Title of the course Topics in 17th and 18th-Century Literature

John Jay College of Criminal Justice The City University of New York New Course Proposal When completed, this proposal should be submitted to the Office of Undergraduate Studies-Room 634T for consideration by the College Curriculum Committee Department (s) proposing this course: English Title of the course: Topics in 17th and 18th-Century Literature Abbreviated title (up to 20 characters): TPCS 17th and 18th LIT Level of this course: _100 Level 200 Level _X_300 Level 400 Level Course description as it is to appear in the College bulletin: (Write in complete sentences except for prerequisites, hours and credits.) Topics in 17th and 18th-Century Literature introduces students to a pivotal period that witnessed the development of modern politics and democracy, the rise of the novel, the appearance of the professional woman writer, and the emergence of Enlightenment philosophy and literature As a means of understanding the literature of the period, the course may focus on a literary genre or mode (e.g., the novel, satire, sentimentality) or on an important theme (e.g., nationalism, colonialism, human rights, parliamentary democracy, status and class, revolution, the rise of Enlightenment thought, The Black Atlantic, New Science and the human) The specific focus of the course will be determined by the individual professor, and specific syllabi may draw on British literature and Western Literature more broadly, as well as on Anglophone literature and/or literature in translation originating from locations and cultures around the globe The course will approach the canon of this period as a body of work consistently open to reevaluation and critique; alternative texts, voices, and perspectives relevant to the topic(s) will be included Topics in 17th and 18th-Century Literature is one of six historically specific Topics courses, students majoring in English are required to take four Has this course been taught on an experimental basis? X_No _ Yes: Semester (s) and year (s): Teacher (s): Enrollment (s): Prerequisites (s): Prerequisites: Pre-requisite: ENG 102/201 Pre- or Co-requisite: LIT 260 (Introduction to Literary Study) or permission of the instructor Number of: class hours lab hours credits Brief rationale for the course: The Historical Topics courses give students an awareness of the ways that literature is shaped in and through specific historical periods By taking several of these courses, students gain an understanding of the development of literary forms and concerns in these historically and culturally specific contexts Topics in 17 th and 18thCentury Literature explores the complex ways that the literature of this era was inflected by historical circumstance and political upheaval By taking these and the other Historical Perspectives Topics courses, students also continue to build skills crucial for majoring in English, such as close reading, analysis, and argumentation 9a Knowledge and performance objectives of this course: (What knowledge will the student be expected to acquire and what conceptual and applied skills will be learned in this course?) KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES Students will: ● Gain familiarity with seventeenth and eighteenth-century developments in genres such as poetry, drama, and/or the novel ● Understand how literature can intervene in the political world ● Understand the power of literature to make abstract philosophical questions a felt experience for readers ● Gain a familiarity with historical research and its application to literary study ● Hone analytical and writing skills PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES ● Students will define key terms relating to literary works and their cultural contexts ● Students will identify and describe select literary genres, sub-genres, and developments of the period ● Students will demonstrate understanding of the role played by a select discourse or discourses (political, scientific, philosophical, religious, etc.) in shaping 17th-and 18th-century literatures ● By close reading of primary texts, class discussion, and writing response papers, students will demonstrate critical and analytical skills ● Through a pair of interconnected writing assignments, students will demonstrate their rhetorical and argumentative skills and their ability to incorporate textual evidence ● By completing a secondary source study and presenting it to the class, students will perform basic, supporting research that contextualizes an author or literary idea within a larger discourse of the period studied ● By incorporating secondary sources into a researched argumentative essay, students will demonstrate the ability to integrate and respond to multiple interpretations of a literary text 9b Indicate learning objectives of this course related to information literacy The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the information needed, accesses information effectively, efficiently, and appropriately, and evaluates information and its sources critically The student uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose, ethically and legally (e.g., students demonstrate critical interpretation of required readings; and/or effective searching of appropriate discipline specific bibliographic databases; and/or primary data-gathering by observation and experimentation; and/or finding and evaluating internet resources For many more examples of classroom performance indicators and outcomes see the ACRL standards for higher education at http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informationliteracycompetency.htm) For questions on information literacy see the library’s curriculum committee representative Students will