Skip to content

February 20

 

Introductions…again! Tell us your name and one thing about you!

Housekeeping:

  • Group Annotations and Presentation:
    • I asked you to read the instructions during digital class on 2/5
    • See my questions on Twitter 2/5 (#eng333) and my annotations on Blazing World for models of what I’m looking for from your group. Today I’ll model part 3: the in-class presentation
    • Everyone must sign up for a date before the end of the day today
    • Questions?
  • A note on readings: You MUST bring the texts with you to class every week. You can bring you tablet or computer but manage them carefully so you’re still participating meaningfully. You can also print our texts or buy cheap editions on Amazon. You may NOT use your phone.
    • In order to make our conversations more detailed and critical, you should come to class prepared with a few quotes/parts of the text you’d like to talk about. You can help us find it by giving us the starting words or by highlighting the section using Hypothesis.
  • Intro to Project 1

Contexts

Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673)

Image result for margaret cavendish

Hardly the first woman writer, even in Britain, but one of the first aristocrats to publish under her own name.

Never formally educated (still not fashionable for women to go to school) but clearly excellently taught by her mother and her own curiosity.  Joined the court of Queen Henrietta Maria during the Civil War (1642) and lived in exile with her in Paris from 1644.

“Painfully shy, she said very little in court, for fear of being thought foolish—and in a social culture that valued wit above all, she was mocked for her silence” (Broadview Anthology, 1). She became the second wife of William Cavendish at age 22 (he was 52). They lived in relative poverty during and after the Civil War, but met some notable figures in Paris, including philosophers Descartes and Hobbes.

She was continuously ridiculed for her writing (both because it was public and because it was not on “appropriate” topics). Cavendish was a passionate writer and loved to subvert expectations about her gender: she often wore men’s waistcoats and hats, and insisted on bowing rather than curtseying (the horror!).

  • Published in 1666
  • Genre: Utopia; Science Fiction (now); Prose Narrative

Discussion

  • Title pages/covers
  •  To the Reader
  • Summary

On Twitter (excellent work so far!):

Topics: discovering/understanding new places; scientific inquiry; imagination; bears!

+ embodiment: keep it coming!

  • Why does the narrative begin the way it does?
  • What did you make of the animal-people?
  • Which of Cavendish’s theories did you find most fascinating?
  • Would you want to live in this world?
  • How does Cavendish imagine ideal governments? What’s the role of religion?
  • What is the nature of the relationship between the Empress and the Duchess? Are either or both of them Cavendish? Is that reductionist?
  • In what ways does the narrative engage with Colonialism and the British Empire? Did you find that problematic? Is Cavendish reflecting or criticizing these events?

Exit quiz: one thing that will stay with you after you leave class today

Next week:
  • Add your name to the Group Presentations
  • Read Wycherley, The Country Wife (1675)
    • Engage in meaningful Twitter conversations throughout the week (deadline Sunday at midnight) using the #eng333 hashtag
  • Fulfill your hybrid requirement by watching the BBC version of the play. Report back on your thoughts about how it compares to reading the text (you can talk about costume, staging, editing, performance, for instance) by posting a short blog (app. 300 words).