Teaching eighteenth-century German literature in the era of #MeToo: gender and the Enlightenment canon

Pilsworth, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7379-0996 (2022) Teaching eighteenth-century German literature in the era of #MeToo: gender and the Enlightenment canon. Publications of the English Goethe Society, 91 (2). pp. 124-139. ISSN 0959-3683 doi: 10.1080/09593683.2022.2074286

Abstract/Summary

This article presents the course ‘Seduction and Destruction: 1772¬–1808’, which I taught at Bristol in 2017, at the time of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and ensuing #MeToo debate. I argue for the examination of gender ideologies as a way into more traditionally studied eighteenth-century concepts and movements such as Aufklärung, Sturm und Drang, and Romanticism. I offer an overview of the texts we studied on the course, and consider to what degree these texts can be seen to critique the gender norms and sexual power dynamics of their own day. Finally, I consider the strengths and challenges of the course at the time, and what made it attractive to students who might otherwise have shied away from eighteenth-century literature.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/105062
Identification Number/DOI	10.1080/09593683.2022.2074286
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > Modern European Histories and Cultures Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Literature and Languages > Languages and Cultures > German
Publisher	Taylor & Francis
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