ENG 466: Sensibility
Professor L. Cole, Spring 2006
Something remarkable happened during the eighteenth century: Europeans began defining themselves—indeed, began defining all humans—less in terms of the ability to reason and more in terms of the ability to feel. Within natural science, this movement took the form of experiments on the nerves; within philosophy, it manifested in theories of sympathy and benevolence. Literature borrowed on both to develop and promote its own version of the ideal human, the man or the woman of feeling. In this seminar, we will read some of the classics of sensibility literature with the following questions in mind: what social and cultural conditions could have provoked this radical change from defining man as the “rational animal”? what was the role of literature in producing this new human? what are the “politics” of sensibility literature, its implications for members of a gender, sexuality, race, class, or species? Because critics have rarely agreed on how these questions should be answered, this seminar makes no attempt to provide neat solutions to complex historical, cultural, and literary problems. It simply offers students the opportunity to work through them, and thus to enter an important and ongoing conversation.
Required Texts:
In bookstore:
Samuel Richardson, Clarissa
(
Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of
Sara Fielding, David
Simple (
Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey (Penguin)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The New Eloise (
Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling
(
Thomas Paine Rights of
Man (
Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary, Maria or The Wrongs of Woman.)
William Godwin, Fleetwood: The New Man of Feeling
Online texts: Most of
these are available simply by googling the title. If
that doesn’t work, you can locate them in LION.
Thomas Otway,
Alexander Pope, “Eloise to Abelard”
Oliver Goldsmith, “The Deserted Village”
Hannah More, “Sensibility”
Helen Maria Williams, “To Sensibility”
Anna Letitia Barbauld, “An Inquiry Into Those Kinds of Distress Which Excite Agreeable Sensations,” “The Mouse’s Petition”
Instructor’s Packet:
These will either be distributed in class or will be available for purchase in
the Department of English.
Excerpts from Shaftesbury, Addison, and Cheyne
R.S. Crane, “Studies Toward a Genealogy of ‘The Man of Feeling’” (1934)
Northrop Frye, “Towards Defining An Age of Sensibility” (1956)
G.S. Rousseau, “Nerves, Spirits, and Fibers: Towards Defining the Origins of Sensibility” (1976)
Robert Markley, "Sentimentality as Performance: Shaftesbury, Sterne, and the Theatrics of Virtue" (1987)
Chris Jones, “Radical Sensibility in the 1790s” (1993)
Texts for Research Project:
Students will choose one of these, depending on their research projects. All are available in the bookstore.
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
Animals Rights: A Historical Anthology.
Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of…Equiano.
Course Goals:
The student successfully completing this course will be able to demonstrate:
--The ability to summarize different critical approaches to the writing known as “sensibility”
--The ability to use this critical material to interpret works from the period
--The ability to use both the internet and the USM library to locate sources and to conduct research
--The ability to summarize, and report on a critical article
--The ability to write a research paper on some aspect of the period, using correct citation and consistent bibliographical format
Grading: All of the above skills are required to pass this course. Students who demonstrate a better-than-average ability to execute them will receive a B. Students whose papers are decidedly more informed and accomplished than those of the majority of their classmates will receive an A.
A note on plagiarism: The emergence of internet sites devoted to
literary analysis has brought with it the rise of plagiarism in college
courses. Critical articles and analyses are intended as a source of
information, not as a substitute for your own thinking and writing. If you
experience difficulty in focusing or writing your research paper please contact
me for help; do not be tempted to take some other writer’s words or ideas and
try to pass them off as your own. Plagiarism is an offense that, at best, will
result in your failing this course; at worst, it could result in your expulsion
from the university.
Course Requirements
and Policies:
Essays: Your grade will be based mostly upon three criteria: a short essay in section one of the course (20%); an oral report delivered later in the semester (20%); and a research paper (50%). The remaining 10% is a “participation” grade, where attendance, in-class writing, and discussion are taken into account.
Short Essay: This
4-6 page paper is designed to give you practice in using one or more
traditional approaches to sensibility to interpret Otway’s
Oral Report: This is a 15-minute report on a book chapter or critical article related to Clarissa or The New Eloise. One may find suggestions on the Dictionary of Sensibility website, under the category “Critical Sources.” It is also possible to find an article by searching the MLA database. Students should locate and publicly identify their article by February 16. Reports should be accompanied by an outline; complete bibliographical information; and a list of questions that the article raised for you.
Research paper: This 10-12 page paper is on a topic you devise within one of the following general rubrics: sensibility and gender or sexuality; sensibility and race; sensibility and animals. Depending on which of these general categories you choose, you will be expected to read one of the texts listed under “Texts for Research Project” and available in the bookstore. Most of the primary and secondary material, however, will be the product of your own research efforts. I will be working closely with you to develop your topic.
In-class and impromptu writing assignments: On the theory that students should receive frequent feedback, you will sometimes be asked to write short responses which will then serve as the basis of classroom discussion. Such papers will be checked rather than graded.
