18th Century

17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Utopias of the European Renaissance

What is the historical and literary context for Shakespeare’s representation of Prospero’s island and its inhabitants? How did Renaissance writers and artists portray the European exploration of the Americas? How did that exploration inspire their visions of an ideal society?

Hana Layson with Kasey Evans
May 14, 2012

17th Century, 18th Century, Collection Essays

Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko: Slavery and Race in the Atlantic World

How does Behn’s novel Oroonoko compare to other representations of race, slavery, and colonialism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?

Hana Layson with Amelia Zurcher
May 14, 2012