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(ENL311) -  Βασιλική Μαρκίδου

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NATIONAL AND KAPODISTRIAN UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

 

FALL SEMESTER 2023-34

7^th SEMESTER COURSE: SUBJECTIVITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LABOURING-CLASS WOMEN’S POETRY

 

INSTRUCTOR: Associate Professor Vassiliki Markidou

Office hour: Monday 11:30-12:30 (by appointment via email , office 903, 9^th floor, School of Philosophy Building)

e-mail address: vmarkidou@enl.uoa.gr

 

"When people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option,
or for the educated middle classes, or that it
shouldn’t be read at school because it is irrelevant,
I suspect that the people doing the saying have had
things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough
language -- and that is what poetry is.”

--Jeanette Winterson

 

                                                                Course Description

The course examines representative texts of eighteenth-century British labouring-class women poets in conjunction to the social, economic, and political changes that took place in Britain at that time. It will analyze the ways in which eighteenth-century British labouring-class women poets struggled to articulate their identity as regards social class, gender, race, sexuality, nationality and religion. Through an analysis of representative poems by Mary Collier, Mary Leapor, Ann Yearsley, Elizabeth Hands and Janet Little the course will also shed light on the effort made by these poets to emulate their contemporary (male) literary tradition as well as strongly subvert it.

 

Please make sure you have read the allocated texts before coming to class. Your active participation is both required and expected. Please bring the appropriate text to class every week.

 

Course objectives

• to appreciate the crucial role of social class, gender, sexuality, nationality, religion and race, in the construction of subjectivity
• to be familiarized with the historical, social, political, cultural and religious context of eighteenth-century literature
• to challenge given concepts, myths, and prejudices related to the divine element, the material world and the self
• to appreciate how eighteenth-century labouring-class women poets both emulated their contemporary (male) literary tradition and challenged it

 

Course requirements 

• Mid-term exam (50%)
• Final exam (50%)
• Extra credit opportunity: write an essay on a particular topic related to either one or two of the allocated primary texts (after consulting your instructor) and get extra credit (1 or 2 marks), which will be granted if you pass the exams.

 

Texts

Mary Collier

1. The Woman’s Labour: An Epistle to Mr. Stephen DucK
2. The Three Wise Sentences

*Collier’s poetry will be partly analyzed by comparing/contrasting it to Stephen Duck’s poetry, in particular, his poem, “The Thresher’s Labour.”

 

Mary Leapor

1. An Essay on Woman
2. Crumble-Hall

*Leapor’s poetry will be partly analyzed by comparing/contrasting it to Alexander Pope’s poetry, in particular, his poem, “Epistle to Burlington.”

 

Ann Yearsley

1. Clifton Hill. Written in January 1785
2. A Poem on the Inhumanity of Slave Trade

*Yearsley’s poetry will be partly analyzed by comparing/contrasting it to Hannah More’s poetry, in particular, her poem, “Slavery: A Poem.”

 

Elizabeth Hands

1. A Poem, on the Supposition of an Advertisement Appearing on a Morning Paper, of the Publication of a Volume of Poems, by a Servant-Maid
2. On reading Pope’s Eloiza to Abelard

*Hands’s poetry will be partly analyzed by comparing/contrasting it to Alexander Pope’s poetry, in particular, his poem, “Eloiza to Abelard.”

 

Janet Little

1. Given to A Lady Who Asked Me To Write A Poem
2. An epistle to Mr. Robert Burns

*Little’s poetry will be partly analyzed by shedding light on her intertextual relationship to Robert Burns.

 

Suggestive Bibliography (on reserve in the library)

Blair, Kirstie and Mina Gorji, eds. Class and the Canon: Constructing Labouring-Class Poetry and Poetics, 1750-1900. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

 

Gerrard, Christine, ed. A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry. Malden, M. A.: Blackwell, 2006.

 

Goodridge, John. Rural Life in Eighteenth-Century English Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

 

Goodridge, John and Bridge Keegan, eds. A History of British Working-Class Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

 

Keegan, Bridget. British Labouring-Class Nature Poetry, 1730-1837. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

 

Landry, Donna. The Muses of Resistance: Laboring-Class Women’s Poetry in Britain, 1739-1796. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

 

Lonsdale Roger, ed. Eighteenth-Century Women Poets: An Oxford Anthology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

 

Milne, Anne. Lactilla Tends her Fav'rite Cow: Ecocritical Readings of Animals and Women in Eighteenth-Century British Labouring-Class Women's Poetry. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 2008.

 

Sitter, John, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

 

 

Ημερομηνία δημιουργίας

Τετάρτη 8 Ιανουαρίου 2014