1:00-2:15	MW BH    142
Meets with C529

E-Mail: Okenshur@Indiana.edu

The course will provide a general introduction to eighteenth-century
literature and thought while focusing on a development that has become
the object of keen interest in recent years, namely, the emergence of
the concept of the self. Since concepts of self are necessarily
intertwined with ideas about the relationship between self and other,
between the political subject and political authority, and between the
individual and God, the course will inevitably touch on psychology,
epistemology, ethics, political theory, and religious thought. Since
our texts will include works from a variety of literary and
philosophical genres, and since a knowledge of earlier developments
will be necessary for an understanding of why explorations of the
nature of the self form a central concern throughout the eighteenth
century, the course will be amount to a high-level introduction to
early-modern literature and thought. It will also provide an
indispensable background for those interested in nineteenth and
twentieth-century debates about subjectivity.

Undergraduates will have a take-home midterm (50%) and a final exam
(50%).
Texts will include the following:

Locke, Second Treatise on Government
Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
Shaftesbury, Essay Concerning Virtue, or Merit
Mandeville, Fable of the Bees
Montesquieu, Persian Letters
Sterne, Sentimental Journey
Rousseau, Confessions
Diderot, Rameau's Nephew
Goethe, Werther

N.B.  THE COURSE MEETS AT THE TIME INDICATED ABOVE, NOT THE TIME GIVEN
IN THE SCHEDULE OF CLASSES.