Late papers: This class is organized so as to minimize the possibility of late papers. Papers will be marked down half a letter grade for every day they are overdue. Papers postmarked on the due date will not be penalized. Nor will papers emailed to me before class begins. I will need a hard copy of that paper, however, to grade. You may drop the finished essay by 311 Luther Bonney.
Attendance, Withdrawal, Incompletes: Students are expected to attend every class meeting. Should you find your absence is unavoidable, please contact a classmate—not your professor—for notes and any handouts or syllabi changes. No student missing more than five classes may pass this course. Also, please note the university policy regarding withdrawals. I cannot issue you a withdrawal after the posted date. Finally, except under the most unusual, unavoidable, and well-documented of circumstances, I no longer gives “Incompletes.” Please take this into account as you are planning your semester.
Office Hours and Contact Information: I will announce my office hours after the first week of class, and hope to meet with each of you at least once during the semester. My office phone number is 780-4093, but I am more easily reached through email. My email address is lcole@maine.rr.com.
Working Syllabus
Please note that the syllabus is subject to change.
The “Origins” of
Sensibility
In this section of the course, we shall consider several historical/critical accounts of the emergence of “a language of feeling” in the eighteenth century, reading those against literary texts from different points in the period. Then students will be asked to write a paper considering to what extent Venice Preserved, a much earlier drama by Thomas Otway, conforms to one or more of the critical accounts.
January
Tuesday 17 Introduction and film, Sense and Sensibility
Thursday 19 Sense and Sensibility, cont.; review online site A Dictionary of Sensibility (http://www.engl.virginia.edu/enec981/dictionary/intro.html); read Barbauld’s “An Inquiry Into Those Kinds of Distress Which Excite Agreeable Sensations”) (http://www.orgs.muohio.edu/womenpoets/barbauld/inquiry.html); read excerpts from Shaftesbury, Addison, and Cheyne (instructor’s packet)
Tuesday 24 Fielding, David Simple (1753)
Thursday 26 Fielding, David Simple
Tuesday 31 R.S. Crane, “Studies Toward a Genealogy of ‘The Man of Feeling’” (1934); Northrop Frye, “Towards Defining An Age of Sensibility” (1956) (instructor’s packet)
February
Thursday 2 Sterne, A Sentimental Journey (1768)
Tuesday 7 Sterne, A Sentimental Journey; Rousseau, “Nerves, Spirits, and Fibers: Towards Defining the Origins of Sensibility” (1976) (instructor’s packet)
Thursday 9 Sterne, A Sentimental Journey; Markley, "Sentimentality as Performance:
Shaftesbury, Sterne, and
the Theatrics of Virtue." (1987)
Tuesday 14 Otway, Venice Preserved (1682) (online, LION)
Thursday 16 Otway,
Sign up for oral reports.
Tuesday 21 Winter Break
Thursday 23 Winter Break
Icons of Sensibility:
Richardson and Rousseau
This section of the
course focuses upon two of the writers most often credited, for better or
worse, with promoting sensibility in eighteenth-century
Tuesday 28 Short Essay Due; Instructor’s report on Steintrager’s Unnatural Cruelty
March
Thursday 2 Clarissa and individual reports
Tuesday 7 Clarissa and individual reports
Thursday 9 Clarissa and individual reports
Tuesday 14 Clarissa and individual report; Pope, “Eloise to Abelard” (online)
Thursday 16 The New Heloise and individual reports
Tuesday 21 The New Heloise and individual reports
Thursday 23 The New Heloise and individual reports
Tuesday 28 Spring Break (independent research)
Thursday 30 Spring Break (independent research)
April
Excesses of
Sensibility and Anti-Sentimentalism
This final section of the course focuses on historical change, as eighteenth-century writing of sensibility meshed with radical politics of the 1790s. We will explore what happened to the language of feeling under the force of the French and American Revolutions and the rhetoric that accompanied them. Students should be conducting independent research on for their research papers, and should make an appointment to meet with me after defining a topic and conducting some preliminary research.
Tuesday 4 Film, The History of Britain; Goldsmith, “The Deserted Village” (online)
Thursday 6 Goldsmith,
The Vicar of
Tuesday 11 Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling
Thursday 13 More, “Sensibility”; Helen Maria Williams, “To Sensibility” (online)
Tuesday 18 Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man
Thursday 20 Jones, “Radical Sensibility in the 1790s” (instructor’s packet); Barbauld, “The Mouse’s Petition” (online)
Tuesday 25 Wollstonecraft, Mary: A Fiction
Thursday 27 Wollstonecraft,
Maria: or, The
Wrongs of Woman
May
Tuesday 2 Godwin, Fleetwood; or the New Man of Feeling
Thursday 4 Godwin, Fleetwood; or, the New Man of Feeling
Research paper due date TBA