ENG457H1F: The English
Language in the 1770s (a revised syllabus for the future)
Course description
Colonization, commerce, codification. The empire-building efforts of the eighteenth
century saw the British and their language spread through North America, the
Caribbean, India and Australasia; the activities of explorers like Captain
James Cook and of commercial ventures like the East India Company brought
English into new worlds as well as bringing new words into English. On what
grounds did these new words become adopted into English? The middle of the
century also saw the codification and standardization of English in
dictionaries, grammars, and pronunciation manuals. To a great extent this
standardization was a commercial enterprise, carried out not by an Academy, as
in France, but instead by booksellers like Robert Dodsley. Language manuals
were produced for a market often stereotyped as the social-climbing merchant
class, represented in novels like Humphry
Clinker as mixing indiscriminately and unsanitarily in the baths of tourist
destinations like Bath. Though potentially inclusive, the standardization of
English often entrenched social divisions of class, gender, and race: it is not
at all surprising to find the Scottish critic and novelist Smollett itemizing
non-standard elements in the language of not only female but also and
especially Scottish authors. In this semester-long course, we will examine a
range of literary and non-literary texts from the 1760s and the 1770s.
Acknowledging the literary and linguistic variety of the period, we will
appreciate the complexity of the relationship between the English language(s)
and British identities in a period when the reading public could
enthusiastically and simultaneously consume not only Macpherson’s approximations
of ancient Gaelic oral epic but also Lowth’s enumerations of the grammatical
errors of authors like Shakespeare and Milton. You will also have a chance to
do research on topics beyond British borders – past students have explored the
subjectivity of place-naming by explorers like James Cook and have unravelled
the complex relationship of language and identity in British Jamaica, where
white women were sometimes represented as speakers of the despised creole.
The first half of the
course will consist of lecture-discussion on assigned primary and secondary
readings of linguistic and literary texts. During this time, you will write two
250-word abstracts of a selection of scholarly articles; see Humanities
Abstracts online for examples. During this time you should be also reading Evelina and Humphry Clinker: before we discuss these in class, you’ll have
written an essay
on a specific comparative topic. I will also be meeting with you individually
to help you choose a subject for your seminar/research paper. We will also be
meeting at Robarts library for a special session tailored to the assignments
and activities of this course; the handout
is online.
You will present seminars
on your work in progress during the last weeks of the course. The content of this part of the course will
be determined by your own interests in conjunction with the parameters of the
course. Past papers have included place naming on the west coast of North America,
white women’s language and identity in C18th Jamaica, the dramatic implications
of the word sentiment in Sheridan’s
dramas, and language as vehicle and theme in Barbauld’s Lessons for Children. You may find inspiration in abstracts of past
papers or in
a list of suggested subjects – you’ll have to narrow them into a topic.
From weeks eight onwards,
you’ll be presenting an overview of your research to the rest of the class. A
week before you present your work, you’ll give (1) the rest of the class
appropriate readings and questions to consider and (2) me a draft of your work
in progress – I’ll email you feedback by Friday evening so that you can revise
it over the weekend. For the oral,
you’ll be evaluated not
only on your ability to present a clear and coherent and persuasive argument,
but on your ability to generate discussion after your paper. On the last day of
term, you’ll hand in the final version of your paper (4000 words) preceded by a
brief (250-500 word) abstract of it to be mounted as a “web encyclopedia”
entry.
In addition to conveying
content, the course will also teach or exercise important skills for
upper-level work in the humanities. You will use library resources to find
relevant secondary sources for your research (literary, linguistic, and
historical/cultural), write abstracts of scholarly papers (another scholar’s
and your own), and present your work to others.
Essay
(2000 word) on Evelina and Humphry Clinker (20%).
Put
only your student number on this work, please.
Two 250-word abstracts of
scholarly articles (you choose from a short list of the class readings) (5%).
Put only your student number on this work, please.
