Wharram, C

English

Eastern Illinois University

Eastern Illinois UniversityThe KeepFall 2010 2010Fall 8-15-2010ENG 3805-001: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century LiteratureC WharramEastern Illinois UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/english_syllabi_fall2010Part of the English Language and Literature CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the 2010 at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fall 2010 by an authorizedadministrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact tabruns@eiu.edu.Recommended CitationWharram, C, "ENG 3805-001: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature" (2010). Fall 2010. 115.http://thekeep.eiu.edu/english_syllabi_fall2010/115ENG 3805-001: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature Dramatic Change: Theatrical Transformations and the Aesthetics of Spectatorship in the Age of Reason Fall 2010 I MWF 13:00-13:50 I Coleman Hall 3170 Professor: Wharram Email: ccwharram@eiu.edu Office: 3010 Coleman, 217-581-6318 Office Hours: MW 10:00-12:00, and by app't Mailbox: 3155 Coleman The period between the Restoration of the British monarchy in 1660 and the end of the eighteenth century was marked by profound social, political, and, of course, literary transformations. We will attempt to make sense of these dramatic changes by focusing on concept of spectatorship over the course of this period. Look at the two images, below. On the left, the Royal Theatre on Drury Lane in London was designed by the famous architect Christopher Wren, and housed performances of heroic dramas, comedies of manners, tragedies, and sentimental comedies over the course of 120 years. On the right, Tintern Abbey, a ruined Catholic church, became a popular tourist site in the late eighteenth century, after being described in detail in one of William Gilpin's travelogues and becoming the focus of a poem by William Wordsworth. Royal Theatre, Drury Lane, built 167 4 Tintern Abbey, began in 1128 Notice how similar the two images appear, despite the profound shift in context. The first depicts an urban, populated scene, the second a countryside setting almost devoid of human presence, yet the two pictures strike the eye as remarkably parallel. Both depictions reveal a preoccupation with spectatorship, despite their divergent populations. Yet the second seems almost to be an ironic commentary on the Enlightenment principles of the first. In order to address issues of spectatorship- and its etymological siblings of "spectacle" and "speculation"-we will need to address the concept of "Enlightenment," the concept that filtered so much of the period's efforts. What is Enlightenment? At its most central core, thinkers of the 1 ]1h - and 18th -centuries showed a profound trust in the capacity of human beings to be rational. If humanity followed the basic principles of reason, a better world could and would be created on earth. There were of course differing ideas as to how best to come to grips with reason: some thinkers saw the abstract rules of mathematics as the governing principle, while others thought that sustained observation of the world should guide all scientific development. As a simplified way of understanding these two competing theories, historians often call those who stressed the power of reasoning through abstract principles Rationalists (e.g., Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz), while those who stressed the gradual accumulation of data through the senses (scientific observation) Empiricists (i.e., Locke, Berkeley, Hume). William Congreve (d. 1729) points with derision a frontispiece of Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1753) While these developments in the fields of philosophy and science (which at the time were consider basically the same thing) were progressing, there were parallel developments in literature. One of the most profound ways that the written word paralleled philosophical ideas was in way in which many writers deemed it to be their duty to help shape the growing numbers of the literate public. By "shape," I mean that writers wanted to help instruct their readers on how to become productive and thoughtful members of a wider community working towards a better world. Sometimes these works took the form of didacticism, spelling out for readers how they should understand their place in the world, how the universe is governed, and how they should act in order to be "good" subjects (of the nation and/or of God). Sometimes these works, through satire, demonstrated how not to think and act, by demonstrating the irrational, the unproductive, and the overly selfish. Nevertheless-and once again, as a gross generalization-writers of the 1 J1h _ and l 81h -centuries were focused on the principle of improvement, that through reason and/or observation, human beings could discover more and more about the universe, and find better and better means to build societies that improved upon the work of previous generations. The Enlightenment was a period of profound trust in progress, and that, through rational means, the world would become improved through human endeavor. And the basic unit through which progress would manifest itself was through the improvement of the individual. Texts Voltaire (d. 1774) Black, Joseph, ed. Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Congreve, William. The Way of the World and Other Plays. Defoe, Daniel. Journal of the Plague Years. Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. The Sorrows of Young Werther Haywood, Eliza. The Adventures of Eovaai. Lennox, Charlotte. The Female Quixote. Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. Requirements Participation Tests Midterm Exam Final Writing Project and Exam 10% 25% (5% each for 5 Tests) 30% 35% Midterm Exam, October 15 and 22 (30%) The midterm exam will consist of two parts: an in-class section, which must be written on October 22 during our class period (no exceptions) and a take-home section, which must be handed at that time, but had been distributed a week earlier (October 15). The take-home section will require you to analyze passages from our early-semester readings. Final Writing Project and Final Exam (35%) In the first half of the semester, I would like you to select a text from The Broadview Anthology not on our reading list for this semester-preferably a poetic work, but this is negotiable-on which you would consider writing a detailed close reading. You will thoughtfully select a brief section of the larger work-perhaps 10-15 lines of a poem, one or two paragraphs of prose-in order to analyze closely the significance of your chosen passage as it aids in understanding the larger text from which it is taken. You are not required, although I would encourage you, to use secondary research for this project. You will, however, need to do some reading about the writer of the text you choose, and the work from which it is drawn. Presentation of Final Project (0%) I will ask you to present in the final weeks of the course a brief (five-minute), informal presentation of the work you have done in preparing your final project. The presentation is required, but ungraded. Tests (25%, 5% each for five tests) The tests will verify your engagement with the class material through identification and short-answer questions. Class Participation (10%) There will be a number of required, yet ungraded assignments throughout the quarter, constituting a substantial portion your class-participation grade. I will expect you to come to class having read the material, and with questions or comments on the readings. While reading the course material, you should pinpoint specific moments of difficulty, and come to class with questions about them. If you attend class without reading the texts carefully and completely, you will almost certainly fail the two exams, and your class-participation grade will suffer immensely. TESTS AND EXAMS: You cannot make up a test or exam after the class period in which it is administered. **ALL ASSIGNMENTS AND EXAMS MUST BE COMPLETED TO PASS THE COURSE** Academic honesty: Students are responsible for knowing Eastern Illinois University regulations and policies regarding academic honesty. Plagiarism will likely result in your failing the course and in further action by the university. Here is the English Department's statement on plagiarism: Any teacher who discovers an act of plagiarism - "The appropriation or imitation of the language, ideas, and/or thoughts of another author, and representation of them as one's own original work" (Random House Dictionary of the English Language) - has the right and the responsibility to impose upon the guilty student an appropriate penalty, up to and including immediate assignments, of a grade of F for the assigned essay and a grade of F for the course, and to report the incident to the Judicial Affairs Office. ,• Paper Policies Papers-and all other assignments-are due at the beginning of class. Late papers will not be commented upon, and be marked a half grade lower for every class period late. Essays turned in a week past the deadline will be given a "zero," but must nevertheless be submitted in order to pass the course. Your paper should be stapled and include page numbers. Format: 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins. Absence Policy When you are absent-especially when you are frequently absent-two things happen. First, your participation grade drops substantially. Second, you naturally fall behind in understanding course material and neither the class nor the Professor can catch you up on everything missed in a day's class. YOU need to decide when it is absolutely necessary to miss class. Be wise. It bears repeating: you cannot make up missed work and late assignments will be penalized. Whether these are excused or unexcused absences does not matter for this course. Being late for class will be counted as an absence. Emailing Policy I want to get to know you and your work this semester. Thus I ask that you call me or stop by my office during office hours (or scheduled times) so that we can talk. DO NOT EMAIL ME TO ASK FOR AN "UPDATE" ON MISSED ASSIGNMENTS, OR TO EXPLAIN AN ABSENCE. You should exchange telephone numbers and email addresses with other students in the class so that you can contact someone for notes, handouts, and/or other missed messages. Wharram I English 3806-001: Schedule of Classes-subject to revision BA = Broadview Anthology of British Literature For each class period, you need to have carefully read and be prepared to discuss the assigned selections in their entirety. WEEK ONE M 8/23 INTRODUCTION A brief history of the period W 8/25 William Wordsworth, "Lines Left upon a Seat in a Yew Tree" (handout) F 8/27 William Wordsworth, "Lines Left upon a Seat in a Yew Tree" (handout) William Congreve, The Way of the World, Act I WEEK TWO M 8/30 William Congreve, The Way of the World, Act II W 9/1 (Test #1) William Congreve, The Way of the World, Acts Ill, IV F 9/3 William Congreve, The Way of the World, Act V Friday 9/3-Deadline to drop course without a grade 

