Studies in Fiction (313-0-20)
Topic
Desire and Danger in the 19th Century Novel
Instructors
Jules D Law
Meeting Info
Parkes Hall 212: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
Desire is the field in which we put our very identity, autonomy and independence at risk. And yet romantic and erotic desire are the very motors not only of social relations but of narratives and fiction. In great novels, we as readers hang as much on the outcome of romantic entanglements as we do on the solution of crimes. How do our desires and the characters' desires entwine in the phenomenon we call "narrative desire?" And what are the dangers of identifying with the characters and outcomes of a supremely "plotted" world? We will look at three classic novels in which the dangers of desire are figured, variously, as perversity, faith, sexual violence, betrayal, and blood addiction!
Evaluation Method
Early 4-pp. paper (15%); final 6-7 pp. paper (35%); two seminar presentations (15% each), and quality of contribution to seminar discussion (10%).
Class Materials (Required)
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Penguin 2006, ISBN 9780141441146; Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Broadview, 9781551117515); Bram Stoker, Dracula (Oxford 9780199564095).
Texts will be available at: Norris Bookstore, though you are encouraged to acquire the texts independently and beforehand. Please note that it is ESSENTIAL to acquire the specific editions listed OR to have a digital version of the novels, so we can all "be on the same page." Tess of the D'Urbervilles is a special case. It was published in several conflicting editions during Hardy's lifetime. If you don't acquire the edition ordered for the class, there will be some important passages and episodes missing from your edition.
Class Attributes
Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area