The Novel as History
ENGL 370
Fall 2021
| Section:
01
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| Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate |
Ever since the historical novel's appearance in the early 19th century, the genre has flourished as a way to describe and invent the past. But these novels tend to write history differently--filling in the gaps of dominant historical records, attending to overlooked psychic and material spaces--reimagining past lives and events to do work in the present. This course will examine the historical novel to explore how its formal strategies amend or improve upon conventional modes of writing history. Each week we will read historical novels supplemented by theoretical readings. Together this will allow us to think about a range of topics including but surely exceeding: memory, utopia, nationalism, romance, trauma, commemoration, objectivity, war, archives, realism, speculation, and the everyday. In addition to full-length works, we will be reading selections in works by Karl Ove Knausgard, Saidiya Hartman, Shula Marks, György Lukács, Paul Ricoeur, and others. |
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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: (CSCT)(ENGL) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Leo Tolstoy, HADJI MURAT (1917)
Chinua Achebe, THINGS FALL APART (1958)
Yaa Gyasi, HOMEGOING (2016)
Amitav Ghosh, SEA OF POPPIES (2008)
J.M. Coetzee, IN THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY (1977)
Agota Kristof, THE NOTEBOOK (1986)
Anna Burns, MILKMAN (2018)
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Examinations and Assignments:
TBA |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Literary History 2, Literatures of Difference, and Theory requirements and contributes to the Race & Ethnicity and Theory & Literary Forms concentrations of the English Major.
Class of 2023 and beyond: This course fulfills the Theory, Literary History 3, and World Literature requirements of the English major. |
| Instructor(s): Saint,Lily Leopold Times: .M.W... 10:50AM-12:10PM; Location: ZLKA202; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: 7 | JR major: 7 | | |
| Seats Available: 2 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 0 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 8 | 1st Ranked: 2 | 2nd Ranked: 3 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 3 |
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