Introduction

18th-Century Literature

In this module, Dr James Smith (Royal Holloway, London) provides an introduction to the literature of the 18th century. The course begins by exploring what writers of the 18th century thought about writing itself, focusing in particular on Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism (1711) and Elizabeth Montagu's Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare (1769). After that, we look at three texts that demonstrate the different ways in which writers of the period thought about place, including Olaudah Equiano's autobiography (1789) and a scene from Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders (1722). In the third module, we think about the didacticism of the literature of the period, focusing in particular on Samuel Johnson's Rasselas (1759) and Samuel Richardson's Clarissa (1748) before moving on in the fourth module to explore the genre of satire, and looking in particular at Pope's Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735) and Swift's A Modest Proposal (1729). In the fifth module, we think about some of the female writers of the period – including attitudes to female writers and writing – before turning in the sixth and final module to some features of 18th-century poetry, in which we look more closely at two lesser-known poems of the period: Jane Cave's 'The Head-Ache' (1793), and William Collins' 'Ode to Evening' (1746)

Introduction

In this module, we think about what writers of the 18th century thought about writing itself, focusing in particular on Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism (1711) and Elizabeth Montagu's Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare (1769). Should writers follow the models of ancient writers like Homer and Virgil, as Pope said, or should they 'quit the beaten track' and 'make daring incursions into unexplored regions of invention', as Montague writes?