Goldsmith

I bet you will agree that Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield is quite a departure from the other literature of the 18th Century that we have been studying. What then, is the main difference for the audience between fiction, poetry, drama and satire? How effective a genre is fiction for proposing ideas and themes?

Sorry for the late post. Did you notice?

Is Gulliver a Yahoo?

This is my favorite question about Gulliver's Travels. I hope I'm not messing you up by asking a question about the upcoming reading rather than what we did last week, but I really want this as a blog question, and looking ahead, we will need to have at least one question on the Goldsmith book. So that is simply it: Is Gulliver a Yahoo?

I would like you also to consider what you think Swift's intentions were with Book III, as the voyage to Laputa and Lagodo and environs is so different from the formula of the other three books.

Research Project Forum

Use this discussion thread to share your working thesis with the class (or topic if you aren't as far as a thesis) and ask for help and advice.

I think "forum" sounds important, don't you??

Gulliver as Social Commentary

Great discussion last week--I only wish more were participating--but they lose!

This week we will shift our focus to Gulliver. Thinking about Books I and II, what do you think is the most important result of the contrast between big and small? What about the Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians most impresses and influences Gulliver? What about humanity generally (and British or European people, specifically) do you think Swift, via Gulliver, is commenting on? (You might want to think about how Gulliver sees the Lilliputians and how the Brobdingnagians see Gulliver interms of how human each is.)

The Dramatists

We have finished with the dramatists for this semester's reading. Looking back on Marlowe, Jonson, Behn, Congreve and Gay, think about the themes the plays explore and speculate on why drama is or was the best medium for those themes--if indeed you find drama an effective way to present them.

The Way of the World??

Both Fainall and Mirabell use the phrase "the way of the world" near the end of the play. Do both use it with the same purpose and effect? What does this comment from these two characters tell you about the significance of the title of the play?

Oroonoko the Noble Savage

How much of the idea of the noble savage is suggested and challenged by the narrator's description of the prince and the events in Oroonoko? We will have finished the book by the time your second posts are due, so you will have a complete picture of him.