ENGL 411
Eighteenth-Century Literature: Sex, Satire, and Sentiment
Course Description
A selection of writing embracing the themes of sex, satire, and sentiment that characterize the Restoration and 18th century. Authors may include Behn, Swift, Finch, Pope, Defoe, and Radcliffe.
Course Overview:
In this on-campus, in-person offering of ENGL 411 we will focus on the critical reading of a selection of exciting and significant works by writers from Aphra Behn to Olaudah Equiano. During class meetings we will discuss the assigned literary works, address student discussion posts and questions, engage with student presentations, and explore critical approaches to the material. You will also be presented with information about the literary history of the period, and about key concepts and terms. Some historical background will also be introduced.
Eighteenth-century literature is dynamic, social, and modern. It is the period in which many contemporary genres of literature, such as the novel and biography, and in which many popular literary modes, such as satire and the sentimental, were first invented or gained widespread popularity. It is also the period in which many issues that seem very present-day-- for example, the construction of gender and sexuality, parliamentary party politics, the importance of female experience, the impact of slavery and colonialization, and the rise of human rights--were first raised, debated, and addressed in an extensive literature created by men and women, well-born and low-born individuals, European and African people.
Important Notes
- Some of the eighteenth-century literature which we will be reading and discussing in this course deals with mature themes and sexual content, including portrayals of sexual seduction, lust, and assault, and racial and sexual epithets; if you wish to request an accommodation with respect to such material, please contact the instructor by the end of the first full week of classes (that is, by Friday, January 14th).
- For the in-person meetings of this class, students must follow all University mandated Covid-19 protocols, including masking requirements.
- Course instruction will take place in the on-campus class meetings held Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 am to 12:50 pm. In the event that a health emergency or Covid-19 outbreak or other pandemic restriction on in-person learning is declared by the University of Waterloo and class meetings are moved online, class meetings for this course will be held synchronously at the regularly scheduled times via Bongo on LEARN. Note that the University of Waterloo requires online course meetings to be recorded; please see the end of this document for more information on this requirement; if you wish to request an accommodation with respect to synchronous online class attendance (such as video recording), please do so by emailing the instructor by the end of the first full week of classes (that is, by Friday, January 14th).
Course Objectives
By the end of the course students will:
- Become familiar with, and have a sophisticated grasp of, some key works by writers from Aphra Behn to Olaudah Equiano, as listed on the course syllabus.
- Understand some of the principal developments in the literary history of the period 1660-1800 with respect to the topics of sex, satire, and sentiment.
- Be familiar with a number of critical approaches to eighteenth-century writing.
- Practice constructing insightful, well-evidenced, and clearly written arguments about literary works
- Develop advanced skills in literary information, analysis, and research.
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Logistics
Instructor: Dr. F. Easton
Office: N/A
Office hours: via Teams only (please note: office hour timeslots must be booked in advance): T 1:00-2:00 pm, Th 10:00-11:00 am, or alternative times by request
Email: easton@uwaterloo.ca
Required Texts
Robert DeMaria, Jr., ed., British Literature 1640-1789, 4th ed. (Wiley, 2016)
Samuel Richardson, Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008)
Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews and Shamela New Edition (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008)
Assignments
Assignment 1: Attendance and participation in class meetings (including online meetings if required because of University of Waterloo directives) = 10%
Assignment 2: Weekly discussion posts: 10 discussion posts (250 words max. per post) via 10 weekly discussion posting opportunities = 1 point x 10 posts = 10%
Assignment 3: Student choice of: (a) a 5- to 10-minute (max.) narrated PowerPoint presentation on a work from the syllabus (to be presented in class) OR (b) a midterm = 20%
Assignment 4: Term paper (7 pages) = 30%
Assignment 5: Final examination = 30%
Apart from Assignment 1, all assignments will be submitted electronically on LEARN, in hard copy, or both, as appropriate. Detailed instructions for assignments will be provided at appropriate times once classes have started.
Discussion posts will be due by 4:30 pm on the Monday of the relevant week. Students will make their choice of activity for Assignment 3 by the end of class on January 13th and, if the choice is for the narrated PowerPoint, sign up for their choice of text and associated presentation date (per the syllabus). For those who choose the midterm option for Assignment 3, it will be held on February 17th. The term paper is due on March 17th. The final examination will be scheduled by the Registrar for a date and time during the examination period.
Course Expectations
Course Texts
The required texts for this course are listed above; please use these exact editions so that all students have a reliable text, can easily follow and read from specific passages during class discussions and lectures, and can cite from common sources for course assignments. In particular, Robert DeMaria’s British Literature 1640-1789, 4th ed. provides reliable course texts, uniform selections, and uniform page references for many of our readings.
Late Policy
Barring a serious medical or personal reason that is formally documented, for example with a notice of accommodation request from AccessAbility, or a signed note from Health or Counselling Services at UW, all late assignments will be penalized 5 points for the first day, and 2 points for every day thereafter, including weekend days and holidays, and uncompleted or missed assignments will be graded 0 points. In cases where a midterm or other assignment is rescheduled based on formal documentation, the reset midterm or other assignment may include an oral component.
