Course details

Name: ENGL - 455

Title: RESTORATION AND 18TH CENTURY DRAMA

Section: 01

Semester: Summer - 2014

Credits: 3

Description:
First off: all texts for this course are available online (mostly through Google Books: that's the benefit of studying literature before copyright restrictions.) This course focuses on another spectacular part of the 18th century, its dramas, which include intrigues, sensuality, and a fight or two. This is the age of the libertine. The Restoration of Charles II in 1660 to the throne of what soon became Great Britain overthrew Puritanical laws, allowing for the reopening of the theaters, where women finally worked as actresses. The 18th century globally includes a time of technological change, nearly constant war, and Enlightened discourse that challenged traditions, culminating in the American and French Revolutions. In response to such turbulence, the plays of this period reflect (and sometimes and in some ways critique) a public sphere that increasingly identified with pleasure and leisure. The first unit explores Restoration drama through Aphra Behn's play, The Rover, Wycherly's The Country Wife, &/or Otway's Venice Preserv'd. The second unit covers hits of the 18th-century stage such as: She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith; A Bold Stroke for a Wife, by Susannah Centlivre; &/or John Gay's Beggar's Opera. The final unit covers bourgeois drama, such as George Lillo's The London Merchant, & Lessing's Emilia Galotti. Students will leave this course with a better appreciation for the ways in which drama represents audiences' and dramatists' pursuit of happiness before 1800. This fully online, 6-week course will operate asynchronously three days per week from 5/27 through 7/3, meaning that students can work at their own pace (according to some weekly guidelines).

Last updated on 2014-02-18 By Nielsen Wendy (nielsenw)

Schedule: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday From 12:00 am To 12:00 am

Graduation requirements:

  • ()
  • Genre Study (Drama)
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  • Pre-1800 (1b)

Teaching Faculty: Nielsen Wendy (nielsenw)

Is course canceled: No