Print, Manuscript, and Authority in the Long Eighteenth Century
Fall 2015
Th 9:30 am – 12:20 pm
Course description
What happens when two technologies of
communication and textual production meet? More specifically, how does a society
think about texts produced by different technologies? Such questions are
especially pertinent for the late seventeenth through the eighteenth centuries
because both manuscript and print technologies had, by then, existed long enough
to develop their own cultures — sets of practices, behaviors, and ways of
thinking about texts. In this course, we’ll study how the authority of texts —
in both the manuscript medium and the print medium — was constructed and
considered during the long eighteenth century. How did readers and authors
understand the ways material form shaped a text’s authority? Why might an author
choose manuscript circulation over print? When and how could a printed text
garner literary authority?
We will
study these changes by reading eighteenth-century primary texts as well as
modern scholarship on these issues, and we will practice the scholarly methods
of both literary analysis and book history.
Expected Learning Outcomes and Methods of Assessment
Students completing this
course should be able to demonstrate sophisticated understanding of
eighteenth-century ideas about print and manuscript cultures and of critical
issues and scholarship on these subjects. Students should also be able to
articulate sophisticated ideas and interpretations of these texts and issues.
Students should also be able to conduct professional-quality research on
eighteenth-century literature and on the history of the book in the eighteenth
century. These outcomes will be assessed by means of class discussions, a
scholarly presentation, shorter essays, and an article-length seminar paper.
Required Texts
Most texts will be available in
EEBO or in
ECCO.
When we're reading the entire printed text, just search those databases; when
I'm assigning a selection only, the PDF will be linked from the schedule below. Be aware that because this course
focuses in part on the material contexts of authors and readers, it is important
that you encounter the primary texts in a form as close to the original as
possible. I am perfectly happy for you to supplement this encounter with modern
scholarly editions of the texts (and when possible the course website will
provide links to online scholarly versions), but you must be prepared to discuss
the texts’ original material form (at least insofar as approximated by
EEBO/ECCO). There will be a few exceptions when texts are not available in ECCO.
| Participation: You are expected to participate actively in cogent, informed, and intelligent discussions of our primary and secondary readings and of the critical and scholarly ideas they engage. This seminar will not function as lecture but as discussion; you should therefore be prepared to work actively to make the class time engaging and worthwhile. In other words, it is not enough simply to do the readings. You need to demonstrate to me and to your classmate that you have done the reading, thought about it, and formulated ideas and questions to contribute. Ideally, the seminar should be a collaborative exercise in learning, and such an exercise depends on everyone’s full engagement. If you are unprepared for class — either because you did not read or because you did not engage with the readings — your participation grade will suffer. If your classroom behavior does not meet the standards outlined below (under Policies) for participation and professionalism, your participation grade will suffer. |
10% of course
grade
|
| Short paper (6-9 pages) | 20% of course grade |
| Conference-style Presentation (no more than 20 minutes) | 20% of course grade |
| Annotated bibliography | 15% of course grade |
| Seminar paper (20-25 pages) | 35% of course grade |
Policies
Schedule of Readings and Assignments (subject to change)
| Th 8/27 | Introduction to the course and visit to Rare Books | |
| Th 9/3 | Manuscript cultures in the Restoration Rochester, selections from Poems (1680) Love, The Culture and Commerce of Texts, ch. 2 |
|
| Th 9/10 | Manuscript cultures in the
Restoration Katherine Phillips, selections from Poems (1667) Ezell, Social Authorship and the Advent of Print, ch. 1 LetterPress Studio visit |
|
| Th 9/17 | Print culture in the Restoration Aphra Behn, Love-letters between a Nobleman and his Sister (1684, 1685, 1687) EEBO ; also available in modern Penguin edition Johns, The Nature of the Book, ch. 1 Kvande, “Book Production” |
|
| Th 9/24 | Ideas about print in the
Restoration and early 18th century John Milton, Areopagitica (1644) EEBO Daniel Defoe, Essay on the Regulation of the Press (1704) ECCO Tatler 101 (1709) James Watson, preface to The History of the Art of Printing (1713) ECCO Richard Savage, An Author to Be Lett (1729) ECCO Johns, The Nature of the Book, ch. 2 sections (see file for notes on which sections to read) |
Presentation: Meghan Self |
| Th 10/1 | Bridging manuscript and print Anne Finch, selections from Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions: Written by a Lady (1713) and from the Wellesley Manuscript: "An Apology for my fearfull temper" and "On the Death of the Queen" John Dryden, MacFlecknoe, “On the Marriage of the Fair and Vertuous Lady, Mrs Anastasia Stafford,” “Ode to Mrs. Anne Killigrew,” “To the Memory of Mr. Oldham,” “To My Dear Friend Mr. Congreve” Love, “Early Modern Print Culture: Assessing the Models” |
Presentation: Robin Blanchard |
| Th 10/8 | Bridging manuscript and print
Alexander Pope, selections: Essay on Criticism, Windsor-Forest, Epistle to Arbuthnot (all in ECCO) Jonathan Swift, Battle of the Books (ECCO); “Verses Wrote on a Lady’s Ivory Table Book”; “The Progress of Poetry”; “Verses on the Death”; “On Poetry” Ezell, Social Authorship and the Advent of Print, ch. 3 |
Presentations: Leah Thorne (Pope) Iracema Quintero (Swift) |
| Th 10/15 | No class; professor at conference | |
| Th 10/22 | Bridging manuscript and print Jane Barker, A Patchwork Screen for the Ladies (1723) and The Lining of the Patchwork Screen (1726) ECCO; also available in modern Oxford edition King, Jane Barker, Exile, ch. 5 Short paper due |
Presentation: Samantha Lack |
| Th 10/29 | Print culture at mid-century David Hume, “Of the Liberty of the Press” (1741) Mary Leapor, selections from Poems on Several Occasions (1748) Samuel Johnson, Letter to Lord Chesterfield; Rambler 16, 21, 145 (1750-1); Adventurer 115 (1753) The World 64, 111 (1754-5) James Ralph, The Case of Authors by Profession or Trade (1758) ECCO Griffin, “The Rise of the Professional Author?” |
|
| Th 11/5 | An apotheosis of print? Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy ECCO; also available in modern Penguin edition Barker, “The Morphology of the Page” Annotated bibliography due |
|
| Th 11/12 | An apotheosis of print? Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy continued Hunter, “From Typology to Type: Agents of Change in Eighteenth-Century English Texts” |
Presentation: Judy Drazan |
| Th 11/19 | Views of print in the late
18th century The Booksellers: A Poem (1766) ECCO The Liberty of the Press (1770?) ECCO Ann Yearsley, selections from Poems on Several Occasions (1785, 1786) Rose, “Copyright, Authors and Censorship” and Authors and Owners, ch. 7 |
|
| Th 11/26 | Thanksgiving break; no class | |
| F 12/4 | Seminar paper due by 5pm | |
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