Thursday, November 14, 2013

Group postponed until next semester

Hello everyone,

Due to low-turnout and end of the semester craziness, we will be postponing the group until next semester. At that time, we will discuss a new reading schedule. Best of luck with final papers, exam prep, and/or grading!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

New group meeting time!

Hi everyone!

It looks like Tues is no longer convenient for everyone. Rachel and I have agreed that Thursdays might be better. Let's meet Thursday, November 14 at 5:00 pm at the Pourhouse. We'll talk about Journal & what we want to read next. Happy Halloween!

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

If fate does not yet again take the wheel, then Journal for next Tuesday

Hello everyone!

Due to a scheduling error, I am just now learning that I have a mandatory meeting to attend. Rachel & I decided to just postpone for next week, when I am sure there will be a tornado or hurricane or some other divine interference. Perhaps a plague. As long as locusts do not descend upon our town, we will meet next Tuesday, October 22 at 5:00 pm at the Pour House. See you then!

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Journal for this Tuesday

Hi everyone!

We will finally be reading Journal of the Plague Year for this Tuesday's meeting. Please read as much or as little as you have time for. Any comments will no doubt be helpful to Rachel, who is including a chapter on this text in her dissertation. We look forward to seeing you 5:00 pm Tuesday at the Pour House on Kirkwood!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Moliere at IU theater for Tues!

Greetings everyone! This week we will be postponing the Journal to see Moliere's "The Imaginary Invalid" at the IU Theater.

http://www.indiana.edu/~thtr/productions/2013/invalid.shtml

Tickets are $15 and the play begins at 7:30. We will meet at Lennie's at 5:30 for dinner beforehand, so please join us for food, friends, and theater!

(We will resume normal meetings next week with Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year.)

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Journal of the Plague Year for Oct 1

Greetings! Last week we had a productive meeting about Hegel and phenomenology. Next up is Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year. While this is a fictional account of the plague, it is thought that Defoe was influenced by his uncle's journals, as well as the diary of Samuel Pepys, which is available in a convenient web-blog format. If for any reason you decide to check out Pepys first, note that the year of interest is 1665.

We will not be meeting this upcoming week, but rather next week, Tuesday October 1 from 5:00-6:00 pm at the Pourhouse on Kirkwood. See you there!

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Correction -- Hegel's Philosophy

I made an error in posting the reading for this Tues; we will be discussing Section I Subsection C (Philosophy & Mind) and Section III. My apologies & see you Tuesday!

Friday, September 13, 2013

Hegel's Philosophy of Mind

Hi everyone!

Sorry to post this so late! For next week we'll be reading Hegel's Philosophy of Mind, sections I and III (Mind Subjective & Absolute Mind). The readings are tasking but short, and they are more condensed versions of some of the main ideas in Phenomenology of Spirit. If you want to read and discuss other sections instead or in addition to these, you are more than welcome.

Philosophy of Mind

I look forward to seeing everyone Tuesday at 5:00 pm at the Pourhouse on Kirkwood!

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Readings for Next Week (9/10)

Hi All!

We decided to go with a lighter reading for next week as we are all still adjusting to our new fall schedules. We will be reading two dramas for this week--one in honor of IU Theatre's September performance, which the reading group plans to attend together! Links to the texts (in English) will be provided below. Feel free to just read one, but we'll be talking about both!


Texts:

Moliere,  The Imaginary Invalid (1673)
Haywood, A Wife to Lett (1724)


As always, we will be meeting at the Pourhouse on Kirkwood on Tuesday, 9/10 from 5 - 6 p.m.


We also wanted to cue you into the readings for the following week, 9/17, so that you can get a head start during our light reading week if you so choose! For our 9/17 meeting we will be delving into philosophy: Hegel's Philosophy of Mind and Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.

Until next week, C18 readers!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Start of Term Meeting

Hello All!

Welcome back from a brief summer haitus!

