ENGL 40319 - Virtue, Sex, and the Good Life

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

English

Description:

How should I behave? Do I make my own decisions, or rely on the advice of others? Am I defined by my birth and family, or do I make myself. What exactly is "virtue?" Which matters more, the individual or the community? Can I be virtuous if I'm poor - or rich ? Is it not virtuous to be rich in an expanding economy? Is Virtue possible in a mobile society which values flexibility above stability? Questions such as these are taken up by 18th-century writers of fiction and by philosophers like Shaftesbury and Rousseau. Female virtue supposedly consisted mainly or only in a demonstrable chastity. Women writers of the 18th century demonstrate the degree of artifice in which even "good" women must engage. In Daniel Defoe's Roxana, a wife abandoned by her husband with five children and no income finds that she can market herself, even acquiring great wealth. Should she have starved instead? Roxana plays with various selves on a road to what looks like success. In contrast. Pamela, the beautiful maidservant in the first novel about sexual harassment, tries to resist the advances of her young master. Is she just being conceited, or trying to raise her value? Can "Virtue" ever exist without conceit and self-consciousness? Henry Fielding in Tom Jones, the History of a Foundling, follows the fortunes of a male bastard who both is and is not accepted by his adoptive world. What does Virtue mean to the male life? How many affairs can he have - and with whom? Is prostitution an option for him? What does virtue mean in relation to the male life? Gothic novels and courtship novels, including Austen's Pride and Prejudice, question our desires for both autonomy and social success, for spiritual identity and economic security. Novels and plays repeatedly question how a moral center may be found at a time when social and familial boundaries, sexual manners and permitted behaviors are all changing. Throughout he period, a variety of narrative modes and the development of new styles alert readers to the range of possibilities and varieties of moral reasoning.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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