English 146et. An Enlightenment for Today?

Instructor: James Engell
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1:30-2:45 pm | Location: Emerson 108
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Relevance of Enlightenment texts for perennial issues faced today.  Aphra Behn on race and slavery; John Locke on religious (in)tolerance; Jonathan Swift on corruptions of religion, learning, and bureaucracy; Alexander Pope on pernicious influence of money and political chicanery; Samuel Johnson on marriage, choice of career, problem of evil, and arrogance of colonial power; Edmund Burke on imperial overreach, human rights, and religious oppression; Mary Wollstonecraft on gender, sex, and unjust treatment of women.  Some texts paired with contemporary writing.