Your research papers:
A
draft of your work in progress, handed in 7 days before the seminar (10%).
Readings
and questions for the class, distributed 7 days before the seminar (5%).
Your
oral presentation (10%).
The
final research paper (4000 words) (20%)
250-500
word abstract of the paper for our online encyclopedia (5%).
An overview
of the class seminars, modelled on editors’ introductions to collections of
scholarly essays (2000-2500 words) (20%).
Put
only your student number on this work, please.
Regular and informed and
courteous participation (5%).
Week 1: Using the Oxford English Dictionary online.
Headwords
first cited in 1770.
Quotations
from 1770s texts containing the word “language”.
Week 2: Standardization and codification of lexis,
grammar, and pronunciation.
Samuel Johnson’s “Preface”,
and selections from A dictionary of the
English language (1755)
Robert Lowth’s “Preface”
and selections, A short introduction to
English grammar (1762)
Thomas Sheridan’s
“Preface” and selections, General
dictionary of the English language (1780)
Tobias Smollett, a
selection of reviews
from the Critical Review (1756- ). I
have selected
reviews
of “marginal” writers: poetry and literary criticism and medical texts by
Scots, and a midwifery text by a woman.
Reviews
of texts about midwifery by the female writer Elizabeth Nihell (1760) and the
Scottish writer John Memis (1765); two medical treatises by the Scot Andrew
Wilson (1760, 1765); collections of poetry by Thomas Blacklock and other
“Scotch gentlemen” (1760-62), William Stevenson (1765), and Ossian (aka James
Macpherson) (1763); and Hugh Blair’s Critical
Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian (1763).
Week 3: Children’s literature: language, class,
and gender.
Anon. (Oliver
Goldsmith?), The History of Little Goody
Two-Shoes (1765).
Supplement
the handout (title page, a few extracts) with the first four or five chapters
from this text-only
link; I strongly urge you to read the whole text, either at the short-term
loan library (PR 3291 A1 G6 1766A) or online at the Hockliffe project’s
web site. Choose “Catalogue" and pick text 0124, or Choose
"Title" and type "Goody".
Anna Letitia Barbauld, Lessons for Children (1779-) (handout).
Anna Letitia Barbauld, Hymn
II, Hymn
III, Hymn V
and Hymn
VIII, Hymns
in Prose for Children (1781).
Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer (1773)
Richard Brinsley
Sheridan, The Rivals (1775)
Week 5: Fiction.
Frances Burney, Evelina (1778)
Arthur Young, extracts
from various Tours (1770s).
Oliver Goldsmith, excerpt
from “The Traveller: or, a prospect of society” (1765)
Oliver Goldsmith, ”The
Deserted Village” (1770)
James Macpherson:
Fragments
7 & 8, Fragments of Ancient Poetry
(1760)
[“The Songs
of Selma”], Fingal: an ancient epic
poem in six books (1761)
“A dissertation
concerning the antiquity, &c. of the poems of Ossian the son of Fingal”
(ed. Jack Lynch)
Robert Fergusson:
“To
the Principal and Professors of the University of St Andrews, on their superb
treat to Dr Samuel Johnson”
“To
Dr Samuel Johnson: Food for a new Edition of his Dictionary”
“Elegy
on the death of Scots music” (handout).
Tobias Smollett, Humphry
Clinker (1771)
Detailed course outline
Week 1: Using the Oxford English Dictionary online.
Q: To what extent do “new” words reflect
cultural developments in the 1770s?
Q: Are you
confident that you can now use the OED
online?!
Primary reading:
Headwords
first cited in 1770.
Quotations
from 1770s texts containing the word “language”.
Week 2: Standardization and codification of lexis,
grammar, and pronunciation.
Q: To what extent do Johnson, Lowth,
and Sheridan imply that literary authors are the best models of English usage?
Q: Characterize the implied
audience(s) of each text.
