This post is one of three related to the second assignment for 427. To complete the assignment you need to respond to at least one of these reflective posts.
The cluster of issues you can write about in response to this post:
How did you choose a text to write about? What considerations motivated you? How did you narrow down the selection? To what extent did your final selection mirror what you expected to find and work on when you started the assignment? What lingering uncertainties do you have about you choice of text and what you were supposed to do in this part of the assignment?
Deadline: Wednesday (2/18), 10am.
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Going into the assignment, I knew that I wanted to find a text that reflected some aspect of family life in the 18th century. I began by typing in Children's literature as a keyword and found texts that dealt with morality. Although I originally was planning to choose a poem or short story, the collection of essays on morality I found were too intriguing to pass up. The collection came in two volumes and is made up of 35 essays on moral issues and relationships in the household (between husbands and wives, parents and children, servants and masters). Although I expected it to have some very backwards instructions (especially on the role of the wife), I still couldn't believe the things I was reading. Reading them from an actual text at the time gives you a greater glimpse at ideologies that were dominant. Choosing this text in the end was not very difficult because I really enjoyed reading it.
I agree with Elise, I was interested in children's literature as well. And when I typed it in I found children's school books and it was really interesting because it went A-Z and each letter was a different person ie C, the Countess had a pretty face etc. I was a little confused about if I should a change a few of the words that were confusing but I tried to keep everything as close to the original as possible. I also expected it to have a few backwards ideas and was surprised to see how much it correlated to contemporary children's books. In the sense that the boys should be strong and the girls' should be dainty. But I was surprised at the strict class lines that were drawn within the book. It reminded me of how rigid society was at that time even though people such as Thomas Gray achieved a certain amount of notoriety. It is clear that to some extent people still adhered to more rigid class divisions than now.
As Elise said, she went into the assignment looking for something that reflected her life in a later 18th century text, and I did the same. For me though I took interest in medical information available at the time because although I am an English major here at the university I am also pre-med with a chemistry minor. Brining these two words together was a very fun project for me, and I found that I could not stop reading all the different articles and books I came across. I finally settled on a work that lays out all the *theories based in truth and fact* about diseases, their causes, and treatments because it is a well informed work that illustrates the capacity for scientific advancement in the late 18th century but also gives the audience a sense of how young the field of diagnosis was, and how far we today have come. I am uncertain though that I have chosen a text that is well related to a literature course, except in the fact that the language and syntax of this "medical text book" is far different than the literature on medical diagnosis that one would read today. This comparison would be relevant in a literature course, and in my opinion the work would be a refreshing and interesting read.
I set out to find a text about slavery and abolition in the eighteenth century, for two reasons. Firstly, this is the topic for my independent unit, so it was an obvious choice to work ahead a bit. The other reason I sought a text on this topic is because I have studied colonialism in a number of classes and find that chapter of world history to be interesting. The text that I selected was a series of letters that discussed the slave trade in the Caribbean and sought the regulation of the slave trade, as long as the colonies were still profitable, of course.
This perspective was relatively close to what I expected to find, considering that slavery wasn't eliminated from both England and its colonies until the 1830s. The author of the text remains anonymous, using the pen name "Africanus," which suggests that even his (I'm assuming the author to be male based on his tone), rather conservative views, were not widely agreed upon. I think that this assignment helped me to prepare for my independent unit, in so much as I have a better understanding of the state of slavery during the eighteenth century.
It took me a while to pick a subject to go with, but I wanted to look at more poetry. I don't know many of the poets from this time, but I knew we talked about William Cowper in class. A lot of his poems had generic titles like "Hope" and "Truth," but "Doves" sounded promising so I read the poem and thought it was really interesting. The narrator of the poem is taking a walk in the countryside when he overhears a dove speak to her lover. She talks about constancy, feeling his pain as her own, and fearing for his safety.
It was interesting because it was similar to what we discussed Monday about the Spectator, and how his stories were supposedly conversations he overheard. This was similar, but the narrator is instead taking a walk through nature and overhears this bird. At the end, the dove vows that her heart would break if she should cheat on her lover and he stop loving her. The narrator says the bird's speech is a "lesson for mankind." I thought the last line was ironic. It seems more directed at women. If I had to use contemporary language, "Ladies, if you cheat on your husband--perish the thought--then he will stop loving you and it will be more painful than a lightning strike."
I went through many stages in deciding which text I wanted to use. At first, I considered finding something related to the theater, as it is the subject I will be doing my group project on. However, I found that there were just too many plays and I couldn't possibly choose one. From there, I went through several topics and finally decided that I wanted to have an extended look at an author we have already looked at. I chose William Cowper and found a humorous poem that he wrote in the late eighteenth century. I grew to like it even more after I read the excerpt from The Task because I felt there was a great contrast between the two poems and felt that could be something to explore further.
When I started my ECCO search, I had no idea what I wanted to look up. At first I typed in fashion and was overwhelmed by the amazing amount of articles that popped up. I didn't have a clue as to how I should narrow down my results. After looking around these articles for about half an hour, I decided to take a different route. I really enjoyed reading Thomas Gray in class so I searched more of his works and came across many things that I liked. In the end, I chose "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College" because I thought that it was relevant to my life. In this poem, Gray is observing boys at play at his old school, Eton College. He notices that they have no idea of the ills to come. They don't realize that life will be hard and they might even end up doing bad things. I found this interesting because I'm a junior. I'm getting close to graduating and need to start thinking seriously about my future. I guess it just scared me into thinking that this was a great poem to decipher and analyze!
