Eighteenth-Century British Novel (3420)                      
MW 4:00 – 5:15, Tolentine 210
Scott Black, SAC 427, 610-519-4642
office hours: MW 2:00-3:30, and by appointment                              
scott.black@villanova.edu
http://www.homepage.villanova.edu/scott.black
 

This course will introduce you to the wicked and bawdy underbelly of eighteenth-century Britain as seen through one of the period’s most important and enduring literary developments, the novel. Novels sought to manage and control the swiftly shifting social realities of early modern Britain. They also mocked and defused such pious projects, and provided new ways to dissect and comprehend these changes. We’ll explore these various facets of the genre by looking at the “rise of the novel” in terms of both the form’s internal history (its formal innovations, what it requires of the reader, how it served its cultural function) and its external history (its place in various histories, how it was shaped by social and cultural changes, what function it served). Many of these issues, as well as versions of the novelists’ “solutions”—both formal and social—remain with us, and we will have a chance to think about what these novels have to do with our supposedly post-eighteenth-century world by looking at two kinds of adaptations of them, film versions and a couple recent works that engage similar issues.

Texts (available in bookstore):

Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (1722)

Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740)

Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996)

Henry Fielding, Shamela (1741) / Joseph Andrews (1742)

Nick Hornby, High Fidelity (1995)

Fanny Burney, Evelina (1778)

Jane Austen, Emma (1816)

(recommended criticism is on reserve at the library, listed under my course ENG 8420)
 

Requirements: informal response papers (15%), 2 short critical papers (15%, 15%), research presentation (15%), mid-term (10%), final (15%), participation (15%) (You must pass each part to pass the class.)
 

Participation: This is a discussion class. Come to class prepared to discuss the readings. (To do this, of course, you must come to class: attendance is required). 
 

Exams (including surprise quizzes) will include both identifications and essays.
 

Plagiarism: Do your work, and do your own work. If you cheat, you fail. Period.
 

Writing: Because writing well is an integral component of reading well, there will be regular and frequent writing assignments in this class. These will be divided into three levels or stages:

First, for each class please bring in your reading notes. These should consist of brief responses, comments, or questions about the day’s reading. Sometimes I’ll suggest ahead of time a passage, dynamic, or theme to look for and sometimes you will be on your own. Reading with pen in hand will help you prepare for discussion.

Second, each week an informal response paper will be due. These are on topics of your own choosing, responses to the week’s readings or class discussions. They may further elaborate on your reading notes or be on something completely different.

Third, there will be 2 short critical essays (3-5 pages) on topics suggested by me (although you will always have the option of proposing an alternative topic, which could start from either your reading notes or your response papers).

All papers must be word-processed, double spaced, with usual margins and font.
 

Presentation:

The research presentation is a chance to look more closely into some aspect of the context—historical, formal, critical—of one of our novels. The precise focus of the research and the format of the presentation is up to you, but it should include a framework that helps us as a class approach the text as well as questions and topics for discussion. Please consult with me about the topic and direction of your presentation at least two weeks before it. An outline and annotated bibliography are due on the day of the presentation. If you’d like to use your presentation as a jumping off point for one of the formal papers, you are encouraged to do so. You may, if you absolutely insist, work alone on your presentation, but I’d strongly suggest you work with a partner. (I’ll pass out a worksheet that gives specific guidelines and suggestions for the presentations.)

8/25     When was the eighteenth century? What is the novel?

8/27     Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (--p. 59)

9/1       Labor Day: no class

9/3       Moll Flanders (--p. 188)

9/8       Moll Flanders (--p. 299)

9/10     Moll Flanders (--p. 343)

9/15     Samuel Richardson, Pamela (--p. 151)

9/17     Pamela (--p. 195)

9/22     Pamela (--p. 278)

9/24     Pamela [workshop]

9/29     Pamela (--p. 345)

10/1     Pamela (--p. 386)

paper 1

10/6     Yom Kippur: no class

10/8     Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary (mid-term)

10/13   fall break: no class

10/20   Henry Fielding, Shamela and Joseph Andrews (book 1; --p. 75)  

10/22   Joseph Andrews (book 2; --p. 161)

10/27   Joseph Andrews (book 3; --p. 240)

10/29   Joseph Andrews (book 4; --p. 303)

11/3     Nick Hornby, High Fidelity (--p. 228)

11/5     High Fidelity (--p. 323)

11/10   Frances Burney, Evelina (--p. 105)

11/12   Evelina (--p. 132)

11/17   Evelina (--p. 243)

11/19   Evelina (--p. 270) [workshop]

11/24   Evelina (--p. 406)

            paper 2

11/26   Thanksgiving: no class

12/1     Jane Austen, Emma (vol. 1; --p. 119)

12/3     Emma (vol. 2; --p. 245)

12/8     Emma (vol. 3; --p. 381)

12/10   Emma and Clueless