Department of English

Taking a variety of approaches to exemplary British fictions, we will consider how developments in the novel offer a history of our own values. We will focus on changing expectations and definitions of personal happiness in the context of changing constructions of  aspects of the self (such as childhood, the body, and sexuality) and social institutions (such as the family, education, and religion). We will read novels by Fielding, Austen, Bronte, Dickens, Eliot, Carroll, Hardy, and Rhys. Requirements include two short papers and a final exam.