FRS 002 — Sec. 024 — (2 unit) — CRN 94065 — W 12:10-2:00pm — 1344 Storer
The Origins of Tolerance in the English Enlightenment

Instructor: David Alvarez, Department of English, College of Letters and Science

Description: This research seminar examines literary and philosophical texts of the English Enlightenment to better understand the origins and nature of religious and cultural tolerance. Our primary focus will be to answer the question: What is tolerance in these texts? Is it a commitment to reason or relativism? How is tolerance imagined? Is it an argument? a rhetoric? a stance? What is it like to be tolerant? And what takes the place of religious community in these works? I am pursuing these and similar questions in my book project, The Augustan Enlightenment: Literature, Sociability, and the Antinomies of Liberalism, 1660-1720.

Format: Students will gain an understanding of the cultural and political background to the origins of tolerance, but the primary work of the course will be reading the selected texts very closely. They will improve their reading, writing, and speaking skills while investigating a topic of some relevance to contemporary social and political issues. Under the instructor's guidance, students will work in small groups for class presentations of close readings designed to jumpstart discussion and analysis. Grading: Group presentations of close readings of passages they found compelling, troubling, confusing, or all of the above (33%); class participation (33%); and a short essay (3-4 pages) on a topic of interest to them written in consultation with the instructor (33%).

About the Instructor: After graduating from UC Davis with a double major in Comparative Literature and Philosophy, David Alvarez completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University. He has taught at Cornell, the University of Rochester, and Davidson College, and also held a Ford Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley before returning to UC Davis last year. He specializes in Enlightenment Studies, and his research seminar continues his work on the relationship between literature, religion, and politics from 1660-1720.