ENG 3805-001: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature

The Keep

Eastern Illinois University
The Keep
Fall 2010 2010
Fall 8-15-2010
ENG 3805-001: Restoration and Eighteenth-
Century Literature
C Wharram
Eastern Illinois University
Follow this and additional works at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/english_syllabi_fall2010
Part of the English Language and Literature Commons
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the 2010 at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fall 2010 by an authorized
administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact tabruns@eiu.edu.
Recommended Citation
Wharram, C, "ENG 3805-001: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature" (2010). Fall 2010. 115.
http://thekeep.eiu.edu/english_syllabi_fall2010/115
ENG 3805-001: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature 
Dramatic Change: Theatrical Transformations and the Aesthetics of 
Spectatorship in the Age of Reason 
Fall 2010 I MWF 13:00-13:50 I Coleman Hall 3170 
Professor: Wharram 
Email: ccwharram@eiu.edu 
Office: 3010 Coleman, 217-581-6318 
Office Hours: MW 10:00-12:00, and by app't 
Mailbox: 3155 Coleman 
The period between the Restoration of the British monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 
eighteenth century was marked by profound social, political, and, of course, literary 
transformations. We will attempt to make sense of these dramatic changes by focusing 
on concept of spectatorship over the course of this period. 
Look at the two images, below. On the left, the Royal Theatre on Drury Lane in London 
was designed by the famous architect Christopher Wren, and housed performances of 
heroic dramas, comedies of manners, tragedies, and sentimental comedies over the course 
of 120 years. On the right, Tintern Abbey, a ruined Catholic church, became a popular 
tourist site in the late eighteenth century, after being described in detail in one of William 
Gilpin's travelogues and becoming the focus of a poem by William Wordsworth. 
Royal Theatre, Drury Lane, built 167 4 
Tintern Abbey, began in 1128 
Notice how similar the two images appear, despite the profound shift in context. The 
first depicts an urban, populated scene, the second a countryside setting almost devoid of 
human presence, yet the two pictures strike the eye as remarkably parallel. Both 
depictions reveal a preoccupation with spectatorship, despite their divergent populations. 
Yet the second seems almost to be an ironic commentary on the Enlightenment principles 
of the first. In order to address issues of spectatorship- and its etymological siblings of 
"spectacle" and "speculation"-we will need to address the concept of "Enlightenment," 
the concept that filtered so much of the period's efforts. 
What is Enlightenment? 
At its most central core, thinkers of the 1 ]1h - and 18th -centuries showed a profound trust 
in the capacity of human beings to be rational. If humanity followed the basic principles 
of reason, a better world could and would be created on earth. There were of course 
differing ideas as to how best to come to grips with reason: some thinkers saw the 
abstract rules of mathematics as the governing principle, while others thought that 
sustained observation of the world should guide all scientific development. As a 
simplified way of understanding these two competing theories, historians often call those 
who stressed the power of reasoning through abstract principles Rationalists (e.g., 
Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz), while those who stressed the gradual accumulation of 
data through the senses (scientific observation) Empiricists (i.e., Locke, Berkeley, 
Hume). 
William Congreve (d. 1729) points with derision a frontispiece of Thomas Gray's Elegy 
Written in a Country Churchyard (1753) 
While these developments in the fields of philosophy and science (which at the time were 
consider basically the same thing) were progressing, there were parallel developments in 
literature. One of the most profound ways that the written word paralleled philosophical 
ideas was in way in which many writers deemed it to be their duty to help shape the 
growing numbers of the literate public. By "shape," I mean that writers wanted to help 
instruct their readers on how to become productive and thoughtful members of a wider 
community working towards a better world. Sometimes these works took the form of 
didacticism, spelling out for readers how they should understand their place in the world, 
how the universe is governed, and how they should act in order to be "good" subjects (of 
the nation and/or of God). Sometimes these works, through satire, demonstrated how not 
to think and act, by demonstrating the irrational, the 
unproductive, and the overly selfish. Nevertheless-
and once again, as a gross generalization-writers of 
the 1 J1h _ and l 81h -centuries were focused on the 
principle of improvement, that through reason and/or 
observation, human beings could discover more and 
more about the universe, and find better and better 
means to build societies that improved upon the work 
of previous generations. 
The Enlightenment was a period of profound trust in 
progress, and that, through rational means, the world 
would become improved through human endeavor. 
And the basic unit through which progress would 
manifest itself was through the improvement of the 
individual. 
Texts 
Voltaire (d. 1774) 
Black, Joseph, ed. Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Restoration and the 
Eighteenth Century. 
Congreve, William. The Way of the World and Other Plays. 
Defoe, Daniel. Journal of the Plague Years. 
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. 
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. The Sorrows of Young Werther 
