Department of English

In this course, we will consider some of the great novels of the nineteenth century, investigating their different iterations on page and screen. We will ask ourselves: What defines these texts as novels? How does their mode of composition and publication contribute to their literary form? How are they transformed in our contemporary moment by the process of adaptation? How can film and television media teach us more about the novel and how it works? Bringing together novels by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley and others, we will investigate the nineteenth century novel and its afterlives, probing the questions of literary form and media history that these texts bring to the fore.
Readings may include:

Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

accompanied by selected film and television adaptations