ENGL 20315 - Virgins and Vixens of Enlightenment England

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

English

Description:

The course will look at various 'virgins' and 'vixens' of Enlightenment England (the 'long' eighteenth century of 1660-1800) as a means of studying how 'woman' was constructed and why she was represented in certain ways during an important period of British history. Literary representations of women argued for certain views of how the individual, society, and the nation should be and interrelate, thus narratives by and about women tell stories with historical, social, and political implications. In class we will look at some of the constructions of women and 'woman' that real women had to navigate in order to function in society and in private; for instance, by what methods can integrity and individual dignity survive when chastity is commodified, marriage is an economic transaction, and financial and professional independence for women is almost impossible? Our aim will be to study and critically evaluate the binary opposition between 'virgins' and 'vixens' so that the complexity of the terrain women had to engage intellectual, spiritual, social, political, personal will be addressed alongside the wider ramifications of how women were represented by writers such as Mary Astell, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Richardson, Samuel Johnson, and Mary Wollstonecraft.

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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