Narrative in English Literature

Recommended Prerequisites

Advanced reading skills in English. Students should be able to read primary and critical texts in English.

Teaching Methods

Some expository classes but more often class discussion of primary and secondary texts.

Learning Outcomes

The course provides an overview of the development of Narrative across several centuries. Students will acquire notions of genre, periodization and literary history, and develop analytical tools and reading skills.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

This survey course will familiarize students with key movements and tendencies in English Narrative up to the end of the 19th century. The course will cover the following topics: 1. Early forms of narrative from Arthurian romance to moral allegory; 2. The emergence of the novel in the 18th century; 3. The19th century and the heyday of Realism; 4. The Gothic and the breakdown of Realism. Texts will be chosen in terms of their representative value, but will also be studied in their own right and read as closely as possible. (N.B.: The syllabus may change depending on teaching staff).

Head Lecturer(s)

Stephen Daniel Wilson

Assessment Methods

Final Assessment
Exam: 100.0%

Bibliography

Davis, L. (1996). Factual Fictions: The Origins of the English Novel. Philadelphia: University of

Pennsylvania Press. 

Matos, J. (2013). “The Beginnings of English Realism: Daniel Defoe, ‘The Great Fabricator’ of 

Truths we no longer believe in”, in António Apolinário Lourenço et al., orgs., O Século do

Romance. Realismo e Naturalismo na Ficção Oitocentista. Coimbra: Centro de Literatura

Portuguesa.    

McKeon, M. (1998). The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740. London: Radius.       

Morris, P. (2003). Realism. London: Routledge.

Stevens, D. (2003). The Gothic Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Watt, I. (1987). The Rise of the Novel. London: The Hogarth Press.