LIT 207

Gazzara

And new philosophy calls all in doubt;The element of fire is quite put out;The sun is lost, and the earth, no man’s witCan well direct him where to look for it.And freely men confess that this world’s spent,When in the planets and the firmamentThey seek so many new; they see that this Is crumbled out again to his atomies.‘Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone;All just supply, and all relation:Prince, subject; father, son, are things forgot,For every man alone thinks he hath gotTo be a phoenix, and that there can beNone of that kind of which he is, but he.

~John Donne, Anatomy of the World

Self-interested, self-seeking individuals in a likewise society = novel/new concepts

These texts SHAPE the ideas about human nature and society they now seem to reflect (example: Goneril/Reagan)

State of nature as that of “war of every man against every man” and individual questing after TRUTH within the market of FREE IDEAS

LITERACY and the massive growth of the print trade more than doubled between 1600 and 1640

Civil war and the Interregnum rise of the newsbook and the temporary collapse of censorship = number of titles published EXCEEDED the total before that period

NEW VOICES INTO THE LITERARY SPHERE MORE WRITERS MORE KINDS OF WRITING

WOMEN entered authorship and publication AUTHOR AS CAPITALIST Voices of the laboring poor

Few, if any, could avoid POLITICS (by choice or design)

Contemporary struggles or (paid or voluntary) propagandists

Distance was really impossible—events found their way into the works

Pervasive, inevitable effects of the English Revolution and its aftermath

Old order / rebellion and regicide inevitable defeat to both, reflected in the works

Debate, Dissent, and Revolution should literature remain aloof from tawdry political squabbles?

Faith, Devotion, and Doubt predestination, intense introspection

The Material world scientists and philosophers sought the material causes of everything, male cynicism of sex

Writing Women misogynist diatribes and subsequent attacks

Using Faith, Devotion, and Doubt as your axis, produce an informal DEFENCE of either Speght’s or Swetnam’s argument, focusing on your particular author's treatment of the Fall.

Bonus points will be considered to each group member of the group who rushes to Swetnam’s defence…