Fall 2007

W 3:00-5:30

Arts and Science 103A

Office hours: M 2-3, Th 11-12

Tate 201; 573-882-9729

cohenss@missouri.edu

http://web.missouri.edu/~cohenss

The Course

Theory of the novel—the study of the novel as a genre, rather than a subset of narrative—offers a number of advantages to the student of the novel. Unlike many areas of literary theory, including narrative theory (all of which, of course, it is connected to), it does not rule out of bounds discussions of aesthetic value, of the writer’s subjectivity, of the act of writing—it views literary creativity as inextricably part of the historical world rather than separating literary products, the works, from the world that produces and consumes them. Our survey of the field of novel theory will focus on three areas: considerations of voice (of point-of-view, narration, perspective, mood), of reference (of representations of reality, of the relationship of works to world), and of innovation (of the reigning modernist/postmodernist account and of other more helpful ways of conceptualizing invention in the forms of the modern novel. Throughout the semester we will also engage with the history of the genre from its roots to the present.

Texts

Anonymous, Lazarillo de Tormes

Apuleius, The Golden Ass

Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature

M. M. Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination

Roland Barthes, S/Z

Gustave Flaubert, Sentimental Education

Milan Kundera, The Art of the Novel

Georg Lukács, The Theory of the Novel

Franco Moretti, The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture

Toni Morrison, Jazz

Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

Six Things You Should Know

1. You should come to class and talk. I don’t lecture much, so it’s up to you all or we’re going to sit and stare at each other a lot. I have topics in mind that I think need to be covered, but much of the agenda can come from the class if you all have things you want to discuss.

2. You will make one presentation to the class on some aspect of the day’s reading. It should be 10-15 minutes long and given from notes (which will be collected); please don’t read from a complete text.

3. You will write a substantial (20 pp.) essay by the end of the semester. At some point we will meet and discuss your ideas for the paper. On the last day of the semester you will make a short informal presentation of your essay.

4. Essays must be presented—word-processed or typed—using parenthetical documentation according to the latest edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. You are responsible for mastering bibliographic form and for all other aspects of the presentation of academic papers as detailed in the MLA Handbook. Be aware also of the section on plagiarism.

5. Your grade for the course will reflect participation in class discussion (25%), presentations (long 20%, short essay presentation 5%), and essay (50%).

6. If you need accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please inform me immediately. Please see me privately after class, or at my office. To request academic accommodations (for example, a note taker), students must also register with Disability Services, AO38 Brady Commons, 882-4696. Another resource, MU's Adaptive Computing Technology Center, 884-2828, is available to provide computing assistance to students with disabilities.

Schedule

Aug 22 introduction

Aug 29 Lukács, The Theory of the Novel

Sep 5 Bakhtin, “Epic and Novel” and “From the Prehistory of Novelistic

Discourse,” in The Dialogic Imagination

Sep 12 Bakhtin, “Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel,” in The

Dialogic Imagination

Sep 19 Bakhtin, “Discourse in the Novel,” in The Dialogic Imagination

Sep 26 Auerbach, “Odysseus’ Scar,” “In the Hôtel de la Mole,” and “The Brown

Stocking,” in Mimesis

Oct 3 Barthes, S/Z

Oct 10 Moretti, The Way of the World

Oct 17 Kundera, The Art of the Novel

Oct 24 Apuleius, The Golden Ass

Oct 31 Anonymous, Lazarillo de Tormes

Nov 7 Flaubert, Sentimental Education

Nov 14 Woolf, To the Lighthouse

Nov 21 Thanksgiving break

Nov 28 Morrison, Jazz

Dec 5 presentations

Dec 12 papers due