skip to content

Institute of Continuing Education (ICE)

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.

Container

Course dates

27 Jul 2025 to 02 Aug 2025

Course duration

1 week

Apply by

29 Jun 2025

Course director

Academic Directors, Course Directors and Tutors are subject to change, when necessary.

Venue

International Summer Programme
Sidgwick Site
Cambridge
United Kingdom

Qualifications / Credits

Credits dependent on home institution

Teaching sessions

Meetings: 5

Course code

W35Am23