In the past couple of years, the Middle East and North Africa have experienced a series of revolutionary protests and uprisings aimed at democratizing government. While these movements are notable and inspiring, they are not unprecedented. The late eighteenth century also witnessed a series of revolutions that aimed to democratize government—most notably the American and French Revolutions, but also lesser uprisings in places as distant as the Caribbean and Ireland. In this class, we’ll explore some of the literature that inspired and was inspired by the late eighteenth-century Age of Revolution.
By pairing selections from political treatises including Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man, Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France and Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women, with poetry including Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads, William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, and fiction including Matthew Lewis’s The Monk and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein we will begin to pose some answers to the following questions: What literary genres and techniques did various authors choose to persuade readers of the pros and cons of political revolution? In what ways did literature not simply reflect social change, but participate in various revolutionary movements of the late eighteenth century? How did the spread of democracy affect disempowered groups like women and slaves? How does the literature of the Age of Revolution continue to inform our understanding of democracy today?

In addition to active participation, course requirements will include several short response papers, a longer paper, and a presentation