American lawyer, journalist, general and diplomat John Foster once remarked that “fiction may be more instructive than real history.” Foster’s pithy statement may be better understood in light of Robert Louis Stevenson’s lengthier one: “The most influential books and the truest in their influence, are works of fiction. They repeat, rearrange, and clarify the lessons of life, disengage us from ourselves, constrain us to the acquaintance of others, and show us the web of experience, but with a single change—that monstrous, consuming ego of ours [is] struck out.” In this class we will read a selection of Anglo-American novels and short stories in order to investigate the varied and shifting roles that fictional literature has played in society over the past two hundred years, as various authors have used fiction to both uphold and challenge the status quo. This course is also designed to familiarize you with different periods of literature and the dominant modes of thought that have influenced fiction writers at various historical junctures; to this end, readings will be drawn from the Romantic, Realist, Modern, and Postmodern periods. The overall course goals are to hone your: 1) critical thinking skills; 2) ability to analyze literary texts; and 3) ability to write about literature. Student responsibilities include daily attendance, active participation in discussions and activities, one brief oral presentation, two short paper proposals, and two 5-7 page papers with revisions.

Texts:

• Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Norton, 1995. [0393964582]
• Melville, Herman. Moby Dick (Eds. Herschel Parker and Harrison Hayford). Norton, 2001. [0393972836]
• James, Henry. Daisy Miller (Eds. David Lodge and Philip Horne). Penguin, 2007. [0141441348]
• Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway (Ed. Bonnie Kime Scott). Harvest/Harcourt, 2005. [0156030357]
• DeLillo, Don. White Noise: Text and Criticism (Ed. Mark Osteen). Viking/Penguin, 1998. [0140274987]
• Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (6th ed.). MLA, 2003. [0873529863]