Comedy and the Comic Spirit in the Long 19th Century
ENGL 256
Spring 2023 not offered
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This course follows the Comic Spirit (as novelist George Meredith called it) as it frolics through 19th-century literature and popular culture. We will examine how writers experimented with traditional elements of comedy such as courtship plots, playful language, and eccentric characters as well as with universal aspects of storytelling such as the narrator's voice and the ethical implications of poetic justice. While enjoying these hilarious works on their own terms, we will also take seriously their experiments with narrative form; their complex relationship to the categories of the novel, comedy, and realism; and the ways humor created links between literature and the visual and musical arts. This course fulfills the English Department's Literary History II and British Literature requirements. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (ENGL) |
Major Readings:
Austen, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE; Byron, DON JUAN; Dickens, DAVID COPPERFIELD; Forster, A ROOM WITH A VIEW; Gaskell, CRANFORD; Gilbert and Sullivan, PIRATES OF PENZANCE; Trollope, BARCHESTER TOWERS; Wilde, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST; Wodehouse, THE CODE OF THE WOOSTERS
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Examinations and Assignments:
Several papers and response/inquiry papers |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Contributes to fulfillment of ENGL major requirements:
Class of 22: Lit Hist. II, Theory and Literary Forms and British Lit concentrations, elective.
Class of 23 and beyond: Lit Hist. 2, British Lit, elective. This course provides a Research Option for fulfillment of the Honors research requirement
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