Course details

Name: ENGL - 256

Title: THE NOVEL TO 1900

Section: 01

Semester: Spring - 2018

Credits: 3

Description:
***This is a hybrid course***
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 they equated making up stories with the act of 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 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?

In addition to participating in class discussions, students will write short essays and have the opportunity to explore other genres of writing including review and blog posts.

Required Texts:
Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders (Norton)
Burney, Frances. Evelina
Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times (Broadview)

Schedule: Monday From 4:00 pm To 5:15 pm

Graduation requirements:

• Any Literature (1e)
• Genre Study (Fiction)
• Pre-1900 (1c)
• Women and Gender Studies (3c)

Teaching Faculty: Matthew Patricia (matthewp)

Is course canceled: No