English 442: The Romantic Novel
Jonathan Gross, Associate Prof. Winter, 2004
Department of EnglishM/W 3:30-5:00
216 McGaw340-23-801
(773) 325-1780 Office Hrs.: W 5:00-5:45, &
y appointment
Course Description:
In this course, we will examine the development of the romantic novel. We will examine how the novel changed from its epistolary form (a novel of letters), into a mixed (Shelley), straight (Emma), and multiple narrative form (Bronte). Making use of Wayne Booth’s Rhetoric of Fiction, we will examine how British writers shifted strategies to reach a changing audience. Lady Georgiana’s novel was written for a circulating library; Austen’s novel is developed from the epistolary model of Samuel Richardson; Mary Shelley begins and ends Frankenstein with a series of letters, while Bronte uses a number of narrators to tell her tale in a way that recalls Lady Georgiana’s strategy in her epistolary novel about gambling. Is there a reason why these strategies changed over time? What effect do they have on the reader’s experience of the story?
Books:
Lady Georgiana, The Sylph (on-line)
Lady Georgiana, Emma, or the Unfortunate Attachment (on-line)
Jane Austen, Emma
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Emily Bronte, WutheringHeights
March 31 The Age of Sensibility: Blake, Byron, and Favorite Poems of Thomas Jefferson
April 7Emma, or the Unfortunate Attachment
April 14Emma, or the Unfortunate Attachment
April 21The Sylph
April 28The Sylph
May 5Fanny Burney, Evelina
May 11Fanny Burney, Evelina
May 13Austen, Emma
May 19Austen, Emma
May 26Bronte, WutheringHeights
June 2Bronte, WutheringHeights
Essay 1, due April 22; 5 pages double spaced
- Define what Austen means by the word “attachment”. How does it differ than
Lady Georgiana’s use of the word in Emma, or the Unfortunate Attachment?
Essay 2, due May 11, 5 pages double-spaced
- How does Mary Shelley use the epistolary form to reveal gender
characteristics that become important in the novel as a whole.
Essay 3, May 26, 5 pages double-spaced
- Using two novels we have read (The Sylph, Emma, or the Unfortunate Attachment,Evelina, or Austen’s Emma), examine the relationship between social manners and social class. What contradictions can you uncover. Is there a universal moral code that Austen and Lady Georgiana present, or does social behavior depend upon social class?
Essay 4, due June 1, 5 pages double-spaced
- Explain Bronte’s use of narrative technique in Wuthering Heights.