History 125D. The Enlightenment: A Social, Cultural,
and Intellectual Survey (1689-1815)
CZ / CCI - IAA -
W
Fall
2002
|
Instructor:
William M. Reddy Office: 314 Carr Bldg. Phone: 684-2497 Email: wmr@duke.edu Web page: www.duke.edu/~wmr |
Teaching
assistant: Anastasia Lazakis |
Course web site: https://courses.duke.edu
Description (from Course Synopsis): The
Enlightenment is widely referred to as an "age of reason," in which
Western individualism and the "rights of man" were worked out. Recent
research, however, reveals a very different picture, of a period in which
emotions were at least as important as reason, in which colonial subjects were
often admired rather than denigrated, in which women were often considered to
have superior virture, in which politics became--not a field of rational
deliberation, or egalitarian rebellion--but a kind of melodrama whose heroes
and heroines conquered by sincerity rather than by logic or by force. What was
the real Enlightenment like, and why
did our memory of it become so slanted? These questions will be
addressed using a balance of readings in primary documents and recent
historical writings.
Format, assignments, grading: This
is a writing course. There will be frequent writing assignments, and
opportunities to rewrite. Reading assignments have been reduced to a minimum,
to provide additional time for composition. (Readings average 70 pages per
week.)
This has been accomplished by splitting the reading
assignments into two groups. There will be two groups of students, Group A and
Group B; each will read one group of readings. Each will write brief reports on
the reading assignments for the other group. A student will be responsible to
compose such a report once every two weeks. They should be of
approximately 2 pages in length (single spaced), and should be posted to the
course web site 24 hours in advance of the relevant class. These reports will
serve as springboards to class discussions.
These written reports will represent 30% of the course
grade.
Participation in class discussions will represent 20%
of the course grade.
In addition, a term paper of approximately 10 pages in
length will represent 30% of the class grade. A rough draft will be due on
Monday, November 11. The final version will be due on Wednesday, December 4.
There will be a short take-home final examination that
will represent 20% of the course grade. It will consist of two essay questions,
each equal in length to the two-page reports composed during the term; the
essay questions will concern larger themes of the course.
READINGS:
LIST OF TITLES AND HOW TO FIND THEM
Books available for purchase (ordered through
Regulator Bookshop, 720 Ninth Street) and also on reserve in Lilly:
Overviews:
Anderson, M.S.S., Europe in the Eighteenth Century: 1713-1789,
4th ed. Longman, 2000 – $26
Gay, Peter, The Enlightenment, an Interpretation,
Vol. 2, The Science of Freedom. Norton, 1969 – $17.95
Shapin, Steven, The Scientific Revolution. Chicago UP – $12
Original documents:
Voltaire, The Portable Voltaire. Viking Penguin -- $9
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, The Social Contract and the Discourses. Everyman
-- $17
Richardson, Samuel, Pamela. Viking Penguin --
$9
Specialized studies
Fried, Michael, Absorption and Theatricality:
Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1980), $16.20
DeJean, Joan, Ancients Against Moderns: Culture Wars and the Making
of a Fin de Siècle (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), $17
Goodman, Dena, The Republic of Letters: A Cultural
History of the French Enlightenment (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University
Press, 1994), $18.95
Maza, Sarah C., Private Lives and Public Affairs:
The Causes Célèbres of Prerevolutionary France (Berkeley, Calif., 1993),
$22.50 (This title also available on
netLibrary.)
Total: $175
Original documents available online, through netLibrary:
Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan (1651)
Locke, John, Concerning Civil Government: Second Essay
(1689)
Locke, John, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
(1690)
Smith, Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes
of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
Hume, David, An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding (1748)
Hume, David, Essays Moral and Political (1762),
listed separately in netLibrary as:
Of Essay Writing
Of the Standard of Taste
Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion
Of Superstition and Enthusiasm
Original document available online, through
Gutenberg Project:
Wollstonecraft, Mary, A Vindication of the Rights
of Woman (1792)
Reading
available online, through JSTOR database:
Jacob, Margaret C., and Janet M. Burke, “French
Freemasonry, Women, and Feminist Scholarship,” Journal of Modern History 68(1996):513-549
(at URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2801%28199609%2968%3A3%3C513%3AFFWAFS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X )
Readings available on reserve in Lilly (or e-reserve):
Tuck, Richard, “The ‘Modern’ Theory of Natural Law,”
in The Languages of Political Theory in Early-Modern Europe, edited by
Anthony Pagden (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 99-122
Darnton, Robert, “The High Enlightenment and the
Low-Life of Literature,” and “A Pamphleteer on the Run,” both in The
Literary Underground of the Old Regime (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1982), 1-41, 71-122
Brewer, John, The Pleasures of the Imagination:
English Culture in the Eighteenth Century (London: Harper Collins, 1997),
56-164
Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, Selections from
the Tatler and the Spectator, edited by Angus Ross (Harmondsworth: Penguin,
1982)
Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of, Characteristics
of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, edited by Lawrence E. Klein (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 163-192
Pratt, Mary Louise, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing
and Transculturation (New York: Routledge, 1992), pp. 1-69, 86-110
Aravamudan, Srinivas, Tropicopolitans: Colonialism
and Agency, 1688-1804 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), pp. 1-25,
289-325
CALENDAR
|
Date |
Topic |
Group A
Readings |
Group B
Readings |
|
|
1.
