This course provides an introduction to novels written in Britain between
the end of the 17th century and the present. We will consider the
evolution of the novel as a literary form, and discuss ways in which this
form has been used to explore, challenge, and construct social
institutions such as marriage, education, sexuality, gender, empire, and
the nation. Writers we will study will include Aphra Behn (Oroonoko),
Daniel Defoe (Moll Flanders), Horace Walpole (The Castle of Otranto), Jane
Austen (Emma), Emily Bronte (Wuthering Heights), Charles Dickens (A
Christmas Carol), Henry James (The Turn of the Screw), Joseph Conrad (The
Heart of Darkness), James Joyce (Dubliners), Virginia Woolf (Mrs.
Dalloway), and Jeanette Winterson (Oranges are not the Only Fruit).
Requirements include weekly short papers and one longer critical research
paper.
Students who are required to take English 203 for the English major may
substitute any two of the following courses: English 045, 055, 065 (245,
255, 256 may be included by permission).