The class will also touch on other literary genres such as prose and drama. We will conclude at the mid-century with meditative works by James Thomson and Thomas Gray. We will move next to Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, early eighteenth-century satirists whose distinctive form and language display the wide range of Augustan poetry. Poetry will be the main focus of the class, as we begin with major works by John Dryden, Aphra Behn, and John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, which reflect tenuous post-Revolution political boundaries and transgress the limits of politeness during the Restoration.
Prerequisite: None, though ENGL 311 is recommended.ĭescription: This course will survey developments in English literature from the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660 to the middle of the eighteenth century.