English 258 - The Mid-Nineteenth-Century Novel

In a flurry between 1846 and 1856, a series of genre-redefining novels were published in Great Britain, the U.S., and France. They appeared in cultures that were inhospitable to their strangeness and wildness, that either dismissed them or ignored what was most troubled and troubling in them. They inspired later novelists not to imitate them, but to write with all of the energies of their own idiosyncracies on display and to trust in their own senses of form. In this course, we will read five of the most powerful novels from this period—Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, and Madame Bovary—in order to take what we can from them as readers, as writers (in whatever mode), and as people who are curious about what it feels like to be alive.

Fall and Spring semester. Professor Sanborn.

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Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work, close readings