The English Novel to Jane Austen

English 565, Autumn 2001

Jack Lynch

Course Description

Hours: Tuesday, 2:30-4:00, and by appointment (appointments are best).

Home: (609) 882-4642 (before 10:30 p.m.!).

E-mail: jlynch@andromeda.rutgers.edu (the best way to reach me).

Listserv: lynch565@andromeda.rutgers.edu (for the whole class).

Course Requirements

• Written Assignments: There will be two argumentative and analytical papers, the first of around ten pages (2,500 words), the second either a new paper of around ten pages, or an expansion of your first paper to fifteen to twenty pages (3,500 to 5,000 words).
• Reports and Annotated Bibliographies: Each student will be particularly responsible for the readings on one day of the semester, producing and distributing (on paper or by E-mail) a short annotated bibliography of relevant criticism and then beginning class with an oral report of around ten minutes. The report should begin with a very brief discussion of the day's annotated bibliography, giving a quick overview of the major scholarship on the topic. Thereafter, the topic is anything relevant to the day's readings. A good report will raise as many fruitful questions as possible and get discussion rolling. Anything that will help — handouts, short readings for the rest of the class — is welcome and encouraged.
• Readings: This is a novel course, so the reading load is unavoidably heavy. Do what you can to keep up, and talk to me if you get overwhelmed. All the books are available from New Jersey Books. Classroom discussion is easier if you use the editions I've ordered, but if you own the novels in other editions, you needn't buy new ones. Additional critical materials are available in a photocopy packet from Print Media Services at 160 University Ave. (across from New Jersey Books).

Schedule of Class Meetings

Tuesday, 4 Sept.:

Introduction (class business, &c.).

Tuesday, 11 Sept.:

Aphra Behn, Oroonoko; Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel, chapters 1 ("Realism and the Novel Form") and 2 ("The Reading Public and the Rise of the Novel").

Tuesday, 18 Sept.:

Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe; Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel, chapter 3 ("Robinson Crusoe, Individualism and the Novel").

Tuesday, 25 Sept.:

Samuel Richardson, Pamela, vol. 1 (pp. 1-219); Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel, chapter 6 ("Private Experience and the Novel").

Tuesday, 2 Oct.:

Pamela, vol. 2 (pp. 221-503); Nancy Armstrong, selection from "The Rise of the Novel," chapter 3 of Desire and Domestic Fiction (photocopy).

Tuesday, 9 Oct.:

Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, books I through VI; Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel, chapter 8 ("Fielding and the Epic Theory of the Novel").

Tuesday, 16 Oct.:

Tom Jones, books VII through XII; J. Paul Hunter, "The Novel and Social/Cultural History," from The Cambridge Companion to the Eighteenth-Century Novel (photocopy).

Tuesday, 23 Oct.:

Tom Jones, books XIII-XVIII; Michael McKeon, Introduction to The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740 (photocopy). FIRST PAPER DUE.

Tuesday, 30 Oct.:

Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy, vols. 1-3; Viktor Shklovsky, "The Parody Novel: Sterne's Tristram Shandy" (photocopy).

Tuesday, 6 Nov.:

Tristram Shandy, vols. 4-6; D. W. Jefferson, "Tristram Shandy and the Tradition of Learned Wit" (photocopy).

Tuesday, 13 Nov.:

Tristram Shandy, vols. 7-9; Jonathan Lamb, "Sterne and Irregular Oratory," from The Cambridge Companion to the Eighteenth-Century Novel (photocopy).

Tuesday, 18 Nov.:

NO CLASS: Thursday Schedule.

Tuesday, 27 Nov.:

Matthew Lewis, The Monk; Homer Obed Brown, Preface to Institutions of the English Novel (photocopy).

Tuesday, 4 Dec.:

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Stuart Tave, "Limitations and Definitions"; Marilyn Butler, "Jane Austen and the War of Ideas" (both in the Norton Critical Edition).

Tuesday, 11 Dec.:

Pride and Prejudice; Claudia Johnson, "Pride and Prejudice and the Pursuit of Happiness"; Deborah Kaplan, "Circles of Support" (both in the Norton Critical Edition). FINAL PAPER DUE.