ENGL 333(F) Nineteenth-Century English Novel

A study of major works of fiction from what is often considered the Golden Age of the novel. We will explore how writers of the period experimented with existing genres and invented new fictional modes to give expression to both their own creative vision and major conflicts of their age. The fictional forms include realism, romance, comedy of manners, bildungsroman (novel of education), satire, and epic. The conflicts involve community and family values in tension with individual needs, clashes between material and moral values, struggles among and within social classes, vexed gender ideals and sexual politics, contradictions between humanist and imperialist thematics. Readings consist of Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Thackeray's Vanity Fair, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Dickens' Hard Times, Eliot's Middlemarch, and Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Classes are primarily discussions. Requirements: extensive reading, active class participation, periodic quizzes and short writing exercises, two 5- to 6-page papers, and a final exam. Prerequisite: English 101. Enrollment limited to 30, with preference to seniors and juniors. (1800-1900)

Hour:  S. GRAVER