Term Paper Format
Term papers must follow current MLA format, be typed in Word (no PDFs please) in Times New Roman 12 pt. and double-spaced. For additional information on the format for paper layout, quotations, and references, please consult the MLA Handbook, 8th or 9th ed. For online access to information on MLA formatting and style, see Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL): https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html On paper layout, see the sample paper here: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_sample_paper.html
Note: Please keep a copy of every assignment you submit for this course.
Plagiarism
Students must always follow both University and Faculty regulations on plagiarism (see especially Policy 71). Note that all work must be your own, and that any use of the words and ideas of others within your work must appear inside quotation marks and with complete references. Demonstrated instances of plagiarism in your work for this course will be subject to academic penalties. (See below for more information on academic integrity.)
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Additional Information
Academic Integrity, Discipline, and Appeals
Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.]
Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of their university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.
Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for their actions. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.] A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate associate dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline. For typical penalties, check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.
Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71, Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes they have a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72, Student Appeals.
Accommodation for Students with Disabilities
Note for students with disabilities: AccessAbility Services, located in Needles Hall, Room 1401, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.
Mental Health Support
All of us need a support system. The faculty and staff in Arts encourage students to seek out mental health support if they are needed.
On Campus
Due to COVID-19 and campus closures, services are available only online or by phone.
- Counselling Services: counselling.services@uwaterloo.ca / 519-888-4567 ext. 32655
- MATES: one-to-one peer support program offered by the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) and Counselling Services
Off campus, 24/7
- Good2Talk: Free confidential help line for post-secondary students. Phone: 1-866-925-5454
- Grand River Hospital: Emergency care for mental health crisis. Phone: 519-749-4300 ext. 6880
- Here 24/7: Mental Health and Crisis Service Team. Phone: 1-844-437-3247
- OK2BME: set of support services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning teens in Waterloo. Phone: 519-884-0000 extension 213
Full details can be found online on the Faculty of Arts website
Download UWaterloo and regional mental health resources (PDF)
Download the WatSafe app to your phone to quickly access mental health support information.
Territorial Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are living and working on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (also known as Neutral), Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometres on each side of the Grand River.
For more information about the purpose of territorial acknowledgements, please see the CAUT Guide to Acknowledging Traditional Territory (PDF).
Academic freedom at the University of Waterloo
Policy 33, Ethical Behaviour states, as one of its general principles (Section 1), “The University supports academic freedom for all members of the University community. Academic freedom carries with it the duty to use that freedom in a manner consistent with the scholarly obligation to base teaching and research on an honest and ethical quest for knowledge. In the context of this policy, 'academic freedom' refers to academic activities, including teaching and scholarship, as is articulated in the principles set out in the Memorandum of Agreement between the FAUW and the University of Waterloo, 1998 (Article 6). The academic environment which fosters free debate may from time to time include the presentation or discussion of unpopular opinions or controversial material. Such material shall be dealt with as openly, respectfully and sensitively as possible.” This definition is repeated in Policies 70 and 71, and in the Memorandum of Agreement, Section 6.
Intellectual Property
Students should be aware that this course contains the intellectual property of their instructor, TA, and/or the University of Waterloo.
Intellectual property includes items such as:
- Lecture content, spoken and written (and any audio/video recording thereof);
- Lecture handouts, presentations, and other materials prepared for the course (e.g., PowerPoint slides);
- Questions or solution sets from various types of assessments (e.g., assignments, quizzes, tests, final exams); and
- Work protected by copyright (e.g., any work authored by the instructor or TA or used by the instructor or TA with permission of the copyright owner).
Course materials and the intellectual property contained therein, are used to enhance a student’s educational experience. However, sharing this intellectual property without the intellectual property owner’s permission is a violation of intellectual property rights. For this reason, it is necessary to ask the instructor, TA and/or the University of Waterloo for permission before uploading and sharing the intellectual property of others online (e.g., to an online repository).
Permission from an instructor, TA or the University is also necessary before sharing the intellectual property of others from completed courses with students taking the same/similar courses in subsequent terms/years. In many cases, instructors might be happy to allow distribution of certain materials. However, doing so without expressed permission is considered a violation of intellectual property rights.
Please alert the instructor if you become aware of intellectual property belonging to others (past or present) circulating, either through the student body or online. The intellectual property rights owner deserves to know (and may have already given their consent).
Use of Turnitin.com:
Text matching software (Turnitin®) may be used to screen assignments in this course. Turnitin® is used to verify that all materials and sources in assignments are documented. Students' submissions are stored on a U.S. server; therefore, students will be given an alternative if they are concerned about their privacy and/or security. In this course, alternatives to the use of Turnitin (e.g., scaffolded assignment or annotated bibliography) will include an oral component.