be required to locate primary and secondary sources germane to the topic of the course through specialized databases such as the MLA Bibliography, JSTOR, and ECCO (Eighteenth-Century Collections Online) We will also use eighteenth-century resources on the web, such as the Voice of the Shuttle (http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2738) and Jack Lynch’s Eighteenth-Century Resources (http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/18th/) 10 Recommended writing assignments: (Indicate types of writing assignments and number of pages of each type Writing assignments should satisfy the College’s requirements for writing across the curriculum.) In any particular iteration of the course, a challenging selection of the following: ● informal writing in class; response papers; analytical reading journals (10-25 pages) ● two formal essays, one treating the 17th century and the second the 18th century (10-12 pages) ● a handout summarizing, analyzing, and evaluating a secondary source treating a work of literature and accompanying a class presentation (2-3 pages) ● a researched argumentative essay that incorporates and weighs diverse interpretations encountered in secondary sources (7-10 pages) ● exam(s) including essays in addition to vocabulary and identification sections (5-10 pages) 11 Will this course be part of any major (s) or program (s)? _No _X_Yes Major or program: English Major What part of the major? (Prerequisite, core, skills, etc.) Part Two: Historical Perspectives: Topics in 17th and 18th-Century Literature is one of six historically specific Topics courses; students majoring in English are required to take four 12 Is this course related to other specific courses? _No _X_Yes Indicate which course (s) and what the relationship will be (e.g., prerequisite, sequel, etc.) Pre- or Co-requisite: LIT 260 Introduction to Literary Study 13 Please meet with a member of the library faculty before answering question 13 The faculty member consulted should sign below (Contact the library’s curriculum committee representative to identify which library faculty member to meet with) Identify and assess the adequacy of the following types of library resources to support this course: databases, books, periodicals Attach a list of available resources Attach a list of recommended resources that would further support this course Both lists should be in a standard, recognized bibliographic format, preferably APA format At a meeting with Ellen Sexton in March, 2008 Professor DeLucia discussed the purchase of additional secondary sources (see attached bibliography) and period-specific literary encyclopedias The acquisition of ECCO (Eighteenth-Century Collections On-line) will now allow students to access literary texts, political pamphlets, broadsides, ballads, maps, and philosophical texts, and thus to conduct primary research Signature of library faculty member consulted: [Ellen Sexton] _ 14 Are the current resources (e.g computer labs, facilities, equipment) adequate to support this course? _Yes X No If not, what resources will be necessary? With whom have these resource needs been discussed? See above 15 Syllabus: Attach a sample syllabus for this course It should be based on the College’s model syllabus The sample syllabus must include a week by week or class by class listing of topics, readings, other assignments, tests, papers due, or other scheduled parts of the course It must also include proposed texts It should indicate how much various assignments or tests will count towards final grades (If this course has been taught on an experimental basis, an actual syllabus may be attached, if suitable.) Attached 16 This section is to be completed by the chair(s) of the department(s) proposing the course Name(s) of the Chairperson(s): Margaret Mikesell Tabb Has this proposal been approved at a meeting of the department curriculum committee? _No _Yes: Meeting date: When will this course be taught? Every semester, starting _ One semester each year, starting Fall 2009 Once every two years, starting How many sections of this course will be offered? one Who will be assigned to teach this course? Ann Huse JoEllen DeLucia John Staines Olivera Jokic Al Coppola Alexander Schlutz Is this proposed course similar to or related to any course or major offered by any other department (s)? X _No _Yes What course (s) or major (s) is this course similar or related to? Did you consult with department (s) offering similar or related courses or majors? X _Not applicable _No _Yes If yes, give a short summary of the consultation process and results Will any course be withdrawn if this course is approved? X _No _Yes, namely: Signature (s) of chair of Department (s) proposing this course: Date: _ Revised: October 3, 2006 Bibliography Historical Perspectives - Topics in Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Literature Anderson, Benedict (1991) Imagined Communities New York: Verso Aravamudan, Srinivas (1999) Tropocopolitans Durham: Duke University Press Baucom, Ian (2005) Spectres of the Atlantic: Finance, Capital, Slavery and the Philosophy of History Durham: Duke University Press Brown, Laura (1993) Ends of Empire Ithaca: Cornell University Press Colley, Linda (1992) Britons London: Yale University Press Davis, Lennard (1983) Factual Fictions Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press Gallagher, Catherine (1995) Nobody’s Story Berkeley: University of California Press Gilroy, Paul (1993) Black Atlantic Boston: Harvard University Press Hunt, Lynn (2007) Inventing Human Rights New York: W.W Norton Kaul, Suvir (2000) Anthems of Empire Charlottesville: The University of Virginia Press Lynch Deidre (1998) Economy of Character Chicago: University of Chicago Press Makdisi, Saree (1998) Romantic Imperialism Cambridge: Cambridge University Press McBride, Dwight (2002) Impossible Witnesses: Truth, Abolitionism, and Slave Testimony New York: NYU Press Nussbaum, Felicity (2003) The Global Eighteenth Century Baltimore: The John s Hopkins Press Roach, Joseph (1996) Cities of the Dead New York: Columbia University Press Sorensen, Janet (2000) The Grammar of Empire Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Todd, Janet (1996) The Secret Life of Aphra Behn New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press Trumpener, Katie (1997) Bardic Nationalism Princeton: Princeton University Press Watt, Ian (1957) The Rise of the Novel Berkeley: University of California Press Wilson, Kathleen (2003) Island Race: Englishness, Empire, and Gender in the Eighteenth Century New York: Routledge Department of English John Jay College, CUNY New York, NY 10019 Spring 2009 Sample Syllabus Lit 3xx: Topics in Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Literature: From Divine Right to Human Rights Professor JoEllen DeLucia (jdelucia@jjay.cuny.edu) Office 1245 North Hall Tel 212-237-8580 Office Hours: Tues 10:00 – 1:00 Class Times: Monday & Wednesday, periods 4(12:30-1:45) & (6:25-7:40), rm 2506N Course Description: Topics in 17th- and 18th-Century Literature will examine major and minor literary movements, authors, or ideas at work in seventeenth and eighteenth-century literature with an eye to the formal features of texts as well as the social, historical, and political contexts in which they appeared The course will approach the canon of this period not as a fixed entity but as a body of work consistently open to reevaluation and critique; alternative texts, voices, and perspectives relevant to the topic(s) will be included This semester the course will focus on literature’s role in the development of human rights discourse Studies of human rights often take as their starting point the Enlightenment and the philosophical treatises and essays published by late seventeenth and eighteenth-century thinkers, including John Locke, Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson By questioning the absolute power of the king and establishing the rights of “all men,” these writers shaped the underlying principles of our society as well as our system of justice This course will examine the way in which novels, particularly Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko and Tobias Smollett’s Humphrey Clinker, cultivated readers’ powers of empathy and shaped the category of “the people” cited so frequently in the foundational documents of the human rights canon, The Declaration of Independence (1776) and The French Declaration of Man and Citizen (1789) We will also examine the defense and critique of divine right in the poetry and prose of Alexander Pope, the Duchess of Newcastle (Margaret Cavendish), and an eighteenth-century kitchen maid, Mary Leapor Finally, through the literature of the Black Atlantic and the fiction of Ireland and the New World, we will explore literary responses to the two greatest challenges to the development of human rights in the modern period, the transatlantic slave trade and the colonial expansion of the British Empire Pre-requisite: ENG 102/201 Pre- or co-requisite: Lit 260 Introduction to Literary Study, or permission of the instructor Required texts: Behn, Aphra Oroonoko New York: Penguin Classics, 2004 Edgeworth, Maria Castle Rackrent New York: Echo Library, 2007 Equiano, Olaudah The Interesting Narrative New York: Penguin Classics, 2003 Smollett, Tobias Humphrey Clinker New York: Oxford University Press, 1998 Winkfield, Unca Eliza The Female American New York: Broadview Press, 2000 E-Reserves: DeMaria, Robert, Jr British Literature 1640-1789, An Anthology Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2001 Blake, William “The Little Black Boy.” Cavendish, Margaret The Blazing World and Other Writings (excerpts) Cowper, William “The Negro’s Complaint.” Defoe, Daniel “True Born Englishman.” (excerpts) Johnson, Samuel Preface to a Dictionary of the English Language Pope, Alexander “Essay on Man.” Wheatley, Phyllis “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” Gilroy, Paul The Black Atlantic Boston: Harvard University Press, 1993 Hunt, Lynn Inventing Human Rights New York: W.W Norton, 2007 Ishay, Micheline The Human Rights Reader New York: Routledge, 2007 Jefferson, Thomas The Declaration of Independence The French Declaration of Man and Citizen DeGouges, Olympe The Declaration of the Rights of Woman Attendance and Participation: Participation in discussions and attendance are essential to success in this class After three absences, your grade will drop (e.g., after missed classes, a B becomes a B-) After four absences, you will fail the course Being frequently late or excessively late for class will result in additional absences Text messaging and answering your phone during class will also result in additional absences Do not schedule medical appointments or job interviews during class time Arrange your work and child care schedules so that you can come to every class on time Assignments: Quizzes and informal responses: Brief bi-weekly responses and frequent (unannounced) in-class quizzes will help you identify key issues and provide a basis for the two longer papers you will write during the course of the semester Once every two weeks, I will ask students to respond to a reading of their choice I will hand out prompts for these brief responses in class To facilitate class discussion, you will be given a series of in-class pop quizzes These quizzes will be open notebook Careful notetaking and reading will ensure your success (Responses and Quizzes 40 percent = 400 points) In-class Presentation: You will be asked