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C LIT 361 INTERNATIONAL LITERARY GENRES AND FORMS. 3 Hrs or .75 or 1 Unit *May be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours or 3 units. Meets with ENGL 361 section X Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor. Topic:
Forms of the Novel Just
as the thematic concerns of novels change over time, so do their forms of
narration. In this course we will read some of the most interesting and
significant novels of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries with particular
attention to their narrative styles. We will study epistolary, realist, and
allegorical narratives and discuss how particular modes of narration might be
related to historical, political, and literary contexts. In the course of our
discussions, we will also attempt to understand some of the characteristics of
the novel as a genre. Why is the novel considered to have a privileged
relation to modernity? What is its relation to older literary genres such as
epic or tragedy? Has the novel survived the advent of film, or is it already a
dying thing? For the reading list I have chosen novels that seem to me to be exemplary in terms of narrative strategy: Dangerous Liasons by Laclos, Adam Bede by George Eliot, What Maisie Knew by Henry James and Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee. A course packet will include essays by critics and theorists such as Bakhtin, Poulet, Barthes, and J. Hillis Miller. Students will be expected to read the texts closely and to participate in class discussion.
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