ENGL 527

Fall 2018 All Classes

All Classes

Seminar in 18th C Literature

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Credit: 4 hours.

May be repeated if topics vary. Prerequisite: A college course devoted entirely to an aspect of eighteenth-century studies or consent of instructor.

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ENGL 527 class schedule data for fall 2018
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	46745	Lecture-Discussion	R	1:00PM -2:50PM	R	123 English Building	Nazar, H	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/27/18-12/12/18 Section Info: Topic: “Feminism and Liberalism in the Enlightenment” The question of the relationship between feminism and liberalism remains hotly contested in contemporary critical and social theory. Are feminism and liberalism natural allies or foes? Do they imply subject-centered politics in equal, and equally oppressive, ways? How should we interpret their claims of representativeness? This seminar seeks to put these informing concerns of the contemporary humanities into historical perspective by examining the coterminous development of feminism and liberalism during the Enlightenment. While the words “feminism” and “liberalism” did not come into circulation until the nineteenth century, the conceptual groundwork for both movements was laid in the long eighteenth century. And their conceptual beginnings entailed extensive mutual engagement, through both dissent and agreement. Hence, if Mary Astell’s Reflections upon Marriage (1700) instantiated early feminism (or proto-feminism) as a rejoinder to Locke’s assumption of “natural liberty” in the Two Treatises of Government (1689)— “If all Men are born free, how is it that all Women are born slaves?”—Locke’s own rejoinder to Robert Filmer’s absolutist Patriarcha (1680) required a seemingly feminist revision of the Eve narrative of Genesis. This seminar explores how gender is figured in early liberal writings, especially by John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and how the liberal rhetoric of rights, justice, liberty, and self-government is taken up and revised in the work of feminist theorists such as Mary Astell, Catharine Macaulay, and Mary Wollstonecraft, as well as novelists such as Eliza Haywood, Samuel Richardson, and Sarah Scott. We will conclude by considering the implications for our current understandings of gender and the sexual contract of the Enlightenment’s often contentious, but always intriguing, exchange between early feminists and liberals. The course is designed to be of interest not only to students of eighteenth-century literature and culture but also to anyone interested in gender theory and theories of sovereignty, consent, and representative government. Restriction(s): Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign. Restricted to students in the English department.