Studies in the 19Th Century (450-1-20)

Topic

Studies in the 19th Century Novel

Instructors

Michal Peled Ginsburg
8474670958
1860 S. Campus Drive, Crowe Hall #2-132
Office Hours: By Appointment

Meeting Info

FRIT Grad Sem Rm 2130 - Crowe: Thurs 2:00PM - 5:00PM

Overview of class

In the 19th century, the novel was the main form of popular culture; it was the equivalent of movies and TV in the 20th century. It was also the site where writers engaged, through their characters, with the socio-economic changes and diverse ideological positions that characterized the century. It is, therefore, arguably, the most representative genre of the century and the one that offers us the best chance of understanding it.

In this course we will read works by the five most important French novelists of the century: Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert, Hugo, and Zola. We will be interested in several things: Historically, in the development from Romanticism to Realism and then to Naturalism; socially, in the different ways authors understood the new post-revolutionary world—the rise of the middle class and capitalist economy; and formally, in the different kinds of plots, different understanding of description and detail, and different kinds of "characters" these novels display.

Class Materials (Required)

Tentative Reading List (with the exception of the first text, to be finalized when I know what students have already studied):

Stendhal, "L'Abbesse de Castro" (in Chroniques italiennes)

Balzac, Le Père Goriot

Flaubert, Madame Bovary

Hugo "Fantine" (first part of Les Misérables)

Zola, Au bonheur des dames