students to five major works of fiction and investigates the power of narrative. 242 is a survey course so we will sample works from various historical periods and genres: works from the 1700s to the late 20th century, from romance to the postmodern. Simultaneously, we will consider the evolution of narrative, as well as narrative’s power extending beyond the text’s borders. As Paul Cobley tells us, “even the most ‘simple’ of stories is embedded in a network of relations” (2). Students will acquire tools for analyzing how narrative constructs and perhaps disrupts experience, human or otherwise.

Students should be prepared to write one long paper divided into two parts (a 5 page paper revised and extended to 10-12 pages), comparing and contrasting two different narrative strategies. Bi-weekly analyses of the novels are required as is daily participation in class discussion. While there may be an occasional lecture, class discussion will serve as our primary mode of engagement.

Course Materials:

Defoe, Daniel, and Evan R. Davis. Robinson Crusoe. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2010. Print. ISBN-13: 978-1551119359
Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. Kristin F. Samuelian. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2004. Print. ISBN-13: 978-1551113210
Eliot, George, and Rosemary Ashton. Middlemarch. London: Penguin, 2003. Print. ISBN-13: 978-0141439549
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. New York: Harvest, 1990. Print. ISBN-10: 0156628708
Amis, Martin. Time's Arrow, Or, the Nature of the Offense. New York: Vintage International, 1992. Print. ISBN-13: 978-0679735724

Cobley, Paul. Narrative. London: Routledge, 2001. Print. ISBN-13: 978-0415212632