English 201B

Topics in the History of the English Language: The Development of Linguistic Representations of Point of View

Other Readings and Media

Beowulf, Seamus Heaney translation; Chaucer, Geoffrey, Troilus and Criseyde; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Austen, Jane, Lady Susan; Austen, Jane, Sense and Sensibility; Mansfield, Katherine, Stories; Woolf, Virginia, To the Lighthouse.

Description

This course will be devoted to the history of the development of styles for the representation of subjectivity or consciousness in narrative, including, importantly, represented speech and thought (free indirect style). It will use the original comparative method, i.e., comparing texts of different periods. The reading list is meant to be suggestive, a starting point. The interests of the class will also determine the directions of our inquiry, i.e., students can concentrate on a particular period and genre, e.g. on the medieval romance, the early novel or the modernist novel, selecting texts they wish to focus on and presenting their findings to the class as a whole. Since our focus is on a style, we will look at short texts or even selections from longer texts. The readings will also include articles on the styles for representing point of view, including readings presenting some historical hypotheses.

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