The Rise of the Novel
ENGL 210
Spring 2018
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01
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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 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 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) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Jane Austen, PERSUASION
Maria Edgeworth, CASTLE RACKRENT
Henry Fielding, SHAMELA and JOSEPH ANDREWS
Eliza Haywood, FANTOMINA
Samuel Richardson, PAMELA
Laurence Sterne, TRISTRAM SHANDY
Horace Walpole, CASTLE OF OTRANTO
Selections of writings from Miguel de Cervantes, John Bunyan, and Daniel Defoe, as well as critical and theoretical writings.
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Examinations and Assignments:
A presentation, an exam, and several short papers. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Literary History II requirement and contributes to the British Lit and Theory and Literary Forms concentrations of the English major. |
| Instructor(s): Smith,Courtney Weiss Times: ..T.R.. 01:20PM-02:40PM; Location: ZLKA106; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 25 | | SR major: 5 | JR major: 5 | | |
| Seats Available: 2 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 5 | FR: 4 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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