ENGL 30900 The Novel
GE-Human Culture: Literature Novels may be the most popular—and are certainly the most prestigious—form of literary writing today. It may come as a surprise to learn, then, that a few hundred years ago, the novel was perceived as a rather disreputable literary form produced primarily by hack writers, people of questionable moral integrity, and—shockingly—women. Moreover, for all their popularity and outsized cultural presence, trying to define what exactly a novel is turns out to be surprisingly difficult. In this course, we will read influential novels from the historical periods of its rise and development—novels that have given definition to this rather indefinable of literary forms, and which have raised its literary reputability (if not necessarily its moral reputability).
Credits
3