English 423: The Rise of the Novel

George Justice
WS 2004
Ellis Library Seminar Room 3D61
Wednesdays, 6:00-9:00pm

Office: 112 Tate Hall
Office Hours: Wednesdays 1-4 and by appointment
Phone: 884-7878
Email: JusticeG@missouri.edu

Required Books:

Backscheider and Richetti, eds. Popular Fiction by Women 1660-1730

Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel

Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (ed. Rivero)

Samuel Richardson, Pamela (ed. Keymer)

Henry Fielding, Tom Jones (ed. Bender)

Samuel Johnson, Rasselas

Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy

Frances Burney, Evelina

Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent

Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (ed. Johnson)

Walter Scott, Waverley

A Note on Texts:

I have ordered copies of all the required books through the MU Bookstore. Copies of these novels are available widely and more cheaply. Students are strongly encouraged to order editions with an editor listed above. For other course books, most editions will be adequate. Do not be fooled into buying the edition of Tom Jones edited by Somerset Maugham; it is highly abridged.

Structure of Course:

The course will follow a seminar structure based on discussion. I will lead the first half of class, basing discussion on the work of fiction and the critical article assigned to everyone for that day. After a short break (with refreshments available in the library's cafe downstairs), one student will present a ten to fifteen-minute report on one of the classic works on the eighteenth-century novel (included in the "critical works on reserve" section of the syllabus) and then conversation will continue.

Student presentations should consist of two sections: a summary and overview of the work and its arguments followed by a list of questions (that should be distributed by handout to the rest of the class) that link the critical reading with the fiction assigned for that day. Conversation in the second half of the class ideally will stem from these questions. The handout should include full bibliographic information in MLA form for the work upon which the student report is based.

The final project for the course will be a short research paper making your argument for a theory of the rise of the novel in conjunction with a critical analysis of one of the course's novels.

Evaluation:

Class participation: 25%; Student Report: 25%; Seminar Paper: 50%

Required Critical Works:

Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel, is a required text and will be available in the bookstore. Many of the essays assigned for other parts of the semester are included in a special edition of Eighteenth-Century Fiction called "Reconsidering the Rise of the Novel." I will make available through BlackBoard the assigned essays from that volume and other assigned required essays for the class.

Critical Works on Reserve:

These books are all in the English Seminar Room in Ellis Library Room 202J. They are available to be used in that room--and that room only--any time the library is open.

Nancy Armstrong, Desire and Domestic Fiction

Firdous Azim, Colonial Rise of the Novel

Paula Backscheider, ed., Revising Women: Eighteenth-Century "Women's Fiction" and Social Engagement

Janine Barchas, Graphic Design, Print Culture, and the Eighteenth-Century Novel

Ros Ballaster, Seductive Forms

John Bender, Imagining the Penitentiary

Homer Brown, Institutions of the English Novel

Terry Castle, Masquerade and Civilization

Lennard Davis, Factual Fictions

Margaret Doody, The True Story of the Novel

Catherine Gallagher, Nobody's Story

J. Paul Hunter, Before Novels

Claudia Johnson, Jane Austen: Women, Politics, and the Novel

Deidre Lynch, The Economy of Character

Michael McKeon, Origins of the English Novel

Leah Price, The Anthology and the Rise of the Novel

John Richetti, ed., Cambridge Companion to the Eighteenth-Century Novel

John Richetti, Popular Fiction before Richardson

John Richetti, The English Novel in History, 1700-1780

Reconsidering the Rise of the Novel (Special issue of Eighteenth-Century Fiction)

Cliff Siskin, The Work of Writing

Jane Spencer, The Rise of the Woman Novelist

Janet Todd, The Sign of Angellica

Cheryl Turner, Living by the Pen

William Warner, Licensing Entertainment

Everett Zimmerman, The Boundaries of Fiction: History and the Eighteenth-Century English Novel

Class Schedule:

January 21	Barker, Love Intrigues; Haywood, Fantomina; and Davys, The Reformed Coquet in Richetti, Backscheider, eds., Popular Fiction by Women 1660-1730: An Anthology (also available through BlackBoard) Watt, The Rise of the Novel, Chapters 1 and 2 Student Report: Hunter, Before Novels
January 28	Defoe, Moll Flanders Watt, The Rise of the Novel, Chapters 3 and 4 Student Report: Davis, Factual Fictions
February 4	Richardson, Pamela, Volume I Watt, The Rise of the Novel, Chapter 5 Student Report: Armstrong, Desire and Domestic Fiction
February 11	Richardson, Pamela, Volume 2 Watt, The Rise of the Novel, Chapters 6 and 7 Student Report: Warner, Licensing Entertainment
February 18	Fielding, Tom Jones, Part I Watt, The Rise of the Novel, Chapter 8 Student Report: Bender, Imagining the Penitentiary
February 25	Fielding, Tom Jones, Part II Watt, The Rise of the Novel, Chapter 9 Student Report: McKeon, The Origins of the English Novel
March 3	Fielding, Tom Jones, Part III McKeon, "Generic Transformation and Social Change" Student Report: Castle, Masquerade and Civilization
March 10	Johnson, Rasselas Watt, The Rise of the Novel, Chapter 10; Downie, "The Making of the English Novel" Student Report: Doody, The True Story of the Novel
March 17	Sterne, Tristram Shandy, Vols. I and II Doody, "Shandyism, Or The Novel in its Assy Shape" Student Report: Barchas, Graphic Design, Print Culture, and the Eighteenth-Century Novel
March 31	Burney, Evelina Robert Mayer, "The Question of Taste" Student Report: Jane Spencer, The Rise of the Woman Novelist
April 7	Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent Trumpener, Introduction to Bardic Nationalism Student Report: Richetti, The English Novel in History
April 14	Austen, Mansfield Park, Vols. I and II Lynch, "Personal Effects and Sentimental Fictions" Student Report: Lynch, The Economy of Character
April 21	Austen, Mansfield Park, Vol. III Johnson, "Mansfield Park: Confusions of Guilt and Revolutions of Mind" Student Report: Johnson, Jane Austen: Women, Politics, and the Novel
April 28	Scott, Waverley, Vols. I and II McKeon, "Watt's Rise of the Novel within the Tradition of the Rise of the Novel" and Davis, "Reconsidering Origins: How Novel Are Theories of the Novel?" Student Report: Brown, Institutions of the English Novel
May 5	Scott, Waverley, Vol. III Folkenflik, "The Heirs to Ian Watt" and "The New Model Eighteenth-Century Novel" Student Report: Zimmerman, Boundaries of Fiction