What Can('t) the Novel Do?

Catalog description

The novel as a literary genre is no longer very new; some have even deemed it “dead.” In this class, we will mainly focus on developments in the novel in the last twenty or so years, tracing the ways in which contemporary novels conform to and depart from their historical models, as well as considering what the contemporary novel might (and might not) be able to tell us about the way we live now. To that end, we will look at a number of contemporary works alongside their cultural, political, artistic contexts, and explore themes and ideas–visual art, time and boredom, love and family, race/gender/class, and trauma–as depicted in recent novels and their cultural counterparts, including art, film & television, music, and news and media. What can the novel do now? What can’t it do and why? Is there a point to reading novels today when so many other forms and genres demand our attention? And how might we develop new, “contemporary” approaches to today’s novel? Readings may include work by Ben Lerner, Nick Drnaso, David Mazzucchelli, Sheila Heti, Namwali Serpell, Paul Beatty, W.G. Sebald, Teju Cole, and Rachel Cusk.