English 45B

Other Readings and Media

Behn, A.: Oroonoko; Defoe, D.: Robinson Crusoe; Austen, J.: Persuasion; Scott, W.: Rob Roy; Melville, H.: Benito Cereno; Rowlandson, M.: Narrative of Captivity and Restoration; Equiano, O.: Narrative of the Life

Recommended: Swift, J.: Gulliver's Travels

Description

Readings in English, Scottish, Irish and North American prose narrative and poetry from 1688 through 1848: a century and a half that sees the formation of a new, multinational British state with the political incorporation of Scotland and then Ireland, the massive expansion of an overseas empire, and the revolt of the American colonies. Our readings will explore the relations between home and the world in writings preoccupied with journeys outward and back, real and imaginary -- not all of which are undertaken voluntarily. Readings will include prose fiction by Aphra Behn, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Jane Austen, Walter Scott, E. A. Poe and Herman Melville; autobiographies by Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano; and poetry by John Dryden, Alexander Pope, William Collins, Thomas Gray, James Macpherson, Robert Burns, William Blake, William Wordsworth, S.T. Coleridge, and others.