MEDS 350 - Studies in 18th Century British Literature

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as ENGL 350 ) Topic for 2019/20b: Origins of the Periodical Essay. Although periodical publications got started in Europe shortly after the invention of printing, there was in England such a vast increase in their numbers and importance during the British Civil Wars (1642-60) that it’s reasonable to think of that period as giving rise to periodical writing in its modern form. In the later seventeenth century periodical publications became important vehicles for a new kind of writing aptly called the periodical essay. Among the most important eighteenth-century practitioners of this form were John Dunton, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Eliza Haywood, Samuel Johnson, and Oliver Goldsmith. This course will examine the periodical writing of these authors in the context of the newspapers and journals for which they wrote: The Athenian Oracle; The Review; The Tatler; The Spectator; The Female Spectator; The Gentleman’s Magazine; The Rambler; and The Bee, among other. There will be several meetings of the class in Special Collections, and students will be expected to write on an early journal or periodical writer, making use of the original publications. Robert DeMaria

One 2-hr meeting

Course Format: CLS