Forms of the Novel: Quixote and its Legacy (ENG 2320-01)
MW 1:30 - 2:45, Tolentine 417
Scott Black, SAC 427, 610-519-4642
office hours: MW 3:00-4:15 and by appointment                   
scott.black@villanova.edu
http://www.homepage.villanova.edu/scott.black

With just four books (but four really big books), with four really big books (but four really funny books), this course will explore the tradition of the novel that follows Don Quixote. Concerned with the various ways one lives in a textual world, how one engages a world of many books, Cervantes’s work examines the relationships between fantasy and facts, stories and histories, inspiration and suspicion, reading and texts. In exploring Quixote and three major reworkings of its concerns—Fielding’s Tom Jones, Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses—we’ll address questions about the novel as a literary form, its evolving uses, and the relationship of its literary history to history more generally. These novels are substantial and provocative: students should come prepared to read and discuss.

Texts (available in the bookstore):
Cervantes, Don Quixote, trans. Rutherford (Penguin)
Fielding, Tom Jones (Oxford)
Thackeray, Vanity Fair (Oxford)
Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (Picador)

Requirements: informal response papers (15%), 2 critical papers (20%, 20%), mid-term (10%), final (15%), participation (20%) (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.
     First, approximately every other 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. For each novel, you should write two response papers (one for Satanic Verses) for a total of 7 for the term. You may choose the weeks you write one.
     Second, 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.

W 1/19             Don Quixote (--p. 112)

M 1/24             Don Quixote (--p. 312)
W 1/26

M 1/31             Don Quixote (--p. 520)
W 2/2             

M 2/7               Don Quixote (--p. 750)
W 2/9

M 2/14             Don Quixote (--p. 982)
W 2/16             paper 1 due

M 2/21             Tom Jones (books 1-5; --p. 232)
W 2/23

M 2/28             Tom Jones (books 6-8; --p. 421)
W 3/2              midterm

3/7-3/9             spring break

M 3/14             Tom Jones (books 9-14; --p. 686)
W 3/16

M 3/21             Tom Jones (books 15-18; --p. 871)
W 3/23             paper 2 due (option 1)

M 3/28             Vanity Fair (--ch. 18; --p. 223)
W 3/30

M 4/4               Vanity Fair (--ch. 34; --p. 438)
W 4/6

M 4/11             Vanity Fair (--ch. 651; --p. 656)
W 4/13

M 4/18             Vanity Fair (--ch. 67; --p. 878)
W 4/20             paper 2 due (option 2)

M 4/25             Satanic Verses (parts 1-4, --p. 247)
W 4/27

M 5/ 2              Satanic Verses (parts 5-9, --p. 561)
W 5/4              paper 2 due (option 3)