It is the responsibility of the student to notify the instructor if they, in the first week of term or at the time assignment details are provided, wish to submit an alternate assignment. The form and nature of the alternate assignment will be assigned by the instructor.
Remote Teaching and Learning: Student Notice of Recording
Note: the procedures described below will come into effect if the University requires us to move to remote learning for Covid-19 related reasons. In that event, classes will be held synchronously, at the regularly scheduled time, on Bongo via LEARN.
In the case of a health emergency or outbreak, activities for this course may involve recording, in partial fulfillment of the course learning outcomes. You will receive notification of recording via at least one of the following mechanisms: within the Learning Management System (LEARN), a message from your course instructor, course syllabus/website, or other means. Some technologies may also provide a recording indicator. Images, audio, text/chat messaging that have been recorded may be used and/or made available by the University to the students, instructor, and TA in this course as required by the University of Waterloo for synchronous class meetings. Recordings will be managed according to the University records classification scheme, WatClass, and will be securely destroyed when no longer needed by the University. Your personal information is protected in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, as well as University policies and guidelines and may be subject to disclosure where required by law.
The University will use reasonable means to protect the security and confidentiality of the recorded information but cannot provide a guarantee of such due to factors beyond the University’s control, such as recordings being forwarded, copied, intercepted, circulated, disclosed, or stored without the University’s knowledge or permission, or the introduction of malware into a computer system which could potentially damage or disrupt the computer, networks, and security settings. The University is not responsible for connectivity/technical difficulties or loss of data associated with your hardware, software or Internet connection.
By engaging in course activities that involve recording, you are consenting to the use of your appearance, image, text/chat messaging, and voice and/or likeness in the manner and under the conditions specified herein. Instructions to participate using a pseudonym instead of your real name are included where the feature exists; however, you must disclose the pseudonym to your instructor in advance in order to facilitate class participation. If you choose not to be recorded, this notice serves as confirmation of your understanding that you must seek an accommodation from the instructor by the end of the first full week of classes (that is, by January 14th, 2022).
You are not permitted to disclose the link to/URL of an event or an event session recording or copies of recording to anyone, for any reason. Recordings are available only to authorized individuals who have been directly provided the above instructions/link for their use. Review the University’s guidelines for faculty, staff and students entering relationships with external organizations offering access to course materials for more information on your obligations with respect to keeping copies of course materials. For more information about accessibility, connect with AccessAbility Services.
Syllabus
Notes: (1) all course readings (apart from the novels by Richardson and Fielding, and links to webpages) are from Robert DeMaria, Jr., ed., British Literature 1640-1789, 4th ed. (Wiley, 2016); (2) some of the works we are reading this term deal with mature themes, sexual content, sexual violence, and racial, religious, gender, and class stereotypes and epithets; if you wish to request an accommodation with respect to any such material, please email the instructor by the end of the first full week of classes (that is, by Friday, January 14th); and (3) please be aware that by taking this course you are agreeing to read, and to contribute to in-person class discussions (whether on campus or online) about, the material below, including the two novels by Richardson and Fielding and substantial works in poetry and prose by Pope, Haywood, and others.
Introduction
January 6: Overview: Course Organization and Scope
January 11 & 13: New Contexts, New Energies
Behn, “To the Fair Clarinda, Who Made Love to Me, Imagined More than Woman”
Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America”
I. Sex, Sexuality, and Gender
January 18 & 20: Sex and Power
Rochester, “The Imperfect Enjoyment,” “The Disabled Debauchee”
Behn, “The Disappointment”
January 25 & 27: Sex and Embodiment
Swift, “The Lady’s Dressing Room,” “On a Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed Written for the Honour of the Fair Sex”
Montagu, “The Reasons that Induced Dr. S[wift] to Write a Poem Called the Lady’s Dressing Room”
Haywood, Fantomina
II. Satire in Private and in Public
February 1 & 3: Attacking Power
Rochester, “A Satyr against Reason and Mankind,” “A Satire on Charles II”
Swift, A Modest Proposal
February 8 & 10: Satiric Lives
Dryden, “Mac Flecknoe”
Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”
February 15: Ironic Observation
J. Collier, from An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting
February 17: Midterm
February 22 & 24: Reading Week--no classes
III. Inscribing Sentiment
March 1, 3 & 8: Feeling Feminine
Richardson, Pamela
March 10, 15 & 17: Feeling Masculine
Fielding, Joseph Andrews
IV. Sentimental Rights
March 22 & 24: Subaltern Voices
Wheatley, “To S.M., A Young African Painter, On Seeing his Works,”
“To Maecenas”
M. Collier, “The Woman’s Labour”
Equiano, from The Interesting Narrative
March 29 & 31: Feeling Other
Fielding, Shamela
Blake, “The Chimney Sweeper” (both versions), “The Little Black Boy”
Smart, from Jubilate Agno
Burney, “28 March 1812”
April 5: Make up class (if necessary)
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