Q: After reading
Basker and Watts, summarize the implications of a standardized form of English
for British (Scots, Irish) speakers and writers.
Primary readings (handouts):
Samuel
Johnson’s “Preface”,
and selections from A dictionary of the
English language (1755)
Robert
Lowth’s “Preface” and selections, A short
introduction to English grammar (1762)
Thomas
Sheridan’s “Preface” and selections, General
dictionary of the English language (1780)
Tobias
Smollett, a selection of reviews
from the Critical Review (1756- ). I
have selected reviews of “marginal” writers: poetry and literary criticism and
medical texts by Scots, and a midwifery text by a woman.
Reviews
of texts about midwifery by the female writer Elizabeth Nihell (1760) and the
Scottish writer John Memis (1765); two medical treatises by the Scot Andrew
Wilson (1760, 1765); collections of poetry by Thomas Blacklock and other
“Scotch gentlemen” (1760-62), William Stevenson (1765), and Ossian (aka James
Macpherson) (1763); and Hugh Blair’s Critical
Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian (1763).
**A guide to Samuel
Johnson (Jack Lynch)
**James Basker, “Scotticisms and the Problem of Cultural
Identity in Eighteenth-Century Britain
**Susan
Fitzmaurice, “The Commerce of Language in the Pursuit of Politeness in
Eighteenth-Century England”.
**Carey
McIntosh, “The Instruments of Literacy”.
**Watts,
Richard, “Mythical strands in the ideology of prescriptivism”.
*David
Crystal, “Early Modern English (p.74-75)” and “Modern English”.
(A) Lynda Mugglestone, “The Rise of a Standard:
Process and Ideology”, `Talking Proper’:
The Rise of Accent as Social
(A)
Janet Sorensen, “`A Grammarian’s Regard to the Genius of Our Tongue’: Johnson’s
Dictionary, Imperial Grammar, and the Customary National Language”,
(A) Dieter Stein, “Sorting out the variants:
standardization and social factors in the
English
language 1600-1800”.
Week 3: Language, class, and gender.
Q: What are the implied rewards and
requirements of literacy?
Q: What social values are imparted
in each of these texts? Characterize each text’s implied audience.
Q: Consider the representation of
women (teachers, mothers) and of social classes.
Primary readings:
Anon.
(Oliver Goldsmith?), The History of
Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765).
Supplement
the handout (title page, a few extracts) with the first four or five chapters
from this text-only
link; I strongly urge you to read the whole text, either at the short-term
loan library (PR 3291 A1 G6 1766A) or online at the Hockliffe project’s web site. Choose “Catalogue" and
pick text 0124, or Choose "Title" and type "Goody".
Anna
Letitia Barbauld, Lessons for Children
(1779-) (handout).
Anna
Letitia Barbauld, Hymn
II, Hymn
III, Hymn V
and Hymn
VIII, Hymns
in Prose for Children (1781).
Secondary readings:
**On-line
essay about The History of Little Goody
Two-Shoes (1765) on
the Hockliffe project’s web site (see above).
**Carey
McIntosh, “Politeness; Feminization”.
*Paul
Langford, “The progress of politeness”.
*Carol
Percy, review
of Amanda Vickery's The Gentleman's
Daughter (1998).
(A)
Michele Cohen, “The
English Gentleman and His Tongue”, “The Accomplishment of the
Eighteenth-Century Lady”.
(A) Janet Sorensen, “The Figure of the Nation: Polite
Language and its Originary Other”.
Primary readings:
Oliver Goldsmith, She
Stoops to Conquer (1773)
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Rivals (1775)
Secondary readings:
Jennifer Roberts-Smith, “Key
terms for analyzing a play as a performance text”.
Q: Can you identify the “line of
action” for each play? (Hamlet’s might be “to witness”; King Lear’s “to show love” – or perhaps
“to recognize true love”; Twelfth Night
“to reveal identity”. These analyses come courtesy of a past TA for ENG220Y,
Jennifer Roberts-Smith).
