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CS92PROD
The Novel as History

ENGL 370
Fall 2021
Section: 01  
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.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (CSCT)(ENGL)
Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74%

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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