EN 542 Origins of the Novel: Text, Context, and Critique

The 18th century, which saw the proliferation of print culture, the inauguration of Enlightenment thought, and the expansion of the British Empire, also witnessed the emergence of a new literary form to figure that modern world. This literature course examines the earliest British "novels," the historical and cultural contexts from which they developed in the 18th century, and important critical thought about the form both before and after Ian Watt's watershed Rise of the Novel. (3)