THE EUROPEAN ENLIGHTENMENT

HST 4344 explores the social, political, intellectual, and cultural history of the European Enlightenment, especially in relation to the old regimes in Europe from the reign of Louis XIV to the French Revolution. It examines the substance and diffusion of Enlightenment ideas, emphasizes the diversity within the movement, and assesses its general impact as a force of innovation in eighteenth-century society and culture. Among the topics given special consideration are: the popularization of science, attacks on traditional Christianity, enlightened politics, the limitations on reform in an "age of aristocracy," the philosophic movement and the "people," the influence of the Enlightenment on the French Revolution, appeals to rationalism and classical cultural ideals in the arts, and the challenge of the Counter Enlightenment that led toward Romanticism.

Most weeks there will be both lectures and discussions of assigned readings. Course requirements include attendance and participation in class discussion of assigned readings (about 100-120 pages per week) completed prior to our meetings [30%] as well as two short (seven- to ten-page) papers [each 35%] on a selection of topics covered in the lectures and readings.

Please note that I cannot accept written assignments late, unless very unusual circumstances arise or my permission is sought and granted in advance of the due

date. Note also that you must submit all assignments in order to pass the course.

All written work and class discussion for this course are in gender-neutral, nonsexist language and rhetorical constructions. Such practice is part of a classroom situation according full respect and opportunity to all participants by all others.

Written work is submitted in paper or "hard" copy, without cover pages or special folders. Simply put your name and course identification at the top of the first page and staple the upper left corner. Papers are always paginated (usually at the bottom and center of each page after the first), double-spaced, and presented in clear 10- to 12-point type.

Parenthetical annotation is now strongly recommended, though any form of annotation (foot- or endnotes) and bibliography is acceptable for this course, provided that you use it correctly and consistently. Probably most appropriate for your work in the arts and humanities are standard guides like Joseph Gibaldi’s MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (5^th ed.; NY, 1999) or Kate L. Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (6^th ed.; Chicago, 1996).

At the same time, Diana Hacker's Rules for Writers (5^th ed.; Boston and NY, 2004) summarizes MLA stylistic conventions, outlines current grammatical practices and mechanical presentation, and offers helpful guidelines for researching and writing papers. You may find it, her Research and Documentation in the electronic Age (3^rd ed.; Boston, 2002), and her Web site (www.dianahacker.com) especially useful for your work in the course this semester.

Any student who has not already read William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style (4^th ed.; Boston, 2000), should do so immediately.

I should also mention that the eleventh edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, MA, 2003) is now the standard for everyday university work.

Most required readings as well as some recommended items for the course are on reserve in the McDermott Library. Paperback books used extensively are also for sale, if you wish to purchase them, both in the University Bookstore and at Off-Campus Books. Rather than being on the library’s reserve shelf, however, shorter readings marked with an asterisk (*) are available online through the copy of this syllabus on my Internet Web site. Please note that those materials are under copyright, you must always cite them properly, and you must have a password to gain access to them. I will give you the password in class.

Students are encouraged (but not required) to obtain a good recording of W.A. Mozart's Magic Flute. I especially recommend the performances conducted by Karl Böhm (Deutsche Grammophon, 1964) ), by Roger Norrington (Angel Records, 1992, with period instruments), or by John Eliot Gardiner (Deutsche Grammophon, 1995, also with period instruments), though any recording with libretto and complete dialog should be acceptable. There is a video of the Gardiner semi-staged performance, parts of which we shall view at the end of the course, but you might also enjoy seeing the historically informed performance led by Arnold Östman at Drottningholm (Image DVD, 1989). Ingmar Bergman's 1975 Magic Flute, one of the most impressive and enjoyable television-film adaptations of any opera, is now available in the superb Criterion Collection (2000).

