230447 Theories of the Novel (S) (WiSe 2019/2020)

The novel is the most popular form of fiction in today’s world. However, this has not always been the case. In its beginnings, the long prose narrative was “novel” – an original and rare literary form. In this course, we are going to study the rise of the novel and explore its contemporary position in the English-speaking world from a variety of perspectives. We will ask questions such as “What were the social, political and historical reasons for this rise?”, “Why is the novel still the most popular literary form?”, “What does this form tell us about our society?”, “How is the relationship between the novel and other literary/textual forms?”, and “What do theories of the novel teach us about ways of approaching literature in general?” As part of this course, we are going to read a wide array of articles and locate the novel form in its broader historical, cultural, and philosophical contexts, which will offer us an insight into underlying debates in the field of literary studies.