The lyric poem is the most concentrated form of literary communication. The formulation of an approach to interpretation can be a useful tool for the instructor. The poem to be interpreted should be examined in six aspects: (1) information provided in the title, (2) the sound of the poem as read aloud, (3) the clear understanding of the meaning of…

In "Emile," Rousseau recognized the educational value of Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe." Despite this, and despite some common ground between these two writers, their differences in educational outlook outweigh their similarities, especially in the educational debates of their age concerning Nature and Nurture and Private and Public…

Discusses how a genre like the essay could have originated in opposition to rhetoric and then nevertheless be taken over by it. Concentrates on four moments in the history of the essay: (1) its birth; (2) the English essay of the seventeenth century; (3) the classical form of "The Tatler" and "The Spectator"; and (4) the role…

Examines issues about the representation of children in art during the 18th and 19th centuries: (1) main representations during this period; (2) principal influences affecting the construction of these images; and (3) whether the verbal and visual arts conceptualize childhood in similar or different ways. Looks at three influences on writers and…

The London Stage Information Bank (LSIB) is a machine-readable text of "The London Stage, 1660-1800," an 11-volume publication that contains information on plays, entertainments and afterpieces, casts, box-receipts, and contemporary comment compiled from playbills, newspapers, and theatrical diaries of the period. The LSIB can be…

A successful, elective minicourse in the literature of terror and the supernatural examined various literary works in the light of six goals: to examine the terror motif in fiction (in print and other media), to try to understand the reasons for the continued appeal of the literature of terror, to investigate why representative authors have…

This book considers the poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who foreshadowed the imaginative development of the novel - its growth in introspectiveness, interest in the individual and psychological insight, in fulness, and in an exploratory-creative use of language. These are found principally in the work of Dickens, George Eliot,…

Explains the plan and intention of the series of stories composing "Emile" in order to convince readers how imperative it is to study this work. In "Emile" Rousseau describes an ordinary boy and experiments with the possibility of his becoming an autonomous man. (Author/BC)

Suggests a method of teaching the poetry of Alexander Pope that focuses on the satirical nature of his writing. (AEA)

Believes Rousseau's preoccupation with nature and methods of morality can suggest appropriate reforms for today's schools. (DS)

Presents a method of teaching Restoration and eighteenth-century drama in which a context shaped by student characteristics and needs is built for the study of the plays and in which a single specific problem is addressed in each text to develop an understanding of the drama and the period. (DF)

Discusses the conflict between the religious and scientific imaginations as existing between the intellectual realms of unquestioning faith and constant questioning. Relates this conflict to writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, e.g., Bacon, Kepler, Wilkins, Godwin, Harrington, Campanella, Cyrano, Le Bret, Defoe, Swift, Voltiare,…

Analyzes Fisher Ames' fiery speech of 1796 on the Jay Treaty. Demonstrates the influence of Scottish enlightenment thinkers (particularly in moral sense philosophy and faculty psychology) on Ames and his rhetoric. Demonstrates how Ames made a compelling case to shift the standard of political judgment from reason to passion. (SR)