Department of English

Readings in Eighteenth-Century British and late Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century Literature: Generic Change: Old Forms and New Representations

On alternate weeks, we will read some representative works from these periods, along with critical commentary, as part of an introduction to graduate literary study and part of preparation for next fall's exam. Although all kinds of approaches and ideas should be in the air, our guiding principle will be to observe how in each period certain genres adapt to changing historical and socio-cultural circumstances.
Readings will include, Alexander Pope - Selected Poems, James Thomson - selections from The Seasons, Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe, Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels, Eliza Haywood - Fantomina and The British Recluse, Frances Burney - Evelina, Rudyard Kipling - Kim, Joseph Conrad - Lord Jim, Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart, V. S. Naipaul - The Enigma of Arrival, Anita Desai - Clear Light of Day.