Reading Handouts and Online Sources for this Unit:
Some interesting links
Watch The Country Wife by William Wycherley. It's a 1977 production by the BBC -- video quality is not so good. On the other hand, it has a young and radiant Helen Mirren in the leading role! Could be a good extra credit opportunity, comparing the production to how you imagine it when reading the play... click here if you're interested in seeing it.
Hairstyles: 17th and 18th century fashions could get kind of crazy. This includes hair styles: the V&A museum in London has a website that allows you to experience some of the wackiness of period hairstyles yourself. Check it out here: V&A Design-a-wig.
(No) Rights: In this unit we're reading a lot about sex and what women have to do to get by in a society that had some of the most extreme gender roles the west has ever known. Want to know what it was like to be a Roxana or a Pamela during this period? Read about the bill passed in 1870 that was the first time in the United Kingdom that women were able to own property themselves, rather than being considered the legal property of a husband or father here.
On Libertinism: The strangely bleak philosophy that permeates much of the work we're looking at in this unit. Check out the wiki entry here for some leads on the subject, or see my note on the Rochester page. Or, if you've got a strong stomach, you can watch Johnny Depp play Rochester in the 2004 film The Libertine.
Watch The Country Wife by William Wycherley. It's a 1977 production by the BBC -- video quality is not so good. On the other hand, it has a young and radiant Helen Mirren in the leading role! Could be a good extra credit opportunity, comparing the production to how you imagine it when reading the play... click here if you're interested in seeing it.
Hairstyles: 17th and 18th century fashions could get kind of crazy. This includes hair styles: the V&A museum in London has a website that allows you to experience some of the wackiness of period hairstyles yourself. Check it out here: V&A Design-a-wig.
(No) Rights: In this unit we're reading a lot about sex and what women have to do to get by in a society that had some of the most extreme gender roles the west has ever known. Want to know what it was like to be a Roxana or a Pamela during this period? Read about the bill passed in 1870 that was the first time in the United Kingdom that women were able to own property themselves, rather than being considered the legal property of a husband or father here.
On Libertinism: The strangely bleak philosophy that permeates much of the work we're looking at in this unit. Check out the wiki entry here for some leads on the subject, or see my note on the Rochester page. Or, if you've got a strong stomach, you can watch Johnny Depp play Rochester in the 2004 film The Libertine.