English 246E

Other Readings and Media

Hammond , P., ed.: Restoration Literature: An Anthology; Rochester , J.: Complete Poems; Bunyan, J.: Grace Abounding; Behn, A.: Oroonoko and Other Writings; Lawrence , R., ed.: Restoration Plays; Swift, J.: Writings; Pope, A.: Selected Poetry;Defoe, D.: Robinson Crusoe

Description

An exploration of the satire, devotional autobiography, prose fiction, letter-writing, diaries, heroic verse, drama, pornography, and feminist polemic produced in England between the Restoration of Charles II (1660) and 1725; these will include Behn�s Oroonoko, the earlier works of Pope (Rape of the Lock), selected letters of Mary Wortley Montagu describing her life in Turkey, and major writings by Swift (Tale of a Tub, Modest Proposal, Gulliver�s Travels). Canonical figures like Milton, Congreve, Pope, and Swift will be juxtaposed to scandalous and/or marginal authors: Bunyan, Behn, Rochester , and Astell. We will be particularly concerned with the representation of transgressive sexuality, the search for the heroic, the encounter with the alien, the resistance to �modernity,� and the change in the idea of the author as women enter the literary marketplace; many of our texts combine all of these themes.