Eighteenth-Century Novel (3420)

Paper 2

The debate (on several distinct levels) between Richardson and Fielding defines the poles of the early development of the English novel. This paper (4-5 pages) is an opportunity to examine one aspect of that debate by comparing Pamela and Joseph Andrews. Pick one aspect of the novels to contrast, keeping in mind that you’ll be discussing the different ways the novels approach, or frame, the same problem.

Possible topics (use these as starting points):
Compare the imagined relation between the writer and reader.
Compare the use of authenticizing (or not) devices.
Compare the use of gender (models of women or men).
Compare the modes of social critique.
Compare the place of secondary characters.
Compare the use of spaces / places.

Each of you should have an argument about Pamela from before break, which will serve as your jumping off point.

It may be useful to think about the paper in these stages:

Isolate one problem that the novels address. This could be a formal problem (how it works) or one concerned with what it does (its purpose or social / moral project), or the relationship between the two.

Define the different approaches of the novels to this problem though discussion of two or three specific examples from each novel.

Consider the implications of these different approaches. What does each novelist imagine the novel should do? Or, how does each novelist imagine the novel should work?

I would be very happy to discuss your paper with you at any stage, from brainstorming to the rough draft, and encourage you to come see me, either during office hours or before / after class.

Drafts due Wed. 11/3, for in-class workshopping.

Final papers due Fri. 11/5.