For Credit: Representations of Enlightenment Subjectivity (Last Chance to Post for Week 13)

In the Spectator No. 11, "Arietta" points out that what we take for granted in the world often depends on who gets to tell the stories that teach us our assumptions. Of course, while overturning one stereotype (women are fickle) that emerges from one story (the Ephesian matron), she reinforces another stereotype (non-European women are inherently lustful, particularly for European men) with a different story (Inkle and Yarico).

Our readings for the past two weeks have included literature that attempts to speak for (or displays the speaking out of) those who do not in this time ordinarily get to tell their stories in print to the wide-ranging literate audience that buys books and magazine.

To what extent do these voices confirm, disrupt, or complicate your sense of what literature of the Enlightenment era is like--what it can say and how it seeks to delight and instruct readers?

Cite some text to support your claims.

Deadline: Saturday (11/21), midnight.