Just a quick note: for Fall 2013, our regular weekly meetings will take place on Tuesdays from 5 - 6 p.m. at the Pourhouse on Kirkwood.

Our first meeting of the term, which is today, September 3rd,  will take on two parts. It is completely up to you which parts you would like to attend, but it would be really great if you could either e-mail Kate or myself (Rachel) if you cannot attend Part II, as it concerns all members!

Part I: 5 - 5:30 p.m.  - Finishing up discussion of Don Juan
Part II: 5:30 - 6 p.m. - Planning the first initial readings of the semester

If you could not read Don Juan, don't sweat it (I wasn't here either, so I'm out of that one, too!)--but do join us to plan the texts we'll be reading next, as well as other fun events and practical group workshops that we'd like to do this term.

See you all soon!

Cheers.

Rachel (and Kate)


Monday, July 8, 2013

Don Juan Cantos I-VI

Greetings everyone! Last week we began our examination of Romantic poetry with Scott's Marmion, and this week we will be continuing that theme with Byron's Don Juan. To ease the work load and to allow more time for discussion, we have decided to dedicate three weeks to this poem. Please join us this Wednesday from 4:00-5:00 at the Pour House to discuss Cantos I-VI!

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Marmion

Join us on Wednesday, July 3rd for Walter Scott's Marmion, the story of lascivious English nobleman who dies at the battle of Flodden Field, ending his reign of terror over the object of his desire and her fiance. We will be joined by two new readers this week, and I am personally excited to meet Dan O'Keefe and Max Nagano. See you at the Pourhouse on Kirkwood!

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Summer Session: Foster's The Coquette

Hi All:

So this week we are reading Hannah Foster's The Coquette (1797)--a major text in the development of the eighteenth-century American novel, with a fascinating back story in print journalism and women's issues. It should make for a charged discussion! Below are two links (downloadable and plain html text) to the short, epistolary novel (my print version marks it at about 172 pages).


Main Text:

Foster, The Coquette

PLAIN HTML LINK

PROJECT GUTENBURG DOWNLOAD LINK
 

Looking forward to seeing you all this Wednesday, June 12th at 4:30 PM in the Pour House on Kirkwood Ave.

Also, this is my (Rachel's) last meeting of the summer, as I'll be off to other eighteenth-century studies abroad. But Kate has agreed to take over the meetings and posts, so hats off to the co-leader and I will miss our discussions! Perhaps we can have a skype reading group date :)

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Swift DAY!!!

Hi Group:

This is just a reminder that we are meeting today, Wednesday, from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. at the Pour House cafe on Kirkwood Ave for SWIFT DAY!

Bring with you copies--electronic or other--of A Modest Proposal and Tale of a Tub (yay!)


Looking forward to meeting after our end-of-term hiatus!!


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Reading Group Resumes! Up Next: SWIFT!

Hello All:

The C18 Reading Group will reconvene for the summer. If you're around, you should probably come--'cause it will be awesome.

One of your hosts of the C18 Reading is being quite selfish in putting through her own request for the next series of readings, but hopefully you won't find it too outlandish when I tell you that next on our agenda will be JONATHAN SWIFT!

Click on the links below for access to the text of what we'll be reading:

Tale of a Tub (1704)

A Modest Proposal (1729)

Optional:

The Drapier Letters (1734) - Vol. VI in the Prose Work of Jonathan Swift

The Lady's Dressing Room (1732)


We hope you join us in two weeks for the reunion of the C18 Reading Group AND for Swift Day (it's gonna be pretty great).

This meeting will take place on Wednesday, May 15th from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. @ the Pour House on Kirkwood Ave.

We hope to see you there!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Amelia Revisited

Hello All:

We meet again on Wednesday, April 10th at the Pour House on Kirkwood between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. to continue our discussion of Fielding's Amelia.

We had lively conversation about disease, castration, women's friendship, and the ins-and-outs of the institution of marriage in the eighteenth century. We are delighted to continue those discussions--and more--today. So come join us!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Fielding's Amelia at last!

