Eng 536: The Nineteenth-Century British Novel

Spring 1997

Dr. Fletcher

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We will read a selection of novels representing different genres of the period, and we will discuss them in the context of selected poststructuralist and narratological theories. The readings are categorized as primary and supplementary, and I have paired these canonical and less-familiar texts in order both to give us a fresh perspective on the so-called "central" examples of the nineteenth-century British novel and to broaden the class's awareness of the variety of fiction in the period. Each student will read the five primary novels and two of the supplementary novels.

Primary readings:

• Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
• Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
• William Thackeray, Vanity Fair
• Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
• Rudyard Kipling, Kim

Supplementary readings:

• Emily Eden, The Semi-Attached Couple
• Dinah Craik, Olive
• Anthony Trollope, The Eustace Diamonds
• Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone
• H. Rider Haggard, She

We will also read a selection of critical essays on each of the five primary novels. They are either included in the editions I ordered, or they will be placed on reserve in the library.

Requirements:

1. Attendance, participation in class discussions, completion of readings and assignments on time. (10%)
2. Weekly one-page, single-spaced response papers. Informal and ungraded, unless unsatisfactory. (15%)
3. Weekly contributions to the electronic class discussion. By the second week of class, I hope to have on-line a "listserv" for the class. I will ask you to contribute each week one question/comment of your own about our readings and one response to another's posting. Your questions/comments might be drawn from your response papers. You will have to get an e-mail account for this assignment (10%)
4. A 15-minute oral report on each of the two supplementary novels you have chosen. When more than one student chooses a novel, you will give a 30-minute group report to the class. (30%)
5. A 15-18 page essay, both analytical and well-researched, reflecting engagement with one or more of the critical/theoretical approaches studied in the course. (35%)

Reading Schedule

15 January

• Introduction.
• On the Nineteenth-Century Novel: Genres, Readers, and the Publishing World.
• Mansfield Park (first half).

22 January

• Mansfield Park (complete).

29 January

• Critical Essays:
• John Wiltshire, Ch. on Mansfield Park from Jane Austen and the Body.
• R.B. Yeazell, "The Boundaries of Mansfield Park," Representations 7 (Summer 1984): 133-52.
• M. Anderson, "The Different Sorts of Friendships: Desire in Mansfield Park," Jane Austen and the Discourses of Feminism.
• E. Said, "Jane Austen and Empire" from Culture and Imperialism.
• Report on The Semi-Attached Couple.
• Begin reading Jane Eyre.

5 February

Jane Eyre.

12 February

• Jane Eyre (complete).
• From JE Casebook:
• "What Is Feminist Criticism?"; S. Gilbert, "Plain Jane's Progress."
• "What Is Psychoanalytic Criticism?; D. Sadoff, "The Father, Castration, and Female Fantasy in Jane Eyre."
• "What Is Deconstruction?"; N. Schwartz, "No Place Like Home: The Logic of the Supplement in Jane Eyre."

19 February

• From JE Casebook:
• "What Is Cultural Criticism?"; E. Michie, "White Chimpanzees and Oriental Despots: Racial Stereotyping and Edward Rochester."
• "What Is Marxist Criticism?"; S. Fraiman, "Jane Eyre's Fall from Grace."
• Report on Olive.
• Begin reading Vanity Fair.

26 February

• Vanity Fair.

5 March

• Vanity Fair (complete).
• Critical Essays:
• G. Levine, "Perspective and the Narrator's Stance . . . Vanity Fair," The Realistic Imagination (160-66).
• R. Siegle, Ch. 2 on Vanity Fair, The Politics of Reflexivity.
• A. Miller, "Vanity Fair Through Plate Glass," PMLA 105 (Oct 1990): 1042-1054.

19 March

• Critical Essays:
• M.M. Bakhtin, Introduction and "Discourse in the Novel," The Dialogic Imagination.
• R. Gilmour, "Thackeray: From Europe to Empire," in M. Cotsell, ed., Creditable Warriors, 1830-1876.
• Report on Eustace Diamonds.
• Begin reading Great Expectations.

26 March

• Great Expectations.

2 April

• Great Expectations (complete).
• From GE Casebook:
• P. Brooks, "Repetition, Repression, and Return: The Plotting of Great Expectations."
• E. Said, "Two Commentaries on Great Expectations: From Deconstruction to Postcolonialism."
• H. Schor, "`If He Should Turn to and Beat Her': Violence, Desire, and the Woman's Story in Great Expectations."

9 April

• From GE Casebook:
• "What Is Gender Criticism?"; Cohen, "Manual Conduct in Great Expectations."
• J. Clayton, "Is Pip Postmodern? Or, Dickens at the End of the Twentieth Century."
• Report on The Moonstone.
• Begin reading Kim.

16 April

• Kim

23 April

• Kim (complete).
• Critical Essays:
• J. Meyers, "The Quest for Identity in Kim," TSLL 12: 101-110.
• E. Said, Ch. on Kipling from Culture and Imperialism (Reprinted as the Introduction to our Penguin edition).
• D. David, "Children of Empire: Victorian Imperialism and Sexual Politics in Dickens and Kipling," Gender and Discourse in Victorian Literature and Art.
• Report on She.

30 April

Term paper due on the last day of finals week.