ENL 2022: Survey of English Literature, 1750 to Present |
"Gods and Monsters: Dualism, Subjectivity, and Monstrosity" University of Florida
Semester: Spring, 2018
Section: 1215 Class Meetings: TR Period 7/7-8 The intervening years between 1750 and the present have been ones of almost unfathomable progress, political upheaval, discovery, and societal change. In the shadow of the French Revolution, Darwinism, and the Empire, British writers of the 18th and 19th centuries grappled frequently with moral, theological, and social anxieties. Meanwhile writers of the 20th and 21st centuries continue/d to reconcile themselves with the ghosts of two World Wars, post-colonialism, and a rapidly digitizing world. At the center of so many of these anxieties lies a simple question that the Romantics, the Victorians, the Modernists, and even contemporary writers have all had to ask – what are we becoming? This course will interrogate this question by looking to British authors’ favorite figure for exploring social and moral anxiety – the Monster.
Together in this course, we will read a selection of novels, poetry, and short fiction from Great Britain written after 1750 and dealing with themes of goodness, evil, and monstrosity in the hopes of exploring the ways British writers have used vampires, ghosts, shapeshifters, and even the Devil to respond to the rapid political, societal, and technological changes occurring around them. This will include both examples of monsters as agents of chaos whose very existence threatens the status quo and constructions of mankind itself as monstrous, bringing into the conversation questions that have provoked British writers for centuries. What are the ethics of human progress? What are the dangers of man tampering with nature? Is it possible to live your life as a work of art and still be an ethical person? Is it possible to ever fully suppress the darker side of our own natures? What is human savagery and where does it truly lie? What wounds have imperialism inflicted on the globe? What are the limits of revenge? Of human cruelty? Of forgiveness? Can even those “born” to be bad make a different choice? Who, ultimately, are the real villains – the monsters or the monster-hunters? By the end of this course, students will arrive at a better understanding of discourses on morality and evil in British literature, as well as the social functions of monstrosity as a theme by engaging with British texts through a number of different critical lenses, including historical readings, feminist criticism, and critical race theory. |
INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION:
Office Location: Turlington 4367 Office Hours: Tuesday Periods 8 & 9 or by appointment Email: [email protected] TEXTBOOKS:
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