I wanted to find a text that had something to do with women in the late eighteenth century because my independent unit focuses on the rights of women. At first I was intent on finding a poem, but after searching for a little while I found a conduct manual that outlined the proper way for a woman to lead her life. I thought it would be really interesting to see how women were expected to live and whether these expectations would lead to women gaining more rights and empowerment or whether they would just keep them fairly powerless. After reading a few pages of the manual I thought it seemed like the equivalent of a self-help book from today- women who read this could have been seeking an authoritative text on how to personally excel within the standards of society at the time, however limiting they were. I'm slightly uncertain as to how much a text like this would have been read or how much influence it exerted over the individuals who read it. I'm also slightly concerned that there is no named author, it just says that it was written "by a lady." However, I'm not sure how much knowing the author is relevant to a manual such as this, especially if its main purpose is to emphasize the prevailing ideals of the time.
Prior to doing the assignment, I had been looking at texts from the period dealing with exploration and empire. Doing so, I had come across an interesting song/poem by David Mallet called "Rule Britannia," which expressed the nationalistic sentiments behind empire. Although the ideas that led to freedom are fairly well-preserved in American history, I was less familiar with Britain's rationale for colonization. Seeing it distilled into propaganda in the form of a poem was too good to pass up.
I searched a couple of subjects (alcohol, medicine) before looking up the subject of love. Expecting to find some fluffy love stories, I fell upon "The Life and Adventures of James Ramble" by Edward Kimber. The excerpt I chose had little to do with love, but instead I felt it reflected Samuel Johnson's attitudes towards literature of the 18th century. My search evolved into a discussion of a stiff (in my opinion) and straightforward view of human life. The characters in the poem have names that directly relate to how they are viewed by the protagonist (Mrs. Gentle, for example). After journeying through many searches, I felt myself stuck on this odd poem (produced in two volumes) about James Ramble. I found it unlike modern poetry, and an unlikely choice for many scholars to study. I expected to find outlandish ideas about how alcohol could be a cure for many illnesses, but instead I ended up with the story of a journey of a man. The poem contains qualities that show the good morals and modestness that Johnson says is necessary to achieve in his writing. I feel that this excerpt is not particularly intriguing, yet I found it interesting, and therefore I am uncertain that it was the best choice.
My initial search was for random mildly amusing words in ECCO to get a feel for how the site worked and its methods for displaying results, etc. After searching for "Fairy," "Otter," and "Squirrel." I happened upon a selection from "The Weekly entertainer" about rattlesnakes eating squirrels. I found this fairly amusing and interestingly representative of the type of scientific writing that was being done at the time (this was actually an excerpt published from an encyclopedia in this periodical.) I was halfway through editing and annotating this work when I realized it was from 1805 and therefore was unacceptable for this assignment. After mopping up the tears I had shed after realizing that my work had been in vain, I tried searching for an earlier edition of this same periodical, as it was an interesting compilation of various poetry and prose regarding numerous topics. I went randomly stumbling around in an earlier volume and found an article about Drunkenness. I thought the article might be worth a chuckle so I gave it a quick once-over and discovered one of the most creative and interesting arguments I have ever heard about alcohol, connecting the consumption of Alcohol to that of the legend of Prometheus. I decided that my search was over after double-checking to make sure the dates were kosher. Perhaps my research methods are unsound, but I'm extremely happy with my result.
I initially had no idea what exactly I wanted to write about for this assignment, I honestly googled names of famous C18 poets and came up with who I liked and remembered from past readings. I chose William Wordsworth because I have not only always enjoyed his writing, I find it interesting that he is highly debated in terms of his validity in the realm of C18 literature (due to some of his works being published in the 1800's but written in the 1700's). Wordsworth is known for his lyrical ballads and intense fascination with nature however, the poem I chose to critique does not fit his usual writing. "We are Seven," is considered extremely "supernatural" and introduces many ideas about the afterlife. I soon discovered that the poem was also a perfect for my assigned group topic, children's literature. Although, the poem is not designed for the purpose of children's reading it is written about a young girl and her strange knowledge and belief of spirits and life after death. It presents questions of innocence, and because of this can be used to analyze how society may see children and what that does to the realm of children's literature
I was hoping to gain some knowledge on my subject for the independent unit, slavery and abolition, and therefore tried to find something either by a slave or regarding slaves. Phillis Wheatley, being a slave herself, was the perfect fit and i simply search her as an author. It only came up with two entries but one was an entire book of poetry, so there was plenty there.
What really surprised me was Wheatley's happiness in being taken from Africa and enslaved in America. Also, I was a little shocked at her general ideas about Jesus and his redeeming powers. She encouraged science at one point in the poem, stating Jesus would save the souls of everyone, even if they worked to disprove the word of the lord with science. This struck me as odd because most people who weigh in on the debate are strictly pro or con and not a kind of hybrid like Wheatley.
I had no idea what I was looking for when I began searching in this assignment. I found a prayer which looked like it was very poetic in its formating. I do not usually lean toward the religious texts but they are very interesting ways of looking a certain social awarness and contract that is more maleable than a philosophical or political essay. A prayer is a more emotional and moral statemnt about a time period. A religious sentament is obviously not universal to all people from a certain time but it certainly proceedse in its wording as if it is.
Politcal writings and religious writings seem closley linked to me after reading this piece. They are both stories that explain how the social structure are trying to control the people who live within those structures.
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