Please also note that, although I do not anticipate them, there may be some changes in the following schedule. If they occur, I will announce them in class and post them on the syllabus at my Web site on the Internet.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: all course correspondence by e-mail must now occur through the student’s UTD e-mail address. UT-Dallas provides each student with a free e-mail account that is to be used in all communication with university personnel. This allows the university to maintain a high degree of confidence in the identity of all individuals corresponding and the security of the transmitted information. The Department of Information Resources at UTD provides a method for students to forward email from other accounts to their UTD address and have their UTD mail sent on to other accounts. Students may go to the following URL to establish or maintain their official UTD computer account: http://netid.utdallas.edu/.

Every effort is made to accommodate students with disabilities. The full range of resources available through and procedures concerning Disability Services can be found at www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/hcsvc.html.

Scholastic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to: cheating, plagiarism. collusion, and falsifying academic records. Please familiarize yourself with the university's policies concerning scholastic dishonesty at www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/dishonesty.html.

SCHEDULE OF CLASS MEETINGS & ASSIGNMENTS

Introduction

M 22 Aug Ideas in History: Themes & Organization of the Course

W 24 Aug Definition of the Movement: A Party of Humanity?

Reading: Peter *Gay, The Enlightenment: A Comprehensive Anthology 13-25, and Roy Porter, The Enlightenment (2^nd ed.)

The Enlightenment in the History of Ideas

M 29 Aug An Age of Reason? Reason & Criticism in the Enlightenment

W 31 Aug Ancestry of the Movement & Its Frame of Mind

Discussion of *Gay, Anthology, 29-31. 56-89 (Descartes, Newton, Locke), and 119-174 (Montesquieu, Voltaire)

(Labor Day)

W 7 Sep The Enlightenment & Eighteenth-Century Religion

Discussion of The Eighteenth Century, ed. T.C.W. Blanning, ch. 4

M 12 Sep The Attack on Traditional Christianity

W 14 Sep

Discussion of *Gay, 199-267 (Swift, Pope, Reimarus, Voltaire, Gibbon, Boswell) and (Holbach, Kant, Diderot)

M 19 Sep Religion & Enlightenment: Toleration of Jews and Muslims?

Discussion of Nathan the Wise [1779] by Gotthold.Ephraim Lessing with Related Documents, trans. and ed. Ronald Schechter

Recommended: Paul Meyer, "The Attitude of the Enlightenment Towards the Jew," Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century

26 (1963): 1161-1205

W 21 Sep Knowledge as Power: History & Progress

M 26 Sep Literature as Social & Cultural Criticism

Discussion of Voltaire's Candide (1759), trans. and ed. Daniel Gordon (in the Bedford Series in History and Culture)

The "Party of Humanity" in Old-Regime Society

W 28 Sep The Old Regimes: Privilege & the Corporate Social Order

M 3 Oct First Paper Due

The Challenges of Eighteenth-Century Dynamism

W 5 Oct Eighteenth-Century Dynamism (2)

Reading: Blanning, chs. 2 and 3

M 10 Oct New & Traditional Economics: The Policy Debate

Discussion of Adam Smith in *Gay, 571-616

W 12 Oct Discussion of *E.P. Thompson, "The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century," Past & Present

50 (1971): 76-136 [now in his Customs in Common (NY, 1991), 185-258] [Thompson-1] [Thompson-2]

Recommended: E.P. Thompson, "The Moral Economy Reviewed," Customs in Common (NY, 1991), 259-351

M 17 Oct Organization & Reception of the Enlightenment

W 19 Oct The Notion of the Public Sphere

M 24 Oct Enlightenment Politics & Eighteenth-Century Government

Reading: Blanning, chs. 1 and 5 and Conclusion

W 26 Oct Enlightenment and Revolution: Alienation of the Intellectuals?

Discussion of T.C.W. Blanning, The French Revolution: Class War or Culture Clash?; *Robert Darnton,

"The High Enlightenment and the Low Life of Literature," The Literary Underground of the Old Regime (Cambridge MA,

1982), 1-40; and *Michael Fitzsimmons, "Privilege and the Polity in France, 1786-1791," American Historical Review 92

(1987): 269-295 [ McDermott Library}

Cultural Innovation: Fulfillment and/or Transcendence?

