The Rise of the Novel
ENGL 210
Fall 2011
| Section:
01
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The novel as we know it was first written 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 realistic prose, but we will also consider how critical narratives like the "rise of the novel" work. How do these narratives help us, as novel readers today, understand our relationship to the period and to the novel as a form? |
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Essential Capabilities:
Interpretation, Writing |
| 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) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Daniel Defoe, MOLL FLANDERS
Samuel Richardson, PAMELA
Henry Fielding, JOSEPH ANDREWS
Eliza Haywood, FANTOMINA
Frances Burney, EVELINA
Laurence Sterne, TRISTRAM SHANDY
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Examinations and Assignments:
Regular short response papers and three formal papers (two 4-5pp. and one 10pp.) |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Literary History II major requirement and contributes to the fulfillment of the British Literature and Theory & Literary Forms concentrations of the English major. |
| Instructor(s): Smith,Courtney Weiss Times: ..T.R.. 02:40PM-04:00PM; Location: FISK413; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 30 | | SR major: 7 | JR major: 7 | | |
| Seats Available: 2 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 10 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 4 | 1st Ranked: 1 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 3 |
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