Mar 29, 2024  
2015-2016 Academic Catalog 
    
2015-2016 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

ENG 210-01 - Studies in Genre

4 credits (Fall)
Romance versus Realism. This course explores the categories of romance and realism in early modern and contemporary prose fiction. By pairing early innovators in the novel genre (Behn, Defoe, Austen) with contemporary writers (Coetzee, Morrison, McEwan), we will compare and contrast the way authors then and now approached the relationship between romance and realism. Attending to works from the Restoration through the early nineteenth century, we will examine the roots of the romance/realism tension as well as the debates it generated among mass audiences. In turning toward modern authors, we will consider their debts to literary traditions and identify the ways they approach this tension differently in light of modern concerns. Students will write weekly online responses and compose three analytical essays on formal, historical, and theoretical facets of prose fictions.

Prerequisite: ENG 120  or ENG 121  for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120  or ENG 121  or any course in the study of literature in another language department.
Instructor: Mangano