THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY NOVEL: GENRE AND

In the late seventeenth century, a new genre appears across Europe: the novel.  It told the stories – not of the princes and princesses – but of ordinary people on extraordinary voyages, from villages to the Metropolis, from England to Africa and the Americas. In their travels, they encountered not the dragons or giants of romance, but the people and things that made up everyday life in the eighteenth century – country houses and whorehouses, aristocrats and the merchants, pirates and slaves, and a vast array of enticing goods (shoes and coats, silks and ribbons, coffee and opium) produced in early capitalism.

Why does the novel appear?  What role does it play, in personal psychology as well as society?  Can we account for its increasing popularity as well as its transformations across the eighteenth century?  To puzzle these questions, we will place the development of the novel within the history of art, philosophy and science, as well as psychology and literary theory.  Writers include Mme. de La Fayette, Aphra Behn, Daniel Defoe, Eliza Heywood, Henry Fielding, John Cleland, William Godwin, and Jane Austen. Critical readings include selections from Benjamin, Adorno,
Foucault, Elias, Moretti, and others.  Note: we will read primarily novellas (short novels) or selections from longer novels in this course.