English 203

Other Readings and Media

Hale, Dorothy, J., ed.: The Novel: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory 1900-2000; Barthes, Roland: S/Z; Genette, G�rard: Narrative Discourse

Description

This course traces the development of novel theory in the twentieth century. Designed as an introduction to major arguments that have been--and still are--influential to literary studies generally, the course asks why so many different theoretical schools have made novels the privileged object of critical attention. Topics of discussion include the difference between narrative and the novel; the location of novelistic difference in the representation of time and space; the definition of subjectivity in terms of vision and voice; the valorization of grammatical structures; the search for a masterplot; the historicization of genre; the confusion of realism and reality; and the belief in a politics of form. Readings will be drawn from, but not limited to, works by H. James, Shklovsky, Luk�cs, Jameson, Barthes, Girard, Genette, Booth, Bakhtin, and Spivak. James's What Maisie Knew and Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God will serve as test cases. Two short papers will facilitate the work of theoretical analysis and discussion.