History and Theory of the Novel

Catalog description

This course explores the history and development of the English-language novel from its origins as a cultural phenomenon in eighteenth-century England to its modern-day distribution throughout the world. At the same time, the course examines some of the most influential theories that have emerged to explain the genre?s inner workings and architecture, its rise, and its endurance. Contextual issues to be considered include the various industrial revolutions, the rise of literacy rates, the ascent of women readers and writers, the rise and fall of empire, and other major historical events that affected the transformation of the novel, from its origins to the present day. Novelists might include Daniel Defoe, Jane Austen, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Charles Chesnutt, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chinua Achebe, and more recent authors. Theorists are likely to include F.R. Leavis, Ian Watt, Nancy Armstrong, Mary Poovey, Deborah McDowell, and Ram¿n Sald¿var, among others.