FRS 002DD—
Sec. 001 —
(2 unit) — CRN 76161— T 1:10-3:00pm — 25 Wellman
The Origins of Tolerance and 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: David Alvarez graduated from
UC Davis with
a double major in Comparative Literature and Philosophy and then went
to Cornell
University for his doctorate. 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.