Department of English

In English 41, I conduct students on a survey of literature and
culture in the Restoration and early eighteenth century, acquainting
students with new genres like mock-epic and the novel, with established
styles of satire and comedy, with several major plays, and with voyages
of discovery.  My emphasis is on transmitting the excitement  of the
beginning of modern Enlightenment consciousness at the time of the
emergence of the early modern species of empire.  The major writers I
will discuss are Dryden, Swift, and Defoe.  We will study plays by
Wycherley, Congreve, Farquhar, an Centlivre, poetry by  Butler,
Rochester, and Pope, and literature of discovery by Behn, Defoe, and
Swift.  Three assessed pieces of writing: two short essays (one of them a
review of secondary literature), and one longer research paper.