Preconditions |
|
|
|
Mon., Aug. 26 |
Lecture: Economy and society |
|
|
|
Wed., Aug. 28 |
Lecture: Government and empire |
|
|
|
Fri., Aug 30 |
Discussion |
Anderson, 21-93 |
Anderson,
103-122, 128-131, 231-252, 269-279, 287-293, 294-307 |
|
|
2.
Foundations |
|
|
|
Mon., Sept. 2 |
Lecture: The scientific revolution |
|
|
|
Wed., Sept. 4 |
Lecture: Religion, skepticism, rights |
|
|
|
Fri., Sept. 6 |
Discussion |
Shapin, chs. 1-2,
pp. 15-118 |
Tuck; Hobbes, Pt.
1, chs 1-3, 13-14, Pt. II, chs 17-18 (pp. 9-20, 82-95, 111-122) |
|
|
3. The
(old) Enlightenment |
|
|
|
Mon., Sept. 9 |
Lecture: Nature and human nature |
|
|
|
Wed., Sept. 11 |
Lecture: Society and politics |
|
|
|
Fri., Sept. 13 |
Discussion |
Gay, pp. 167-228,
249-273 |
Gay, pp. 319-368,
396-423 |
|
|
4. The
(old) great thinkers, I |
|
|
|
Mon., Sept. 16 |
Lecture: Emergent individualism |
|
|
|
Wed., Sept. 18 |
Discussion of
Locke |
Locke, Concerning
Civil Gov’t: Second Essay, chs. 2-5, 7; Locke, Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, Bk. I, ch. 1; Bk. II, ch. 1 (pp. 20-33, 64-74) |
|
|
Fri., Sept. 20 |
Discussion of
Montesquieu |
|
Montesquieu, Spirit of Laws, Part I, Book 3, chs. 1-11 (pp. 21-30); Part I, Book 7, ch. 9 (pp. 104-105); Part II, Book 11, chs. 1-7 (pp. 154-167); Part II, Book 12, chs. 1-13 (pp. 187-200); Part III, Book 14, chs. 10-14 (pp. 239-245); Part III, Book 15, chs. 1-8 (pp. 246-253) |
|
Date |
Topic |
Group A
Readings |
Group B
Readings |
|
|
5. The
(old) great thinkers, II |
|
|
|
Mon., Sept. 23 |
Lecture: The diversity of the late Enlightenment |
|
|
|
Wed., Sept. 25 |
Discussion of
Adam Smith |
Smith, Wealth
of Nations, Bk I, chs. 1, 7; Bk. IV, ch. 2 (pp. 5-11, 45-52, 341-343 |
|
|
Fri., Sept. 27 |
Discussion of
Hume |
|
Hume, Enquiry
Concerning Human Understanding |
|
|
6. The
(old) great thinkers, III |
|
|
|
Mon., Sept. 30 |
Discussion of
Voltaire |
Voltaire,
Philosophical Dictionary, Articles on: Ancients and Moderns,
Authority, Intolerance, Liberty, Liberty of the Press, Mohammedans,
Natural Law, Nature, Religion, Superstition, Tolerance (pp. 61-65, 77-78,
134-136, 148-151, 151-155, 163-164, 166-169, 169-172, 187-195, 205-207,
212-215); Letters on the English, pp. 512-24, 530-41 |
|
|
Wed., Oct. 2 |
Discussion of
Rousseau |
|
Rousseau, Discourse
on the Sciences and the Arts, pp. 1-31; Social Contract, Bk. I;
Bk. III, chs. 15-16; Bk. IV, chs. 1, 2, 3, 8 (pp. 181-99, 262-267, 271-278,
295-305 |
|
Fri., Oct. 4 |
Summary
discussion of the old idea of the Enlightenment |
|
|
|
|
7. The real
Enlightenment |
|
|
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Mon., Oct. 7 |
Lecture: The publishing industry |
|
|
|
Wed., Oct. 9 |
Lecture: City life |
|
|
|
Fri., Oct. 11 |
Discussion |
Brewer, The
Pleasures of the Imagination, 56-164 |
Darnton, The
Literary Underground of the Old Regime, 1-40, 71-121 |
|
Date |
Topic |
Group A
Readings |
Group B
Readings |
|
|
8.
