待Welcome to European Literature, 1350-1800. This course is a continuation of Introduction to Western Literature and will aim to introduce you to important texts of continental European literature. The period 1350-1800 was a period of upheaval in Western Europe. The expansion of trade routes, first with the Silk road, then with the discovery of America in 1492 opened new horizons for European thinkers. At the same time, the “rediscovery” of Antiquity in the middle of the fourteenth century altered the paradigms of the Middle Ages. The period also saw a fundamental rethinking of the relationship between subjects and monarchs, leading to first the English (1642-1660) and then the American (1776-1783) and French (1789-1803) Revolutions.

The course will examine, therefore how this transitional period was affected through the art and literature (mostly literature, but I will add some art) of the time. Starting with Descartes and Kant we will then proceed to reading a rewriting of ancient epic but placing the text in a contemporary context, the conquest of Chile in the Araucaniad by Alonso de Ercilla y Zunigas. We will then discuss visions of heroism with a movie, Don Quixote (or Aguirre, the Wrath of God). We will then discuss another form that is used in the period, namely, tragedy via Racine and his rewriting of Euripedean tragedy via his Phedre. We will then move on to experimentations within classicism, that is, Moliere and the “Grande Comedie” through Tartuffe. Literature of the enlightenment will be explored via Candide by Voltaire. Finally the period also saw the development of romantic literature, which we will explore by reading Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther.