Spring 2007 Courses

English 137-01: Novel (English)

T/TH 10:10-11:40am, HUM 227

In this introductory course, we will study the origins and development of the novel written in English by pairing canonical 18th and 19th century English novels with their modern and postmodern revisions. For instance, we will read Daniel Defoe's 1719 Robinson Crusoe alongside J. M. Coetzee's 1986 Foe. We will attend closely to literary form as well as to cultural and historical contexts as we read novels published across a wide range of time, from the early 18th century to the early 21st century. We will also investigate the rich generic variety within the novel, such as the epistolary (letter) form characteristic not only of many early English novels, such as Richardson's Pamela, but also of a number of contemporary novels, such as The Color Purple.

We will end the semester studying graphic novels — perhaps the most significant recent subgenre, as represented by Art Spiegelman's Maus and Aaron MacGruder's Birth of a Nation. We will be reading a substantial body of genre theory and relevant literary criticism, as well. Requirements include: written discussion questions on each work, an in-class presentation, and three papers of about 5-7 pages each. This class is one of the "gateway" courses for the English major.

Spring 2007 Course Listings