Forgotten thinkers |
|
|
|
Mon., Oct. 14 |
----------------- |
FALL BREAK |
---------------- |
|
Wed., Oct. 16 |
Discussion of
Shaftesbury |
Shaftesbury, “An
Inquiry Concerning Virtue or Merit,” Bk. I, Pt. I (pp. 163-192) |
|
|
Fri., Oct. 18 |
Discussion of
Addison |
|
Steele and
Addison, Selections from The Spectator, (1711-1712), Nos. 1,
2, 4, 10 (pp. 196-213); Nos. 106, 108 (pp. 216-221); Nos. 119, 132 (pp.
276-282); No. 454 (pp. 306-310); No. 11 (pp. 463-467); No. 264 (pp.
471-476). |
|
FRIDAY, OCT. 18 |
CHOICE OF TERM
PAPER TOPIC DUE |
|
|
|
|
9.
Forgotten texts |
|
|
|
Mon., Oct. 21 |
Lecture: Voltaire and Adam Smith |
|
|
|
Wed., Oct. 23 |
Discussion of
Diderot |
Diderot, Rameau’s
Nephew, pp. 8-39; Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville,
177-216 |
|
|
Fri., Oct. 25 |
Discussion of
Hume |
|
Hume, Of Essay
Writing, pp. 1-4; Of the Standard of Taste, pp. 1-13; Of
Superstition and Enthusiasm, pp. 1-4; Of the Delicacy of Taste and
Passion, pp. 1-4; |
|
|
10.
Bestsellers, rave reviews |
|
|
|
Mon., Oct. 28 |
Lecture: The rise of the novel |
|
|
|
Wed., Oct. 30 |
Discussion of
Richardson’s Pamela |
Richardson, Pamela,
pp. 31, 43-118, 200-320 |
|
|
Fri., Nov. 1 |
Discussion of
Fried |
|
Fried, Absorption
and Theatricality, chs. 1-2, pp. 7-107 |
|
|
11. Gender,
I |
|
|
|
Mon., Nov. 4 |
Lecture: Gender in the eighteenth century |
|
|
|
Wed., Nov. 6 |
Discussion of
DeJean |
DeJean, Ancients
Against Moderns, chs. 2-3, pp. 31-123 |
|
|
Fri., Nov. 8 |
Discussion of
Goodman |
|
Goodman, The
Republic of Letters, pp. 53-165 |
|
MONDAY, NOV. 11 |
ROUGH DRAFT OF
TERM PAPER DUE |
|
|
|
Date |
Topic |
Group A
Readings |
Group B
Readings |
|
|
12. Gender,
II |
|
|
|
Mon., Nov. 11 |
Lecture: Male identities in the eighteenth century |
|
|
|
Wed., Nov. 13 |
Discussion of
Jacob and Burke |
Jacob and Burke,
“French Freemasonry” |
|
|
Fri., Nov. 15 |
Discussion of
Wollstonecraft |
|
Wollstonecraft, Vindication
of the Rights of Woman, chs 2, 3, 5, and 8 |
|
|
13. Empire |
|
|
|
Mon., Nov. 18 |
Lecture: Trade and sentimentalism |
|
|
|
Wed., Nov. 20 |
Discussion of
Pratt |
|
Pratt, Imperial
Eyes, chs 1-3, 5; pp. 1-69, 86-110 |
|
Fri., Nov. 22 |
Discussion of
Aravamudan |
Aravamudan, Tropicopolitans,
Introduction and ch. 7, pp. 1-25, 289-325 |
|
|
|
14. Toward
Revolution |
|
|
|
Mon., Nov. 25 |
Lecture: The crisis of the Old Regime |
Anderson, 384-402 |
|
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Wed., Nov. 27 |
Review
discussion |
|
|
|
Fri., Nov. 29 |
-------------- |
THANKSGIVING BREAK |
--------------- |
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Mon., Dec. 2 |
Discussion of
Maza |
Maza, Private
Lives and Public Affairs, ch. 1 (pp. 19-67) |
Maza, Private
Lives and Public Affairs, ch. 3 (pp. 112-166) |
|
Wed., Dec. 4 |
Review |
|
|
|
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 4 |
FINAL VERSION OF
TERM PAPER DUE |
|
|