ENGL 035. The Rise of the Novel

Why do we read novels? How has the history of novel-reading shaped the way we think about ourselves, about other people, and about the world? In answering these questions, we will study the long history of the novel in English considered as an aesthetic and material form, as a record of social life, and as a way of imagining other possible worlds. We will begin in the eighteenth century, travelling through the novel’s Victorian and Modernist incarnations and its post-colonial and post-modernist reconfigurations to end in the present. Includes close attention to major canonical novels and authors, a survey of the main critical and theoretical approaches to the novel, strategies for close reading and interpretation, introductory text-mining techniques, and investigation of how novels were printed and circulated. Recommended for anyone interested in reading, writing, or reviewing novels.
For majors and minors, this course can count either as an 18th/19th or 20th/21st century course.
GATEWAY English Literature.
Humanities.
Writing course.
1 credit.
Eligible for GSST, INTP
Fall 2025. Buurma.
Catalog chapter: English Literature
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature

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