to establish a historical context for one of the texts we will read during the course of the semester Your research should take advantage of the John Jay Library resources and the on-line resources I will introduce you to in class You will be asked to a ten minute presentation on your research Your research will provide an additional lens for the discussion of the day’s text On the day you present, I will expect you to hand in a 2-3 page report on your findings (Presentation 10 percent = 100 points) Formal Essay: You will also be asked to write a research essay 7-10 pages on the text you presented on in class, as well as two related texts we have read This essay will require you to establish a historical context for the texts you are writing about Paper topics will be discussed during class Late essays will not be accepted I also not accept essays through email Essays will be accepted only at the beginning of the class period on the day they are due (Essay 30 percent = 300 points) Final Exam: part take-home, part in-class (Final Exam 20 percent = 200 points) Plagiarism: Plagiarism constitutes using others’ ideas, words or images without properly giving credit to those sources I assume that any work submitted with your name on it consists of original ideas and welldocumented sources (with quotations and/or proper citations) If such turns out not to be the case, I will follow the college’s policy concerning plagiarism See the John Jay College Undergraduate Bulletin for further explanation The Writing Center, located in 2450 North Hall provides free tutoring in writing papers The Center has a staff of trained tutors who work with students to help them become more effective writers This is not a remedial service Writers at any stage in their development benefit from a second pair of eyes Learning objectives: to gain familiarity with 17th and 18th-Century poetry, and the origins of the novel to understand how literature can intervene in the political world, particularly in the development of human rights discourse to understand the power of literature to make abstract philosophical questions a felt experience for readers to gain a familiarity with historical research and its application to literary study to hone analytical and writing skills Schedule of Readings and Assignments Part I: King, God, and Father: The Problem with Divine Right 1.1 Introduction to the course 1.2 Lynn Hunt, “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” Inventing Human Rights 2.1 from Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha (1653) and John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government (1689) Discussion: Divine Right vs Democracy Due: Response 2.2 Margaret Cavendish from The Blazing World and Other Writings (1666) Discussion: Divine Right 3.1 Alexander Pope Essay on Man, “Epistle 1” (1733) and Mary Leapor “Man the Monarch” (1748) Discussion: Challenges to Divine Right 3.2 Aphra Behn Oroonoko (1688), pp 1-40 Discussion: The Noble Savage 4.1 Oroonoko, pp 41-79 Due: Response Part II: “We the People:” Creating the Nation-State 4.2 Daniel Defoe, “True Born Englishman” Discussion: Satire and national origins Due: First round of student presentations 5.1 Samuel Johnson, Preface to a Dictionary of the English Language (1755) Discussion: The standardization of English 5.2 Tobias Smollett’s Humphrey Clinker (1771), pp 5-80 Discussion: Creating the Nation 6.1 Humphrey Clinker, pp 81-130 Due: Response 6.2 Humphrey Clinker, pp 131-230 Due: Second round of student presentations 7.1 Humphrey Clinker, pp 231-300 7.2 Humphrey Clinker, pp 300-154 8.1 Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence (1776); The French Declaration of Man and Citizen (1789); Olympe de Gouges, The Declaration of the Rights of Woman (1790) Discussion: The Rights of Man and its Limits Due: Response Part III: The Paradox of Human Rights: British Imperialism and the Black Atlantic 8.2 from Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic; Olaudah Equiano, Interesting Narrative (1789), pp 1-60 Discussion: Triangular Trade and Black Atlantic Identity 9.1 Interesting Narrative, pp 61-140 9.2 Interesting Narrative, pp 141-200 Due: Third round of student presentations 10.1 Interesting Narrative, pp 201-237 10.2 Phyllis Wheatley,“On Being Brought from Africa to America” (1772): William Cowper, “The Negro’s Complaint”; William Blake, “The Little Black Boy” ; Lucy Terry Prince, “Bars Fight”; Jupiter Hammon,“An Evening's Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries” and “To the Negroes in New York State” Discussion: Poetic voice and Anti-Slavery Poetry Due: Response 11.1 Maria Edgeworth Castle Rackrent (1800), pp 35-65 Discussion: internal colonialism and the Celtic periphery 11.2 Castle Rackrent, pp 66-110 12.1 Castle Rackrent, pp 111-131 Due: Fourth round of student presentations 12.2 Unca Eliza Winkfield, The Female American (1767), pp 31-55 Discussion: The colonization of the New World Due: Response 13.1 The Female American, pp 56-98 Due: Fifth round of student presentations 13.2 The Female American, pp 99-155 14 Due: Research Paper 14 Discussion about the final exam 15 Final Exam 10 ... students gain an understanding of the development of literary forms and concerns in these historically and culturally specific contexts Topics in 17 th and 18thCentury Literature explores the complex... Smith, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson By questioning the absolute power of the king and establishing the rights of “all men,” these writers shaped the underlying principles of our society as... through the literature of the Black Atlantic and the fiction of Ireland and the New World, we will explore literary responses to the two greatest challenges to the development of human rights in the