Science, satire, sentiment, and the sublime: With these four terms as cardinal points on our compass, we’ll journey through some of the great works of seventeenth and eighteenth century British literature. Our voyage begins with a visit to Eden, followed by a trip to two utopias, The New Atlantis and The Blazing Worlds. Afterwards we’ll embark on a quixotic adventure with The Knight of the Burning Pestle, join Lemuel Gulliver on his globe-trotting odyssey, then undertake a “sentimental” excursion through Europe and the twisted mind of Laurence Sterne. Next we will enroll in Sheridan’s School for Scandal, then explore The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic spine-chiller, before finally concluding with a look at Jane Austen’s delightful spoof of the genre, Northanger Abbey.

Our readings will provide a springboard to a number of critical talking points: the emergence of modern selfhood, low culture vs. high culture, the regulation of the passions, religious and scientific attitudes towards nature, the travel narrative as a vehicle for cross-cultural analysis. We will grapple with Enlightenment critiques of religion and nationalism, as well as spiritual and aesthetic critiques of Enlightenment. Rather than treat satire and sentiment as mutually exclusive the course investigates the social function of humor in fostering certain beliefs and emotions and discouraging others. But most of all we will savor the comic sensibility of the era, observing the barbed repartee writers fling at their society and at one other. Course website: www.staff.washington.edu/tandrew/engl229.html

Texts:

• Beaumont, Francis. Knight of the Burning Pestle.
• Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels.
• Sterne, Laurence. Sentimental Journey.
• Sheridan, Richard B. School for Scandal.
• Walpole, Horace. Castle of Otranto.
• Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey.

Coursepack @ Ave. Copy