and the Politics of Heroism: The ‘Beggar’s’ Operas” in Deep Play 166-196
Brown, “Dramatic Moral Action,” in English Dramatic Form, 1660-1760, 145-184
Canfield, “Shifting Tropes of Ideology in English Serious Drama, Late Stuart to Early Georgian,” in Cultural Readings 195-227
