Literature, Laughter, Philosophy: Tristram Shandy
ENGL 307
Fall 2026
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01
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Laurence Sterne's novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-67) has been described as a literary masterpiece, a hilarious satire, a sentimental tear-jerker, and a pornographic abomination. It was a favorite of Karl Marx and Friedrich Neitzsche, and it was heralded (in a recent film adaptation) as "a postmodern classic written before there was any modernism to be post about." The book is deeply learned -- engaging texts from skeptical philosophy to 18th-century science and from Hamlet to early novels. It is also, indisputably, very odd. Though Tristram is trying to tell the story of his life, he fails to get himself born in the first hundred pages, and the text is full of doodles, blank pages, madcap digressions, and missing chapters. In this course, we will read Tristram Shandy alongside the many, many texts it references, borrows from, and mocks, as well as the many, many texts it has influenced. Throughout, we will take Tristram Shandy as our rich test case for some fundamental questions: What is literature, and why do we tell stories anyway? How is literature related to philosophy? How do our minds work? What is the meaning of human life -- of laughter, learning, love, and death?
This course is a research seminar that will prepare students to write an English thesis (though it will be valuable even for students who don't plan on thesis writing). Students will cultivate their skills in writing and research, in engaging thoughtfully and confidently with theoretical and critical secondary sources. The course will culminate in a major research paper. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (English) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Laurence Sterne, TRISTRAM SHANDY
William Shakespeare, HAMLET
Michel de Montaigne, ESSAYS
Ignatius Sancho, LETTERS OF IGNATIUS SANCHO, AN AFRICAN
Virginia Woolf, THE MARK ON THE WALL
Salman Rushdie, MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN
Also, film and graphic novel adaptations of TRISTRAM SHANDY, as well as selected literary theory and scholarship on the novel.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Several short process assignments leading to a final research project. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Research Seminar (counts for Research Option, to qualify to write a senior thesis)
Contributes to the fulfillment of the following English major requirements: LH2;BL |
| Instructor(s): Smith,Courtney Weiss Times: ..T.R.. 02:50PM-04:10PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 2 | JR major: 9 | | |
| Seats Available: 15 | GRAD: 0 | SR non-major: 1 | JR non-major: 1 | SO: 2 | FR: X |
| 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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