Hello All:

Thank you for your patience in our two-week hiatus--Spring Break is, alas!, over and so, thankfully, is our amazing conference. We are ready to roll up our brocaded coats, fluff our perriwigs, apply our patches, and tighten our shifts once again--in short, we're ready to get back to work at the eighteenth-century reading group!

This week we'll be reading Henry Fielding's lesser-studied novel, Amelia. <--Click on the title to access the full novel on Project Gutenberg (thanks, Kate, for the link!). You can also find the very first scholarly edition from Broadview Press on amazon relatively well-priced.

We also will likely have a special guest this week: Tracey may be bringing a prospective C18 graduate student in the English program to sit in our talk. While it seems unlikely that our prospective will have had time to read the novel and join the conversation, let's make her feel welcome! Dinner to follow at The Runcible Spoon.

As always, we'll be meeting on Kirkwood at The Pour House on Wednesday, March 27th from 4:30 - 5:30. We hope to see you there!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Fielding Delayed Until Next Week

We are going to delay meeting to discuss Fielding's Amelia until next week due to all the craziness around the conference. Otherwise, same time & place (see the last blog entry for more details). Thanks & we look forward to seeing you next Wednesday, March 27.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Up Next: Henry Fielding, Amelia

Smith's text generated a number of great ideas yesterday. Some larger themes, definitely circulating in yesterday's talk, appear to be common to many of our discussions: these include embodiment, the limits of the body (or lack thereof), gender, individuality, choice, boundaries, and health. We will continue to trace these ideas and more when we come back from spring break having read Henry Fielding's Amelia.

You can find Fielding's novel on project Gutenberg:

Amelia

Since we've been talking around and through gender, I thought we might supplement this week's readings with an article about the role of women in this novel. Below is a link to an article from Modern Language Review by Earla Wulputte. Having not read this article, I cannot attest to its gravity, but regardless it should provide a point of departure around some of the issues we have been exploring. You can easily link to a pdf of this article through Onesearch, or you can email me (katblake@indiana.edu) for a copy.

Wulputte, Earla. "'Women Buried': Henry Fielding and Feminine Absence." Modern Language Review. 95.2 (2000)

We will resume our meetings after spring break on March 20 from 4:30-5:30 at the Pour-House on Kirkwood. Hope to see you there!

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Up Next Week: Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments

We shared some very interesting reflections on Burton last night, and now it's time to turn to the long-awaited Adam Smith & his Theory of Moral Sentiments! There have been consistent votes for Smith since we started the blog, so we anticipate that this will be a vibrant discussion.

Below are two links to Smith. One is HTML and the other is a $0.99 Kindle edition from Amazon. I regret that Project Gutenberg does not have a pdf copy. Please read as much of the selection as you are able, and come ready to share any & all of your questions/insights/observations/theories.

Theory of Moral Sentiments -- Kindle

Theory of Moral Sentiments -- HTML

Below are some supplementary readings; you'll note that Siskin & Warner have made a return, as we did not have a chance to discuss their texts yesterday. I also ran across Rae Greiner's article on "Theory," so I thought why not? You can access it through Project Muse on the library's website, or email me (Katherine Blake -- katblake@indiana.edu) for a pdf copy. 

Peripheral texts
Clifford Siskin and William Warner, "This is Enlightenment: An Invitation in the Form of an Argument" (Introductory chapter to This is Enlightenment, Chicago: U Chicago P, 2009) 
Rae Greiner, "The Art of Knowing Your Own Nothingness." ELH 77.4 (Winter 2010)

As always, we will be meeting Wednesday, March 6th at The Pour-House on Kirkwood, from 4:30-5:30. We look forward to seeing you there!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Up Next Week: Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy

Hello All:

A great discussion on Locke and Rousseau made that hour fly by today! Thank you to all who attended. One hour was clearly not enough to map out the complexities of these two theorists, but I think we aired some really great questions that could turn into great papers and studies.

