Dr Yih-Dau Wu
ydw20@nccu.edu.tw
Office: Research Building 919
Telephone: (02)2939-3091#88181
English literature:
1600-1800
Course objectives
This course seeks to equip students with a well-rounded knowledge of the development of
English literature in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Students will learn contemporary
social, cultural and historical contexts that nourished and stimulated literary production. They
will also read a wide range of texts, covering poetry, prose (fiction) and drama. Examining
how these important texts explicitly or implicitly respond to the historical moments in which
they were produced, students will be able to appreciate the transformative and affective
power of words.
Course description
At the centre of this course lies a concern with the interplay between literary form and
historical transformations in seventeenth and eighteenth-century England. We will ask the
following questions: to what extent does a literary work serve political or ethical purposes?
What is the relationship between literary imagination and social concerns? In what ways can
words express and embody powerful feelings? Central issues that may complicate these
questions include freedom, authority, memory, travel, gender and class.
Evaluation:
Attendance and in-class discussion: 10%
Mid-term exam: 45% Final exam: 45%
Schedule:
Week 1 (23th Feb.)
Week 2 (1st March.)
Introduction
Seventeenth-century poetry (I)
Week 3 (8th March)
Seventeenth-century poetry (II)
Week 4 (15th March)
John Milton
Week 5 (22th March)
John Milton
Week 6 (29th March) Dr. Mei-Ying Sung (Fo Guang University) will give a talk
1
Week 7 ( 5th April)
National holiday
Week 8 (12th April)
Week 10 (26th April)
17th-century drama:
William Congreve’s The Way of the World
17th-century prose fiction:
Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko
Mid-term exam
Week 11
(3rd May)
Week 12
(10th May)
18th-century poetry:
Alexander Pope
18th-century poetry:
Stephen Duck and Mary Leapor
Week 13
(17th May)
18th-century poetry:
Oliver Goldsmith
Week 14
(24th May)
Week 15
(31th May)
18th-century prose fiction:
The Gothic
18th-century prose fiction:
The Gothic
Week 16
(7th June)
Week 17
(14th June)
Week 18
(21th June)
18th-century prose fiction:
Novels of sensibility
18th-century prose fiction:
Novels of sensibility
Final exam
Week 9 (19th April)
2