Fall 2007 Courses

English 331-01: Mapping the Nineteenth-Century British Novel (Çelikkol)

M/W/F 1:10-2:10pm, Old Main 010

This course offers students an introduction to the nineteenth-century British novel. As we examine novelistic subgenres such as the historical novel, the sensation novel, and the detective novel, we will ask ourselves how we can connect these literary forms to historical developments of the nineteenth century such as colonial expansion. Our inquiries will center on the notions of space and geography. How did the novelistic imagination link and separate regions, nations, empires, and continents? What are some contesting models of space in nineteenth-century British novels? What kinds of literary tropes distinguished urban spaces from the countryside? Why did Britons tell stories about the farthest corners of the empire? How did narrative techniques contribute to the consolidation of a unified British identity? To address these questions, we will read novels by Maria Edgeworth, Sydney Owenson, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and others. Students will write three formal papers and prepare a presentation.

Fall 2007 Course Listings