Q: What values seem to be affirmed
at the conclusion of each comedy?
Q:
Identify the characters who “affect” a speech style. What is their motive for
such affectation? To what extent are they “rewarded” or “punished” for such
affectation?
Week 5: Fiction.
Primary readings:
Frances Burney, Evelina (1778)
Q: It has been argued that Mme Duval
(is she French or English?) and Captain Mirvan (how well born is he?) function
as foils for another socially ambiguous figure, Evelina herself. How might each
character’s language relate to this function? What other functions do Mme Duval
and Captain Mirvan serve? What do you make of the fact that Evelina is related
to the not very admirable Mme Duval and Lord Belmont?
Q:
Some critics have argued that this novel critiques and subverts
institutionalized oppression of and violence towards women. What supporting
points can you find for this argument?
Q: Some critics have argued that
Lord Orville is effeminate. What supporting points can you find for this
argument? What are the thematic implications of such a characterization?
Q: What are some functions of
Macartney’s verses about Evelina?
Q: What are some functions of the
race between the two old women? of the “monkey” scene?
Primary readings:
Arthur
Young, extracts from various Tours
(1770s).
Oliver Goldsmith, ”The Deserted Village” (1770)
Secondary readings:
**Paul
Langford, “New improvements”, “Opulence and Glory” and “The Birth of Sensibility”,, A Polite and Commercial People: England
1727-1783 (Oxford: OUP, 1989). DA 480 L26 STL.
Q:
Compare and contrast Korshin’s and Hudson’s interpretation of Samuel Johnson’s
attitude to “oral” language.
Primary readings
James
Macpherson, Fragments 7 & 8, Fragments
of Ancient Poetry (1760)
James
Macpherson, [“The Songs
of Selma”], Fingal: an ancient epic
poem in six books (1761)
James
Macpherson,
“A dissertation concerning the antiquity, &c. of the poems of Ossian the
son of Fingal” (ed. Jack Lynch)
Robert
Fergusson, “To the Principal and Professors of the University of St Andrews, on
their superb treat to Dr Samuel Johnson”, “To Dr Samuel Johnson: Food for a new
Edition of his Dictionary”, and “Elegy on the death of Scots music” (handout).
**Nicholas
Hudson, “Johnson’s Dictionary and the Politics of Standard English”.
**Paul
J. Korshin, “Reconfiguring the Past: the Eighteenth Century Confronts Oral
Culture”.
**Matthew
Lauzon, “Savage Eloquence in America and the Linguistic Construction of a
British Identity in the 18th Century”
**Janet
Sorensen, “Essay Review. Peripheral Visions: Remaking the map of British
Cultural history”.
*Sylvia Adamson, “Literary language: 7.5ff The neo-classical
phase, 1660-1776” & “Literary language”.
*James Basker, “Scotticisms and the Problem of Cultural
Identity in Eighteenth-Century Britain
*David Crystal, “World English”.
*Dick
Leith, “English – colonial to postcolonial.
*Janet
Sorensen, “Women, Celts, and Hollow Voices: Tobias Smollett’s brokering of
Anglo-British Linguistic Identities.
(A)
Garland Cannon, “Sir
William Jones and the New Pluralism over Languages and Cultures”.
(A)
Linda Colley, “Peripheries”.
(A)
Thomas Frank,
“Language Standardization in Eighteenth-Century Scotland”.
(A)
Carey McIntosh, “The
New Rhetoric”.
(A)
Pat Rogers, “Boswell and the Scotticism”.
(A) Richard Steadman-Jones, “Learning Urdu in the late
eighteenth century: dialogues and familiar phrases”.
A bibliography of
James Macpherson (Sher & Moore)
Q: Some critics
have argued not only that Bramble’s discontent is caused by the effect on human
relations of the improper use of colonial wealth, but also that this commercial
corruption is epitomized or exacerbated by women. What points can you find to
support these arguments?
