Finishing up

There've been some proposals, and some discussions, on the "Closure Issues" forum. Below are the ones that got what seemed to me the most, and / or most persuasive, responses. I'll invite you to reflect on any of them you like. We'll use the cards to open the floor to as many voices as possible, at least at first.

Maisa:

If this course were to go on from this point I would want to explore Boswell and Johnson some more. Perhaps read Johnson's criticism of Shakespeare or try and find correspondence between him and Boswell.
I was wondering about letter writing. I was never in a group that read any letters, but I know they were very popular at the time, especially amongst women. But I thought to myself. Were the letters public at the time? Or were they only published much later? Did they have books like, Letters from So-and-So to Mr.WhatsHisFace?
It makes me a bit nervous that we didn't study Addison and Steele at all. I feel like they were very important, and named as influential writers in many of the anthologies and references we used. I guess my question about them is...what did they do? I know they wrote periodicals. Were they less academic, writers of the "new journalism" that was being carried out on Grubb Street? I wouldn't mind a small overview of them.

One thing that I think it would be interesting to discuss in our final class is "who have we overlooked?" The authors we have studied this year were pretty much all decided on, as a class, to look at, with the exception that Russ urged us to look at Defoe, because of his importance to literature in the 18th century (an author we hadn't really emphasized in our recommendations). So rather than assuming that we are now all 18th century literary scholars who understand everything there is to know, I'd be interested to hear Russ give us an overview of important authors we missed, and potentially some sort of class exercise where we briefly read/discuss short excerpts from these "new" authors? I think that would be fun anyway!
Other than that, I don't really have any un-answered questions about the authors we have looked at. I think that we've studied them all pretty thoroughly, with lots of discussion questions being raised about "less obvious" components of 18th century writing. But since this is "closure" time, and the end of the year when we all appreciate a little bit of fun, I think it'd be cool to do some sort of summary class on Wednesday, looking at significant authors we haven't yet studied. Just an idea! Plus, it would be a good starting point for any further research into 18th century literature, if anyone feels so inclined.

I think I'd really like to talk in class about what we're taking away after a year spent with this time period. I know that's very vague, but I'd like to see what other students have thought about all of the authors we have been studying, and why we think they're important, as well as what we've learned about the time period through their writings.
Personally, I loved reading Defoe, and although I didn't really love any of the other authors, I can completely understand why they are so important and influential, and why it's been necessary that we've spent so much time with them. I guess I just want to hear what other students have thought.
If you're looking for a more specific question, I guess I'd like to learn a little bit more about Boswell. Not his life necessarily, but whether he would be considered one of the influential writers of the time. Seeing as we read a lot of his stuff, we never really discussed his position compared to some of the other authors we've been studying. I really enjoyed reading his work, and am curious if he was (or is) considered an influential writer of the time

My main source of closure in this course, I think, would come from having an overview to tie together everything we touched on. If there were still time left in the course I would have liked to explore this.
I feel as though at the beginning of the course, we read a lot about the 18th century, got some context, and read about the theories and concerns circulating at the time. Then we got into looking at authors in depth and being quite specific with them. I feel like I'd like to have a chance to tie back what we looked at with the things we looked at generally in the 18th century, and also see where the authors and works we looked at fit in with each other and with the concerns, events, and ideas at the time. We looked at context, and then we looked at authors and their works,  so I'd like to put them together as a class and see what scholars have to say about it.

Even after two rounds of going through the process of researching, and suggesting 18th century writers to work with, based on academic reviews and quotes—and realizing there is a pretty clear set of writers most agree on— I’m still not sure I understand why some writers get so much ink, and others barely make it in anthologies, or in other scholarly work.
I think we’ve talked about this at some point during the year, but it’s one of the only things that still bug me. I’m not necessarily talking about women writers of that era, because it’s pretty clear the social structures didn’t allow them much room, but instead of people like Oliver Goldsmith, for example. I remember having come across his name just once, in all the anthologies and histories I searched in, this year, but just from that one blurb it seemed like he was a pretty significant writer, and should have come up more…

looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's closing time