Hedonism, individuality, and virtue: forms of happiness in 18th-century literature

This course delves into competing ideas of happiness in the 18th century, focusing on hedonism, individuality, and virtue in key literary works. We explore how figures like Joseph Addison, Bernard Mandeville, Laurence Sterne, Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth and Lord Byron navigated these competing ideas of the good life in their works. The course will investigate how tensions between the desire for pleasure, personal freedom, and moral virtue shaped the 18th-century literary landscape and led to the formation of modern notions of happiness.