According to the votes to the right of this blog, Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) is up next. Though it is most obviously a seventeenth-century text, Burton's work becomes central to a variety of eighteenth-century literature on the mind, health and medicine, depression, the humors, genius and melancholia, etc.

We will be reading Burton, then, in small doses (it's a huge work). Group members today agreed upon reading sections from the "First Partition" (which lays out a theory and "symptoms" of melancholy) and the "Third Partition" (which discusses love, desire, and melancholy). Those interested in medicine and disease may want to check out the "Second Partition" instead of the third. Again, because these pieces are so long, please read as far as you are able and nothing more. Also, if you aren't interested in reading Burton but want to discuss the "peripheral" text, please attend the group meeting to do so--this is a very flexible and informal group, so don't feel too pressured! Below is a breakdown of the sections we'll try to cover and a link to Project Gutenberg that contains several different ebook forms of the text. I tried out the Kindle edition and it worked perfectly--the "contents" tab conveniently lets you jump straight to the different partitions!


Major Text for Discussion

Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

Contents to be covered:

First Partition - Sections 1, 2, 3
Third Partition - Sections 1, 2, 3 

Peripheral Text for Discussion

Clifford Siskin and William Warner, "This is Enlightenment: An Invitation in the Form of an Argument" (Introductory chapter to This is Enlightenment, Chicago: U Chicago P, 2009)


We will meet at the same time and place, Wednesday, Feb 27th from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. at the Pour House on Kirkwood.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

IU Theatre: Sheridan's School for Scandal

Hello All:


The Department of Theatre at IU is performing Sheridan's School for Scandal this Friday, Feb 22nd, through March 2nd.

Thursday, Linda Pisano is giving a talk associated with the show that concerns eighteenth-century costume design. It is titled, "From Bosom to Ankle: The Clothing of Scandals in 18th-Century London." It will be held Thurs, Feb 21st, @ 5:30 pm in the Studio Theatre, 2nd Floor, 7th and Jordan.


If anyone in the reading group would like to attend the play this Friday, a couple of us from workshop will also be grabbing dinner and going to the show. Email or message me for details! Also, several members of the reading group are attending on Tuesday of next week with an eighteenth-century class--contact Tracey if you want details!



Here is the link for show and ticket information: http://www.indiana.edu/~thtr/productions/2012/scandal.shtml


Looking forward to tomorrow's meeting on Rousseau and Locke!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Up Next Week: Politics of Contract--Locke & Rousseau

Hello All:

Well, our discussion of Diderot was excellent--thank you to all who came and contributed to a great, dynamic interdisciplinary discussion!

For next week (based upon requests & your votes on the poll to the right of this blog), we're going to discuss selections from Locke and Rousseau--two major hitters for social contract theory. I have posted links to the following works (just click on the titles)--if you'd prefer a .pdf from a non-online edition, please contact me (Rachel) through the blog site or via e-mail and I can send some your way. However I've checked these against my scholarly editions, and they check out! We'll be reading two major/central texts for discussion--I've included others for those who want to take on a heavier load!


Two Central Texts for Discussion:

Locke, Second Treatise of Government
Rousseau, The Social Contract

Peripheral Texts for Discussion:

Locke, First Treatise of Government
Rousseau, A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker


We will be meeting same time/place: Wednesday, February 20th @ the Pour House (on Kirkwood Ave) from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. 

Please invite people from across time periods, specialties, and departments: the more interdisciplinary the group, the more dynamic the conversation!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Diderot Tomorrow!

We'll be discussing Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist tomorrow at the Pour House on Kirkwood from 4:30 - 5:30. We hope you can join!



Thursday, January 31, 2013

Welcome!

Welcome to IU's grad student eighteenth-century reading group! We'll be starting soon, but until then, make sure you comment or contact the site admins (Rachel, Tracey, or Kate) to request a text or piece to add to the running bibliography.