Nineteenth-century realism counts romance as its defining Other: novels were supposed to be true, but they were also supposed to be interesting. Each writer confronted this crossroads differently and found a distinctive path toward an acceptable balance of forces. In this course we will examine examples of the problems of form and social understanding in long and short fiction ranging throughout the century and from numerous countries. Tentative list: Austen, Emma; Goethe/Scott, Götz von Berlichingen; Pushkin, The Captain's Daughter; Balzac, Preface to the Comédie humaine; Dickens, Bleak House; Hawthorne, The House of Seven Gables; Flaubert, Madame Bovary; Verga, stories. We will also read a few nineteenth-century programmatic documents and important relevant criticism. Students will give a class report and will write a 5000-6000 word essay on one of the fiction assignments.
A preliminary syllabus is posted at
http://faculty.washington.edu/mbrown/romance.pdf. Students are strongly
encouraged to read Bleak House over the summer.