overarching concern of much of eighteenth-century literature is the problem of h

overarching concern of much of eighteenth-century literature is the problem of how to read the body. The Country Wife is about a notorious rake whose challenge is to feign impotence to other men while making women understand that he is still very much – indeed, now more than ever—open for business. Swift’s Lady’s Dressing Room seeks to “expose” the armory of powders, paints, and pomades that women use to dissimulate the “reality” of their bodies. Likewise, Tristram Shandy evinces an obsession with gesture and posture—the doffing of a hat, the flourish of a walking stick, the angle of the orating body. Persuasion thematizes the challenges of discerning thoughts and feelings on the surfaces of the body when social circumstances render point-blank verbal declarations either improper or impossible. What forms does the eighteenth century’s investment in body-reading take, what significances does it seem to have (what “other” problems might it seem to stand for?), and how does it change over time or across different texts? Your discussion may focus on the works named above, or you may choose other examples; either way, your answer should engage with at least two different gen