ENGL 328(S) Jane Austen and George Eliot

A detailed inquiry into and comparison between two of our greatest novelists, Jane Austen and George Eliot. We will consider the authors' lives and situations as women writers, but our primary concerns are literary and aesthetic: the language, form, implications, and significance of Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion, and Eliot's Middlemarch. Discussion topics include: subtlety of tone, point-of-view, and characterization; tragedy, humor, irony, and satire; sincerity, innocence, goodness and evil; education and authority, sympathy and judgment. Requirements: In this Major Seminar, students have considerable responsibility: weekly journal entries, regular oral reports, and a substantial term paper due at the end of the term. Major Seminar. Open only to English majors and qualified non-majors. Permission of English Department chair required; see information above. Enrollment limited to 15. (1800-1900)

Hour: R. BELL