Eckert Women Writers Syllabus 01

7/30/2019 Eckert Women Writers Syllabus 01

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ENG307H1S-L5101: Women Writers, 1660-1800

Instructor: Lindsey EckertEmail: [email protected]: Room 712 at the Jackman Humanities Building, 170 St. George Street

Office Hours: Fridays 9:30-11:30AM (also by appointment)Class Time: Tuesdays 6-9PM, SS Room 1084

Womens writing from 1660-1800 took many different forms, and in this class we will study plays,letters, novels, memoirs, poetry, and prose treatises. One theme we will return to throughout thesemester is adventure. We will apply the term adventurebroadly, and we will work to identify theadventurous aspects of the texts we encounter. Some texts, such as the captivity narratives by MaryRowlandson and Susannah Johnson, deal directly with their authors real adventures. Other morescandalous texts written in the period offered fictive tales of womens adventures in love and sexualexploration, while proto-feminist authors such as Mary Astell and Mary Wollstonecraft argued thatwomen should venture beyond the traditional confines of the home.

While reading the works of these female authorial pioneers, we will ask questions such as:What is the relationship between physical space/movement and (female) agency? In what ways dowomens travel and captivity narratives both transgress and embrace traditional seventeenth- andeighteenth-century ideals of femininity? How and why were womens authorial endeavours equatedwith (illicit) sexual adventures? How do women write about their domestic lives and labour? Arewomens adventures sustainable, or do they end with marriage?

Prerequisite: 2.0 ENG Full-Course Equivalents and any 4.0 Full-Course EquivalentsDistribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities courseBreadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

*The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century(Broadview)(indicated by B on the course schedule)*Frances Burney, Evelina(Broadview)*Other texts will be linked from the course homepage (indicated by HP on the course schedule).Texts are available at the Bob Miller Book Room, 180 Bloor Street West, lower level.

In-Class Participation: 10%Blog Responses: 15% (due date signup will occur during the second week of class)Close Reading Assignment: 15% (Feb. 13)Final Project Peer-Review Workshop: 5% (March 13)

Final Project: 25% (March 27)Final Exam: 30% (TBDsee University exam schedule)

In-Class Participation: 10%Participation is based on attendance and your active involvement in our class discussions.

Blog Responses: 15%The blog is designed to extend our discussions beyond the confines of our classroom. The blog is aplace to ask questions and offer opinions. For example, you might use it to draw our attention to


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articles and resources that youve found relating to the topics we cover in class. You might also use itto offer readings of passages that we didnt get a chance to discuss. Most importantly, the blog is aninteractive space, and you should directly engage with your classmates responses. In order to ensurethat the class blog is active throughout the semester, youll be signing up for blog spots with specificdue dates during the second week of class.You must write three 500-word posts, which I will

mark. However, I do encourage you to write more.Close Reading Assignment: 15% (Feb. 13)For this assignment, you will choose a passage of poetryless than 14 lines or a single paragraphfrom a prose work from one of the texts we have read for class. You will write a 4-page paper thatexamines the passage in detail. Questions you might ask include: What literary devices are used?What themes from the course does the passage address? How are features such as diction, verbtense, or rhyme important?

Final Project Peer-Review Workshop: 5% (March 13)In class on March 13, we will spend time doing a peer-review workshop of your final research paper.Please bring 3 copies of 3 draft pages from your final essay. All drafts must also include a

bibliography of three secondary works that you are using to complete your project.

Final Project: 25% (March 27)For your final project you will write a thesis-driven research essay of 8-10 pages. Your essay shouldconsider at least one of the primary works that weve studied in class, though you may wish to drawon texts and authors (male or female) that we havent read. Your essay will engage with at least threesecondary sources. Though I strongly I encourage you to consult with me to create your own finaltopics, some themes you may wish to consider include:

1. How the original printed medium of a work (periodical publications vs monographs, forexample) influenced the reception of a specific female writer or female writers moregenerally

2. The relationship between domestic and intellectual pursuits3. Representations of old age and/or ugliness4. Representations of nationalism5. Tropes of written and/or spoken language.6. Intertextual allusions to other authors (of either gender)7. Depictions of travel and escape

Final Exam: 30%The exam will take place during the Universitys examination period.

Marking SchemeWhen I evaluate your work, I will consider the following questions:

Does your work show evidence that you have carefully read and thought about the assignedreadings and the topics discussed in class?

Does your work make specific claims about the readings rather than simply summarizethem?

Have you used specific examples from the readings to support your claim(s)? Is your work thoughtfully, logically organized? Is it (relatively) free of mechanical errors?


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The course blog will be an important part of this class. I assume that you already have basiccomputer literacy (checking email, word processing), but beyond that we will be learning thenecessary skills needed for active participation in class. If you are confused, please ask for help. Ifyou are already an expert in the technologies we are using, please help your classmates.

Date Topic Readings AssignmentsWeek 1(January 9)

Introductions,Justifying WomensWriting

*Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea,The Introduction (1713), B 350-51* Margaret Cavendish, The PoetesssHasty Resolution, (1653), AnExcuse for so Much Writ Upon MyVerses (1653) B 3* Pierre Joseph Boudier de Villemert,Of the Studies Proper for Women,available through Broadview onlineresources site, which is linked fromthe HP

Week 2(Jan. 16)

Womens Rights * Mary Astell, fromA Serious Proposalto the Ladies(1694)B 356-61* Judith Drake, fromAn Essay inDefense of the Female Sex(1696) B 192-94*Eliza Heywood, The Female SpectatorNo. 10, (1745) B 194-95

* Mary Leapor, An essay on woman(1746), HP 207*Mary Wollstonecraft, selections fromA Vindication of the Rights of Woman(1798), HP*Richard Polwhele, from TheUnsexd Females (1798), HP