Q: Social mixing
seems to be a bad thing in Bath but admirable on the Scottish golf course. How
can this be?
Q: Some critics
have argued that this novel reflects contemporary anxiety not only about the
effect of new wealth on class boundaries, but about the “penetration of the
colonial Other into Britain”. What points can you find to support these
arguments? Are there any positive examples of acculturation?
Q: The fact that
Humphry instinctively saves and serves Bramble, and that his “reward” at the
end is limited, is often seen as reinforcing a position of extreme social
conservatism. Can you make a case for a subversive Humphry?
Q: What do you make of the fact that
Win Jenkins gets the last word?
Tobias
Smollett, Humphry Clinker (1771)
Sylvia
Adamson, “Literary language: 7.5ff The neo-classical phase, 1660-1776”, The English Language.
Volume
III 1476-1776, ed.
Roger Lass (Cambridge: CUP, 1992- ). PE 1072 C36 STL.
Sylvia
Adamson, “Literary language”, The
English Language. Volume IV 1776-1997, ed. Suzanne
Romaine (Cambridge: CUP, 1992- ). PE 1072 C36 STL.
Anon., On-line essay
about The History of Little Goody
Two-Shoes (1765)
on the Hockliffe project’s web site (see above).
James
Basker, “Scotticisms and the Problem of Cultural Identity in Eighteenth-Century
Britain”,
Eighteenth-Century
Life 15 (February and
May 1991), 81-95. STL article #1154.
Garland Cannon, “Sir
William Jones and the New Pluralism over Languages and Cultures”, Yearbook
of English Studies 28 (1998), pp. 128-143. PR3 Y4 1998 STL.
Michele Cohen, “The
English Gentleman and His Tongue”, “The Accomplishment of the
Eighteenth-Century
Lady”, Fashioning Masculinity: National
Identity and Language in the Eighteenth-Century (London and New York:
Routledge, 1996). PR 448 N38 C64 STL, and "non-circulating" at Vic.
Linda Colley,
“Peripheries”, Britons: Forging the
Nation 1707-1837 (New Haven and
London:
Yale
University Press, 1992), esp. 117ff. DA485 C65 1992 STL.
David Crystal, “Early
Modern English (p.74-75)” and “Modern English”, The Cambridge
Encyclopedia of the English Language (Cambridge: CUP, 1995). PE 1072 C68 1995 Robarts, Vic, and Trinity Reference.
David
Crystal, “World English”, The Cambridge
Encyclopedia of the English Language (Cambridge: CUP,
1995). PE 1072 C68 1995 Robarts, Vic, and Trinity Reference.
Susan Fitzmaurice, “The
Commerce of Language in the Pursuit of Politeness in Eighteenth-
Century
England”, English Studies 1998.4:
309-328. STL article #3655.
Susan
Fitzmaurice, “Introduction,” Rhetoric, language, and literature: new
perspectives on English
in the eighteenth century, Language sciences 22.3 (July 2000), pp. 223-230. Online.
Thomas Frank, “Language
Standardization in Eighteenth-Century Scotland”, Towards a standard
English 1600-1800, ed. Dieter Stein & Ingrid Tieken-Boon van
Ostade (Berlin & New York: Mouton, 1994), pp. 51-62. PE 1083 T69 1994 STL.
Nicholas Hudson,
“Johnson’s Dictionary and the Politics of Standard English”, The Yearbook of
English
Studies 28 (1998), pp. 77-93. PR3 Y4 1998 STL.
Paul J. Korshin,
“Reconfiguring the Past: the Eighteenth Century Confronts Oral Culture”, Yearbook
of English Studies 28 (1998), pp. 235-249. PR3 Y4 1998 STL.
Paul Langford, “The
progress of politeness”, chapter 3 of A
Polite and Commercial
People England 1727-1783 (Oxford: OUP, 1989). DA 480 L26 STL at Robarts
and Trinity.
