Property and power: British culture 1745-1799
K Hart
8 points * 3 hours per week * First semester * Clayton
This subject provides an introduction to British literary culture in a period of vast social upheaval, from the Jacobite rebellion to the suppression of radical societies. We will follow the major current that runs through this diverse and violent era: the notion of property. What does literature have to do with property? What links are there between literature and crime? In answering these questions we will see how literature becomes associated with nationhood, how biography turns people into public property, why people are executed for counterfeiting money but praised for faking literature, what `literary property' is, and why marriage makes you a `proper person.'
Assessment
Two essays (2500 words each): 70% * Examination (1 hour): 30%
Preliminary reading
Greene D The Age of exuberance Random House
Prescribed texts
Boswell J The life of Samuel Johnson, LLD OUP
Boswell J A journal of a tour to the Hebrides Penguin
Burney F Cecilia OUP
Johnson S A journey to the Western Islands Penguin