Week 3(Jan. 23)

(Un)feminineSexuality

* Aphra Behn, TheDisappointment (1680), B 197-99* Aphra Behn, The Feigned Courtesans

(1679), available through Broadviewonline resources site, which is linkedfrom the HP.* Secondary Reading: Pearson,Women Reading, Reading WomenHP


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Week 4(Jan. 30

Adventures in Loveand Coquetry

*Eliza Haywood, Fantomina; or, Love ina Maze(1725), B 632-47* Eliza Heywood, fromA Present for aServant Maid(1743), B 647-49* Eliza Heywood, from Venus in the

Cloister or the Nun in Her Smock (1725),B 649-50

Week 5(Feb. 6)

Marriage * Margaret Cavendish, The Convent ofPleasure(1668), B 13-31* Mary Astell, from Some ReflectionsUpon Marriage(1700), B 361-72* Anne Finch, Unequal Fetters(1713), B 353* Jane West, from To a Friend onHer Marriage (1784), HP

Week 6(Feb. 13)

AuthorialAdventures:Periodical PrintCulture

* from The Female TatlerNo. 1 (1709),B 672-73* Lady Mary Wortley Montagy, TheNonsense of Common-SenseNo. 5 (1738),B 681-84* Eliza Heywood, The Female SpectatorBook 1 (1744), B 684-86* Samuel Richardson, The RamblerNo.97 (1751), B 690-92* Henry Fielding, The Covent-GardenJournal No. 6 (1752) B 695-98

* Secondary Reading: Contexts:Eighteenth-Century Periodicals andPrints, B 668-70

Close ReadingAssignment Due

ReadingWeek

NO CLASS

Week 7(Feb. 27)

Women andWorking ClassLabour

* Mary Collier, The WomansLabour (1739), B 894-97* Mary Leapor, An Epistle to aLady (1748), To a Gentleman with

a Manuscript Play (1748), CrumbleHall (1751,) B 898-902* Frances Brooke, The Old MaidNo.13 (1756), B 698-700* Elizabeth Hands, On theSupposition of an AdvertisementAppearing in a Morning Paper, of thePublication of a Volume of Poems, by


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a Servant Maid (1789) B 902-03* Ann Yearsley, To Mr. ****, anUnlettered Poet, or GeniusUnimproved (1787) HP*Anna Letitia Barbauld, Washing-

Day (1797) HP

Week 8(March 6)

Adventures inCaptivity

* Mary Rowlandson, The Narrative ofthe Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs.Mary Rowlandson(1682) selectionsavailable through Broadview onlineresources site, which is linked fromthe HP.*Susannah Johnson, from The CaptiveAmerican(written 1798, published1807) B 857-60

Week 9(March 13)

Slavery andPolitical Activism I

*Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (1688), B 201-37*Frances Seymour, The Story ofInkle and Yarico (1725), HP

Final EssayWorkshop (bring3 copies of yourwork)

Week 10(March 20)

Slavery andPolitical ActivismII

* Hannah More, Slavery: A Poem(1788) B* Ann Yearsley, A Poem on theInhumanity of the Slave-Trade,1788), B

*Phillis Wheatley, To the RightHonorable William, Earl ofDartmouth (1773), On BeingBrought from Africa to America(1773) B* Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Epistle toWilliam Wilberforce, Esq. on theRejection for Abolishing the SlaveTrade available through Broadviewonline resources site, which is linkedfrom the HP

Week 11(March 27)

Practical Education * Frances Burney,Evelina(1773),volume 1

Final Projects Due

Week 12(April 3)

Practical Education * Frances Burney,Evelina(1773),volumes 2-3.


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AttendanceYour presence at lecture is expected. Come on time and please come prepared. Coming preparedmeans completing the weeks reading before coming to class and bringing copies of the assignedreadings with you to class. If there is something complicating your ability to attend classes please

inform me right away.

Late WorkAssignments are due in class on the day indicated. Any assignments not handed in during class willbe considered late. Late assignments will receive a penalty of 3% per day including weekends. I don'taccept papers that are more than a week late; papers more than a week late will receive a mark ofzero. Late assignments may be signed into Room 610, 170 St. George Street, during regular businesshours. Please note that any essays submitted after hours to the sixth-floor drop box will be stampedat 9 AM the next working day. Please do not email me your assignments.

Of course, I understand that people get sick and disaster does sometimes strike. If yourassignment will be late due to illness or unforeseeable circumstances, please do contact me rightaway to make special arrangements. I will need a doctors note or a College Registrars note. You canaccess the UofT medical certificate form here:http://www.healthservice.utoronto.ca/pdfs/medcert.htm

Academic IntegrityIt is important that your work is your own. Please familiarize yourself with the University ofTorontos Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters(http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htm).

The consequences for academic misconduct can be severe, including a failure in this courseand a notation on your transcript. If you have any questions about what is or is not permitted in thiscourse, please do not hesitate to contact me. If you have questions about appropriate research andcitation methods, seek out additional information from me, or from other available campus

resources like the U of T Writing Website (http://www.writing.utoronto.ca).In many instances, violations of academic integrity occur because individuals are

experiencing personal or health challenges and fear that their marks will suffer. If you areexperiencing challenges that are having an impact on your academic work, please seek the advice ofyour College Registrar or the folks at Heath Services (http://healthandwellness.utoronto.ca); we canwork together to create a plan for your success.

AccessibilityThe University of Toronto is committed to accessibility. If you require accommodations for adisability, or have any accessibility concerns about the course, the classroom, or course materials,please contactAccessibility Services (http://www.accessibility.utoronto.ca).

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Eckert Women Writers Syllabus 01