This course will develop students’ capacity to read longer works of fiction in English and offer an introduction to the genre of the novel. We will consider fundamental questions of plot, character, narrative, setting, theme and tone, gradually adding nuance and complexity throughout the semester. While the texts are thematically diverse, they each involve a story teller (“narrator”) who is limited, or naïve, in what they can perceive, know and relate. This will foreground larger questions for the semester about who gets to tell stories, how they are enabled to do so, and why it matters.
The chief learning aim of this course is first of all, to enable students to experience for themselves the unique pleasures of completing a longer novel in English, and consider how it differs from other experiences of reading literature. Second, students will: develop their capacity for sustained reading and reflection; sharpen their appreciation for complex, (“round” or “3-D”) characterization; extend their ability to read for plot and trace themes in long-form fiction; distinguish between national and regional types and tendencies; situate texts within the English and American literary traditions; practice analytical interpretation and close-reading; learn to discern the “tone” of narrative; develop their critical vocabulary and practice it using persuasively in oral and written English.
- 教師: 08824183