Paul Langford, “New improvements” and “Opulence
and Glory”, A Polite and Commercial
People England 1727-1783 (Oxford: OUP, 1989). DA 480 L26 STL.
Paul
Langford, “The Birth of Sensibility”, A
Polite and Commercial People England 1727-1783 (Oxford:
OUP, 1989). DA 480 L26 STL.
Matthew
Lauzon, “Savage eloquence in America and the linguistic construction of a
British identity
in the 18th century”, Historiographia Linguistica 23.1-2 (1996) 123-158.
Dick Leith, “English –
colonial to postcolonial”, chapter 5 of English:
History, Diversity, Change
(London
and New York: Routledge, 1996), pp. 180-221. PE 1075 E58 1996 STL.
Jack Lynch,A guide to Samuel
Johnson
Carey McIntosh, “The
Instruments of Literacy”, The Evolution
of English Prose 1700-1800.
Style, Politeness, and Print Culture (Cambridge: CUP, 1998), pp. 169-194. PR 769 M38 1998 STL.
Carey McIntosh,
“Politeness; Feminization”, The Evolution
of English Prose 1700-1800. Style,
Politeness, and Print Culture (Cambridge: CUP, 1998). PR 769 M38 1998 STL.
Carey McIntosh, “The New
Rhetoric”, The Evolution of English Prose
1700-1800. Style, Politeness, and
Print Culture (Cambridge: CUP, 1998). PR 769 M38 1998 STL.
Lynda Mugglestone, “The
Rise of a Standard: Process and Ideology”,
`Talking Proper’: The
Rise of Accent as Social Symbol (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995). PE1074.7 M84 1995 STL.
Carol Percy, review
of Amanda Vickery's The Gentleman's Daughter (1998): a
summary
of language issues.
Jennifer Roberts-Smith, “Key
terms for analyzing a play as a performance text”.
Pat Rogers, “Boswell and
the Scotticism”, New Light on Boswell:
Critical and Historical Essays on the
Occasion of the Bicentenary of the Life of Johnson, ed. Greg Clingham (Cambridge:
CUP, 1991), pp. 56-71. STL article #1151.
Janet Sorensen, “`A
Grammarian’s Regard to the Genius of Our Tongue’: Johnson’s Dictionary,
Imperial
Grammar, and the Customary National Language”, The Grammar of Empire in Eighteenth-Century British Writing
(Cambridge: CUP, 2000). PR 448 I5 STL.
Janet Sorensen, “Essay
Review. Peripheral Visions: Remaking the map of British Cultural history”,
The Eighteenth Century 40.1 (1999), pp. 68-79.
Janet Sorensen, “The
Figure of the Nation: Polite Language and its Originary Other”,
The Grammar of Empire in Eighteenth-Century
British Writing (Cambridge: CUP,
2000). PR 448 I5 STL.
Janet Sorensen, “Women, Celts, and Hollow Voices:
Tobias Smollett’s brokering of Anglo-British
Linguistic
Identities”, The Grammar of Empire in
Eighteenth-Century British Writing (Cambridge: CUP, 2000). PR 448 I5 STL.
Richard
Steadman-Jones, “Learning Urdu in the late eighteenth century: dialogues and
familiar
phrases”, History of
Linguistics 1996. Volume 1: Traditions in Linguistics Worldwide, ed. David Cram, Andrew Linn and
Elke Nowak (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1999), pp. 165-172. STL
article #2781.
Dieter Stein, “Sorting
out the variants: standardization and social factors in the
English
language 1600-1800”, Towards a standard
English 1600-1800, ed. Dieter Stein & Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade
(Berlin & New York: Mouton, 1994), pp. 1-17. PE 1083 T69 1994 STL.
Watts, Richard J.,
“Mythical strands in the ideology of prescriptivism,” The development of
standard English, 1300-1800: theories,
descriptions, conflicts
(Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 29-48.