ENGL 21039. THINKING AND FEELING LIKE AND EMPIRE (18TH CENTURY LITERATURE AND CULTURE) This course investigates the intertwined roles of reason and sentimentality in literature of the British Empire in the eighteenth century. Alongside the rise of the bourgeoisie and the expansion of the empire in this period, the ideas of reason and sentimentality gave Britons a language for imagining new relationships to each other as citizens and to the world. How did literature help in this process? How did new forms of writing like the novel and print culture encourage readers to think about imperial and colonized peoples? Did new theories of reason and sentimentality justify slavery, colonialism, and capitalism or provide a means for critiquing these developments? What insights can these questions provide into our thinking about our current and deeply-related historical moment and locale? Texts will include novels, plays, periodicals, and poetry, from writers working around the world including Aphra Behn, Phyllis Wheat
- Teacher: Allison Cardon