Course details

Name: ENGL - 340

Title: ENLIGHTENMENT ERA LITERATURE

Section: 01

Semester: Fall - 2022

Credits: 3

Description:
What attitudes towards progressive justice, equality, tolerance, and humanity have we inherited from the Enlightenment, the European intellectual movement from ca. 1650-1800? Why does the pursuit of perfecting humanity often lead to its opposite, an unenlightened approach to people and the environment? In this asynchronous hybrid course, we will explore these questions through an exploration of American, British, French, and German texts from the age of Enlightenment. In the first unit, we will likely explore the rationale for enlightenment in The Marriage of Figaro, the once-banned French play by Beaumarchais that Mozart adapted into the most popular opera of all time. Other texts teach about the political legacy of the Enlightenment (the American Declaration of Independence, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man), the concept of Enlightenment (Kant, Diderot, Mendelssohn), the Jewish Enlightenment or Haskalah (Lessing, Nathan the Wise), the Counter-Enlightenment (Voltaire’s satirical novel Candide), and possibly the roots of transhumanism (Condorcet and Bacon, The New Atlantis). We will also consider the impact of the Enlightenment on race, the environment, and capitalist culture by reading Daniel Defoe’s iconic novel Robinson Crusoe. Taking the collaborative, experimental mode of Enlightenment projects as an inspiration, this course includes instruction in the public or digital humanities with StoryMaps (https://storymaps.arcgis.com/), software that provides students with experience presenting work online. Students should have access to a computer for this asynchronous hybrid course, which meets in person on Mondays and has a due date for work on Thursdays (but no meeting time).

Last updated on 2022-03-14 By Lykidis Alexios (lykidisa)

Schedule: Monday From 2:15 pm To 3:30 pm

Graduation requirements:

  • Any Literature (1e)
  • Pre-1800 (1b)
  • Pre-1900 (1c)
  • International Issues (3a)
  • Class Issues (3d)

Teaching Faculty: Nielsen Wendy (nielsenw)

Is course canceled: No