230576 The History of the Novel in Britain: A Survey (V) (WiSe 2007/2008)

The novel is by far the most prolific of literary genres, and it has reached the broadest audiences for more than four centuries. The aim of this survey-style lecture course is to sketch the development of the novel in Britain from the Elizabethan Age until today. It will situate the developments of the genre and its most important subgenres in the contexts of cultural history, and analyse the use of narrative techniques in these contexts. Influential theoretical approaches to the novel will also be discussed. Obviously, it will be necessary to proceed in highly exemplary fashion, but an attempt will be made to introduce students to the major authors and their works.

Preliminary outline: Elizabethan Prose Fiction - Narrative from the Elizabethan Age to the Restoration - The (Long) Eighteenth Century - From Romanticism to Jane Austen - The Early and Mid-Victorian Novel - The Late Victorian Novel - The Edwardian and Modernist Novel - Between The Wars: Middlebrow Fiction - The Post-War Novel: Angry Young and Sad Old Men - Women's Novels after 1945 - The Post-Modernist Novel: Doubt, Fragmentation and Meta-Fiction - The Novel Today: Tendencies in Realism and Romance - The Multiethnic Novel.

Please note that this is a lecture course, not a seminar. It will therefore yield a standard TWO credit points (for regular attendance and minutes of one session); it is directed especially at students who need CP for their individual supplementary studies (individueller Ergänzungsbereich).