M 31 Oct Artistic & Aesthetic Theory in the Eighteenth Century

Recommended: Gay, 417-477

W 2 Nov "True Style": From Rococo to Neoclassicism

Discussion of Matthew Craske, Art in Europe, 1700-1830, Introduction and chs. 1 and 2

M 7 Nov Discussion of Craske, chs. 3 and 4

W 9 Nov From Baroque to Classicism in Art Music

Lecture with Musical Illustrations

M 14 Nov Musical Enlightenment?

Discussion of W. A. Mozart's Magic Flute (1791)

Recommended Reading: Synopsis of the opera in Branscombe (get password in class)

Recommended: Peter Branscombe, W.A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (Cambridge Opera Handbook)

Paper Topics Distributed in Class

W 16 Nov Further discussion of the opera, with listening / viewing of performances of some scenes

Recommended: William Stafford, The Mozart Myths

Nicholas Till, Mozart and the Enlightenment: Truth, Virtue and Beauty in Mozart’s Operas

M 21 Nov The Counter Enlightenment & the End of the Movement

Reading: *Isaiah Berlin, Against the Current, 1-24

W 23 Nov No Class: Work on Final Papers

M 28 Nov Afterthoughts & Course Evaluation

Final Paper Due. Unfortunately, I cannot accept late papers.

Please attach a stamped self-addressed envelope, if you wish me to return the essay with comments as well as

your marks for the course.

The European Enlightenment in Old-Regime Society Some Recommended Books

Ernst Cassirer, The Philosophy of the Enlightenment

Paul Hazard, The European Mind 1680-1715

Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation 2 v.

Peter Gay, Voltaire's Politics

Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment in National Context, ed. R. Porter and M. Teich

Thomas Munck, The Enlightenment: A Comparative Social History 1721-1794

Jonathan Israel, Radical Enlightenment

Roy Porter, Creation of the Modern World: The Untold Story of the British Enlightenment

John Brewer, The Pleasure of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century

Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul

Dena Goodman, The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment

Margaret Jacob, Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in 18^th-Century Europe

Richard van Dülmen, Society of the Enlightenment

James Van Horn Melton, The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe

Eve Tavor Bannet, The Domestic Revolution: Enlightenment Feminisms and the Novel

W.R. Ward, Christianity under the Ancien Régime 1648-1789

Nigel Aston, Christianity and Revolutionary Europe c. 1750-1830

William Doyle, Jansenism

Dale Van Kley, The Religious Origins of the French Revolution: From Calvin to the Civil Constitution 1560-1791

Jeffrey Freedman, Poisoned Chalice

Ronald Schechter, Obstinate Hebrews: Representation of Jews in France, 1715-1815

T.C.W. Blanning, The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture

Isser Woloch, Eighteenth-Century Europe: Tradition and Progress, 1715-1789

Enlightened Absolutism: Reform and Reformers in Later Eighteenth-Century Europe, ed. H. M. Scott

Nicholas Henshall, The Myth of Absolutism

Maurice Cranston, Philosophers and Pamphleteers

Daniel Roche, France in the Enlightenment

Old Regime France, ed. William Doyle

Richard Herr, The Eighteenth Century Revolution in Spain

Rudolf Vierhaus, Germany in the Age of Absolutism

Charles Ingrao, The Habsburg Monarchy 1618-1815

Ernst Wangermann, The Austrian Achievement 1700-1800

C.B.A. Behrens, Society, Government, and the Enlightenment: The Experiences of Eighteenth-

Century France and Prussia

Isaiah Berlin, Three Critics of the Enlightenment: Vico, Hamann, Herder

Klaus Epstein, The Genesis of German Conservatism

Darrin M. McMahon, Enemies of the Enlightenment: The French Counter-Enlightenment and

the Making of Modernity