Haywood, Eliza. The Adventures of Eovaai. 
Lennox, Charlotte. The Female Quixote. 
Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. 
Requirements 
Participation 
Tests 
Midterm Exam 
Final Writing Project and Exam 
10% 
25% (5% each for 5 Tests) 
30% 
35% 
Midterm Exam, October 15 and 22 (30%) 
The midterm exam will consist of two parts: an in-class 
section, which must be written on October 22 during our 
class period (no exceptions) and a take-home section, which 
must be handed at that time, but had been distributed a 
week earlier (October 15). The take-home section will 
require you to analyze passages from our early-semester 
readings. 
Final Writing Project and Final Exam (35%) 
In the first half of the semester, I would like you to select a 
text from The Broadview Anthology not on our reading list 
for this semester-preferably a poetic work, but this is 
negotiable-on which you would consider writing a detailed close reading. You will 
thoughtfully select a brief section of the larger work-perhaps 10-15 lines of a poem, 
one or two paragraphs of prose-in order to analyze closely the significance of your 
chosen passage as it aids in understanding the larger text from which it is taken. 
You are not required, although I would encourage you, to use secondary research for 
this project. You will, however, need to do some reading about the writer of the text 
you choose, and the work from which it is drawn. 
Presentation of Final Project (0%) 
I will ask you to present in the final weeks of the course a brief (five-minute), informal 
presentation of the work you have done in preparing your final project. The 
presentation is required, but ungraded. 
Tests (25%, 5% each for five tests) 
The tests will verify your engagement with the class material through identification 
and short-answer questions. 
Class Participation (10%) 
There will be a number of required, yet ungraded assignments throughout the 
quarter, constituting a substantial portion your class-participation grade. I will expect 
you to come to class having read the material, and with questions or comments on 
the readings. While reading the course material, you should pinpoint specific 
moments of difficulty, and come to class with questions about them. If you attend 
class without reading the texts carefully and completely, you will almost certainly fail 
the two exams, and your class-participation grade will suffer immensely. 
TESTS AND EXAMS: You cannot make up a test or exam after the class period in 
which it is administered. 
**ALL ASSIGNMENTS AND EXAMS MUST BE COMPLETED TO PASS THE COURSE** 
Academic honesty: Students are responsible for 
knowing Eastern Illinois University regulations and 
policies regarding academic honesty. Plagiarism will 
likely result in your failing the course and in further action 
by the university. Here is the English Department's 
statement on plagiarism: 
Any teacher who discovers an act of plagiarism - "The 
appropriation or imitation of the language, ideas, and/or 
thoughts of another author, and representation of them 
as one's own original work" (Random House Dictionary 
of the English Language) - has the right and the 
responsibility to impose upon the guilty student an 
appropriate penalty, up to and including immediate 
assignments, of a grade of F for the assigned essay and 
a grade of F for the course, and to report the incident to 
the Judicial Affairs Office. 
,• 
Paper Policies 
Papers-and all other assignments-are due at the beginning of class. Late papers will not 
be commented upon, and be marked a half grade lower for every class period late. 
Essays turned in a week past the deadline will be given a "zero," but must nevertheless be 
submitted in order to pass the course. 
Your paper should be stapled and include page numbers. Format: 12-point Times New 
Roman font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins. 
Absence Policy 
When you are absent-especially when you are frequently absent-two things happen. 
First, your participation grade drops substantially. Second, you naturally fall behind in 
understanding course material and neither the class nor the Professor can catch you up on 
everything missed in a day's class. YOU need to decide when it is absolutely necessary to 
miss class. Be wise. It bears repeating: you cannot make up missed work and late 
assignments will be penalized. Whether these are excused or unexcused absences does not 
matter for this course. Being late for class will be counted as an absence. 
Emailing Policy 
I want to get to know you and your work this semester. Thus I ask that you call me or stop by 
my office during office hours (or scheduled times) so that we can talk. DO NOT EMAIL ME 
TO ASK FOR AN "UPDATE" ON MISSED ASSIGNMENTS, OR TO EXPLAIN AN 
ABSENCE. You should exchange telephone numbers and email addresses with other 
students in the class so that you can contact someone for notes, handouts, and/or other 
missed messages. 
Wharram I English 3806-001: Schedule of Classes-subject to revision 
BA = Broadview Anthology of British Literature 
For each class period, you need to have carefully read and be prepared to discuss the 
assigned selections in their entirety. 
WEEK ONE 
M 8/23 INTRODUCTION 
A brief history of the period 
W 8/25 William Wordsworth, "Lines Left upon a Seat in a Yew Tree" (handout) 
F 8/27 William Wordsworth, "Lines Left upon a Seat in a Yew Tree" (handout) 
William Congreve, The Way of the World, Act I 
WEEK TWO 
M 8/30 William Congreve, The Way of the World, Act II 
W 9/1 (Test #1) 
William Congreve, The Way of the World, Acts Ill, IV 
F 9/3 William Congreve, The Way of the World, Act V 
Friday 9/3-Deadline to drop course without a grade 


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