ENG 5079 Fall 2023 Kennedy

How did the novel–a relatively recent form–reach such dominance during the nineteenth century? How does the biography of the novel change when examined by different scholarly methodologies? How do Victorian novels shape contemporary literature and criticism? This course uses the Victorian novel as a lens through which to examine classic and new theories of this genre. We'll start by surveying some of the classics of novel history and theory and then move to some of the interesting and provocative ways that scholars have been theorizing “the novel,” especially the Victorian novel, over the past decade. We'll use as our test cases three novels from the period: Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1839); George Eliot, Mill on the Floss (1860); and Richard Marsh, The Beetle (1897). Students will write weekly responses, present on critical texts, and complete a scaffolded research paper.