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 :)

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!!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!