ENG 115b Jennifer ReedTu/Thu jenniferreed@brandeis.edu

Rabb 266 x6-2160

Going Public: Women Authors Before Austen

The course is concerned with questions of what was at stake for women to enter the public sphere in the eighteenth century – specifically, to publish. While women have always written, in the eighteenth century, we find the first large body of published imaginative writing by women in English. Since eighteenth-century notions of modesty required women to be reticent or even silent, for a woman to publish was to define herself as immodest. The very act of publication jeopardized how a piece of writing by a woman was received, because publishing anything undermined a woman’s moral authority. We'll engage with questions of what love and marriage, sex and consent, class and money, slavery and freedom, meant to these female authors, and how their society received and evaluated them. We’re going to be asking questions about what it means for women to join an economic marketplace in addition to a marriage marketplace and what it means for women to be public.

We’ll read novels, drama, poetry and autobiography among other genres in order to think about questions such as: What was at stake for women to publish their writing? What role were women readers allocated by the literary and cultural productions of the period? We’ll read a wide range of voices, including Mary Prince, the first African woman to

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publish her memoirs of slavery, Mary Leapor, the laboring-class poet, and Anne Lister, whose diaries have been described as ‘the Dead Sea Scrolls of lesbian history.’

Learning goals for this course:

Close read and analyze traditional literary forms (novels, poems, plays, etc) as well as diary and memoir.

Gain familiarity with female authors and texts of the long eighteenth century, the cultural movements by which they were influenced, and how they influenced the culture (and one another).

Consider what publishing and public-ness meant for and to these women. Think through the kinds of constraints placed on female authors and how those

constraints continue to resonate culturally Produce clear and critical oral and written analyses of a variety of texts.

Required Texts:

All texts are available at the Brandeis Bookstore. If you choose to purchase your books elsewhere, make sure to buy the correct edition below:

Aphra Behn, The Rover and Other Plays ISBN 978-0199540204

Eliza Haywood, Love in a Maze ISBN 978-1551115245

Frances Burney, Evelina ISBN 978-0199536931

Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria: or, the Wrongs of Woman ISBN 978-0199538904

Mary Prince, History of Mary Prince ISBN 978-0140437492

Melinda Finberg, Eighteenth-Century Women ISBN 978-0199554812Dramatists

All other readings will be available online

Requirements and Evaluation

This class requires three formal papers of varying length and genre, and there will be a final take-home exam.

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In addition to these, you will post informally on our LATTE site; you must post on LATTE at least 8 times over the course of the semester. (You are welcome to post more than 8 times if you find the practice helpful.) I will post suggested topics or questions each week, but you are also free to write on something that interests you, and that you think will provide good fodder for discussion, in the text(s) we are reading for that week. These posts must be 250-300 words long. While your essays will be formal attempts to grapple with the texts and themes of the course, these collab responses will allow you to write more informally. Think of them as opportunities to prepare for class discussion, to test out ideas that you might ultimately develop in your formal papers, and to practice close reading and analysis of literary texts.

Your vocal and prepared participation will be essential. You’ll notice that this priority is reflected in the large percentage of your final grade for the course that’s allocated to participation. This is a seminar, which means that I will not be lecturing at you; instead, we will be exploring the questions posed above as a group. For this class to succeed, you must come prepared. Read your texts with a pen in hand: mark them up and refer to specific passages during discussion. In class, pose questions of your classmates and of me; propose answers to the questions posed by others; listen attentively to your peers. Simply attending class without speaking will earn you no higher than a C for participation. If you have particular concerns about speaking in class, please discuss them with me in office hours.

Grade Breakdown

Paper 1, due Friday February 5th (3 pages/900 words min): 10%

Paper 2, due Monday March 14th (5 pages/1500 words min): 20%

Paper 3, due Friday April 29th (7 pages/2100 words min): 35%

Outside source paper: 10%

Team-teaching assignment: 15%

Participation*: 25%

*NB: Your participation grade includes your shorter writing assignments (including collab posts and in-class writing).

Laptop, Tablet, and Phone Policy

Electronic devices (including laptops and tablets) are not permitted in class. All devices must be silenced and put away during class.

Email Etiquette

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Please observe basic letter-writing etiquette in your correspondence with me and any other instructors. All emails should include both a salutation and a proper farewell with your name.

Citation and the Honor Code

All work in this class must be your own. Plagiarism may result in a failing grade for an assignment, a failing grade for the course, or even dismissal from the University. You must cite all materials that you use in writing a paper. You are responsible for looking up the correct style in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, by Joseph Gibaldi.

Credit Hours

Four-Credit Course with three hours of class-time per week: Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections,preparation for exams, etc.).

Reading Schedule

Thursday, January 11 Introduction to the courseExcerpt from Roy Porter, English Society in the

Eighteenth Century (22-34), (CP)

Tuesday, January 16 James Fordyce, Sermons to Young Women (1766)

Thursday, January 18 **No class (Brandeis Monday)**

Tuesday, January 23 Aphra Behn, The Rover or the Banish’d Cavaliers (1677) (p.1-31, Acts I and II) (CP)

Thursday, January 25 Aphra Behn, The Rover or the Banish’d Cavaliers (1677) (p.32-62, Acts III, IV, and V)

Tuesday, January 30 Mary Astell, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (selections) (1694)

Thursday, February 1 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Selected Letters (Montagu’s life: 1716-18)

**First Paper Due On LATTE By Beginning of Class**

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Tuesday, February 6 Eliza Haywood, Fantomina; Or Love in a Maze (1725)

Thursday, February 8 Selected poetry of Mary Leapor (Leapor’s life: 1722-1746)

Tuesday, February 13 Charlotte Charke (and Fidelis Morgan), The Well-Known Troublemaker: A Narrative of the Life of Charlotte Charke(selections) (1755; 1989)Henry Fielding, “The Female Husband” (handout)

Thursday, February 15 Writing Workshop

Tuesday, February 20 **No class – Midterm Recess**

Thursday, February 22 **No class – Midterm Recess**

Tuesday, February 27 Frances Burney, Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World (1778)

Thursday, March 1 Frances Burney, Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World (1778)

**Second Paper Due On LATTE By Beginning of Class**

Tuesday, March 6 Frances Burney, Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World (1778)

Thursday, March 8 Frances Burney, Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World (1778)

Tuesday, March 13 Frances Burney, Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World (1778)

Thursday, March 15 Selected poetry of Anna Laetitia Barbauld (Barbauld’s life: 1743-1825)

Tuesday, March 20 Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria: or, the Wrongs of Woman (1798)

Thursday, March 22 Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria: or, the Wrongs of Woman (1798)

Tuesday, March 27 Anne Lister, Diaries of Anne Lister (Lister’s life: 1791-1840)

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Thursday, March 29 Anne Lister, Diaries of Anne Lister (Lister’s life: 1791-1840)

Tuesday, April 3 **No class – Passover and Spring Recess**

Thursday, April 5 **No class – Passover and Spring Recess**

Tuesday, April 10 Hannah Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem (1780)

Thursday, April 12 Writing Workshop

Tuesday, April 17 Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, Related by Herself

Thursday, April 19 Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, Related by Herself

Tuesday, April 24 Sue Thomas, ‘Pringle v. Cadell and Wood v. Pringle: The Libel Cases Over the History of Mary Prince’ (2005)

Thursday, April 26 Conclusions

**Third Paper Due on LATTE By Beginning of Class**

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