Course details
Name: ENGL - 256
Title: NOVEL TO 1900
Section: 01
Semester: Fall - 2012
Credits: 3
Description:
Moral leaders in eighteenth-century England met the “arrival” of the novel with skepticism and alarm. In the first place, they argued, novels were made up and writing fiction was equated with lying. Additionally, the “lies” that made up eighteenth-century fiction portrayed women and men engaging in bawdy behavior. Early English novelists reveled in talking about bosomy women and the men who pursued them or innocent young men being seduced by busty wenches. Later novels avoided depicting licentious behavior, but they concerned themselves with the same themes: relationships, class mobility and its connection to conduct, and, of course, gender. Over the course of the term, we will read five novels and focus on, among other things, how the depiction of relationships evolves from the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. We will also ask questions: how, for example, were women allowed to behave in the novel? What does the novel require of it heroes? Although this is not a survey course, students should leave the course with a clear sense of how the depiction of themes we identify early in the semester (class, gender, conduct, and so forth) shift over time and should be able to discuss, in writing, how the novels respond to one another. Students will write a short paper, a longer essay, and take a final exam.
Last updated on 2012-04-02 By
Matthew Patricia (matthewp)
Schedule: Tuesday,Thursday From 1:00 pm To 2:15 am
Graduation requirements:
- Genre Study (Fiction)
- Pre-1900 (1c)
- Women and Gender Studies (3c)
- Class Issues (3d)
Teaching Faculty: Matthew Patricia (matthewp)
Is course canceled: No