Second Week of Class

By now I know that I have definitely lucked-out with my course.

Literature and the Arts in Restoration and Early Eighteenth Century England
This course will set the major literary achievements of Restoration and Augustan England in the wider contexts of politics, religion, and the other arts that flourished after the return of monarchy in 1660. We will consider major published poets and dramatists, as well as manuscript culture, diaries, and the emergent periodical essay. An emphasis will be placed on parallel features and influences in architecture, garden design, urban development, painting, and music, taking advantage (through field trips, for which students should allow a small budget of up to £100 for travel) of the architectural, landscape, and fine art legacies in Oxford and London.

Texts
* John Milton, Paradise Lost (either Oxford World's Classics or Penguin)
* Restoration Literature: An Anthology, ed. Paul Hammond (Oxford World's Classics)
* Eighteenth-Century Poetry, An Annotated Anthology, ed. David Fairer and Christine Gerrard.
* Restoration Drama, An Anthology, ed. David Womersley. Plays include: Sir George Etherege, The Man of Mode; Nathaniel Lee, Lucius Junius Brutus; Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv'd.

The course is taught by the director of Bread Loaf in Oxford, professor Peter McCullough, and the class consists of two other women interested as much as I in the coursework. Our classes are detailed discussions of the work we have read, technical analysis of the texts and commentaries on the points that caught our eye. Although we have extensive reading, the authors of eighteenth century England (Milton, Pope, Addison, etc.) are so interesting we can’t get enough information about their lives. Their works are so packed with indirect comment on the events of their time that two hours of class is barely enough time to grasp the extent of their genius.

Although the reading is challenging, I've had time to get lost in the streets of Oxford and eventually find my way back to class!