The Rise of the Novel
ENGL 210
Fall 2022 not offered
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The novel as we know it emerged in 18th-century England. The real questions are, how and why? Were novels first written by white men, expressing the attitudes and capitalizing on the reading practices of an emergent middle class? Or did they evolve from a somewhat less respectable tradition of romance writing by and for women? Did novelistic prose draw on scientific and economic discourses as it naively sought to present a realistic picture of the world? Or was the genre playfully self-aware, from its very origins, of the difficult relationship between reality and language? This course will explore some of the complexities of the rise of the novel, one of the most important and oft-told tales of literary history. As we read fictions full of criminals, love letters, scandals, and satirical self-referentiality, we will think about the differences between early novels and the not-quite novels that preceded them. We will focus on how novels work through plot, character, and realist prose, as we also explore the ideological work that the form does. We will ask, too, about the workings of scholarly narratives like "the rise of the novel": how do these critical narratives help us, as novel readers, understand our relationship to the past and to the novel as a form? |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ENGL)(ENGL-Literature) |
Major Readings:
Anon, WOMAN OF COLOUR
Jane Austen, PERSUASION
Maria Edgeworth, CASTLE RACKRENT
Henry Fielding, SHAMELA
Eliza Haywood, FANTOMINA
Samuel Richardson, PAMELA
Laurence Sterne, TRISTRAM SHANDY
Horace Walpole, CASTLE OF OTRANTO
Additionally, students will read a broad array of historical and theoretical writings from authors as disparate as Miguel de Cervantes, Daniel Defoe, Viktor Shklovsky, Zadie Smith, and recent television critics (on Bridgerton).
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Examinations and Assignments:
A presentation, a take-home written exam, and several short papers |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Class of '22: This course fulfills the Literary History II requirement and contributes to the British Literature and Theory & Literary Forms concentrations of the English major.
Class of '23 and beyond: This course fulfills the British Literature and Literary History II requirements of the English major. |
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