This module will involve reading poetry of the 17th and 18th centuries and fiction of the Age of Reason. It will highlight diverse issues not least of which is the problem of how to approach historically distant texts.

a)H. Vaughan: The Waterfall; A. Marvell: The Mower against gardens; The Mower’s Song; The Garden; J. Thomson: from The Seasons (from Autumn);W. Cowper: from The Task (from Book 1 and from Book 4) – these texts are in The Norton Anthology, vol. 1

b) - D. Defoe, Moll Flanders

- Tobias Smollett, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

c) Ch. Fitter, Poetry, Space, Landscape. Toward a New Theory, C.U.P., 1995, 1999, chapter 1 and chapter 6

d) K. Thomas, Man and the Natural World. Changing Attitudes in England 1500-1800, Penguin, 1983 pp. 17-91; pp. 192-287

e) J. Skinner, An Introduction to Eighteenth Century Fiction. Raising the Novel, Palgrave, 2001, chapters 1-2-3 and chapter 6 (pp. 146-54)

f) J. Richetti, The English Novel in History 1700-1780, Routledge, 1999, 2003, chapter 1, chapter 3 and chapter 6 (pp. 181-195)

g)J.V. Price, Tobias Smollett: The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, Edward Arnold, 1973

h) The Norton Anthology, vol.1, “The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century” pp.2045-70, “Poetic Forms and Literary Terminology” pp. 2944-60

i) Students will also read three of the following texts; D. Defoe, Roxana and Robinson Crusoe; J. Swift, Gulliver’s Travels; L. Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey; H. Fielding, Tom Jones; S. Johnson, Rasselas;

Non-attending students will have to read also:

M. Priestman, Cowper’s Task. Structure and Influence, C.U.P., 1983