Teaching Eighteenth-Century German Literature in the Era of #MeToo: Gender and the Enlightenment Canon

Abstract

ABSTRACT 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.