Department of English

This course will address the British novel from 1745 to 1848, focusing in particular on the relation between literary form and emerging British nationalisms. Our readings will examine how British writers represented key historical events both in Britain and in other European countries, and how their fictions transformed notions of "character," both individual and national. We'll read, for example, accounts of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion written by Henry Fielding and Walter Scott; we'll also survey a number of responses to the French Revolution by writers like Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, William Godwin, Robert Bage, Lady Morgan, and Mary Shelley. Alongside these authors we'll also read a number of histories of the novel as well as critical accounts written contemporary to our texts. There will be a number of responses, a few short essays, and a long essay project.