CWL 257

Spring 2020 Part of Term 1

Part of Term 1
Jan 21-May 6

Enlightenment Literature and Culture

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Credit: 3 hours.

Same as ENGL 206. See ENGL 206.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2022 for:

Humanities – Lit & Arts

Cultural Studies - Western

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CWL 257 class schedule data for spring 2020
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	31986	Lecture-Discussion	P	11:00AM -12:15PM	TR	119 English Building	Cole, M	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/21/20-05/06/20 Degree Notes: Humanities - Lit & Arts, and Cultural Studies - Western course. Section Info: There is certainly no moment in history when the world suddenly ceased to be old and became new or modern. But Europe in the long eighteenth century, during the period known as “the Enlightenment,” witnessed unprecedented social, economic, and political changes that collectively produced a giant leap towards the world we inhabit today. It was an age of revolution and newfound faith in the rights of the individual, though these rights were by no means extended to all. It was an age of reason, of tremendous advances in science and technology, though reason was by no means the only altar at which so-called enlightened men and women worshipped: God and sentiment remained powerful forces in eighteenth-century European life. This course offers an introduction to Enlightenment literature and culture by focusing on a select group of highly influential literary and non-literary works of the period, primarily from Britain but also from Continental Europe and the United States. Our readings are divided into four parts. After an overview of the Enlightenment spirit in Part I, we will consider such key concerns of eighteenth-century letters as property, race, and empire (Part II), virtue (Part III), and knowledge/education (Part IV). The individualistic mindset or ethos characteristic of the period was developed in the context of these concerns and it put considerable pressure on traditional conceptions of duty and status, including the idea that individuals were placed by God on earth in a hierarchical and fixed chain of being. As our precursor culture, the Enlightenment continues to speak to us today, and our aim in this course is not only to understand its core values but also to link them to our own.