Department of English

A first introduction to an immensely various and fluid genre. Most class sessions will begin with a short lecture, then concentrate on discussion. Among our purposes will be to gain a sense of historical change and contests for authority within the genre, and to trace shifting definitions and functions of novelistic discourse. Requirements: class participation, unannounced quizzes, 3 short papers, midterm, and final. Typical authors: Behn, Defoe, Richardson, Austen, Eliot, James, Woolf, Christie.