English 40-2 - Fall, 2019

Introductory Topics in Literature

Topic: Novels and the History of Emotion

 

Class Information

Instructor: Hughes, William
CRN: 63181
Time: MWF 1:10-2:00
Location: 140 Physics
 

Description

Topic: Novels and the History of Emotion/Emotion and the History of the Novel

This course will introduce students to the history of the novel and its relationship to the history of emotion, feeling, and affect. While we often think of emotion as a straightforward matter of biology and cognition, the history of emotion demonstrates that the feelings that are available to an individual at any given moment are impacted by historically variable discourses. Novels give names to emotions and feelings, and through their form, novels figure a variety of affective states. We will begin with the sentimental fiction of the 18th century and end with a 20th century postmodern novel. In between, we will cover 200 years of the history of the novel alongside the history of emotion. Topics to be addressed include: sentimentality, sympathy, and empathy; trauma and ordinary affect; modernism and flat affect; desire and queer affect; postmodernism and paranoia.

Required Texts:
NB: Be sure to purchase the editions listed here.
Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield (Oxford), ISBN: 978-0192839404
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (Penguin), ISBN: 978-0141439662
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (Oxford), ISBN: 978-0199535590
Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (Penguin), ISBN: 978-0141441610
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (Harcourt), ISBN: 978-0156628709
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (Perennial), ISBN: 978-0060913076
Additional critical readings will be available on the course Canvas site.
 

Grading

Reading Quizzes
In-Class Writing Exercises
Midterm Paper
Final Paper
Final Exam
 

Texts

Lord Jim , Joseph Conrad
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
The Vicar of Wakefield , Oliver Goldsmith
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon