We may popularly approach fiction as being antithetical to history, but this categorical divide is one that has been debated, supported, and challenged by critics, authors, and scholars throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through to modern approaches to literature. One way to critically situate fiction in relation to history, rather than against it, is to understand that many earlier novels have come to be canonized as being works of great literature through approaches that seem to concern the aesthetic rather than historical. This course begins with a set of questions that seek to understand how the bounds of fiction and history were and are being produced.

Much postmodern fiction, written in the later twentieth century, specifically returns to this debate to open up these novels, as well as the idea of literature itself, to a more critical consideration. This course will look at a set of earlier novels as well as their "revisions" in postmodern fiction, keeping in mind that these later novels are not just retelling the original stories, nor are they completely antagonistic to them, but they are actively questioning what other narratives and stories might get suppressed, edited, or appropriated by a culturally, historically, and literarily dominant one. We will end with a Neo-Victorian novel, which will help round out our inquiry by moving from specific stories and the cultural capital they hold, into the larger concerns of Victorian literature and culture that some postmodern work is trying to address. In other words, the goal of this class is to understand how fiction can be used as a historical determinant, and we will use the postmodern novels to explore the relationship between fiction and history that is being both produced and critiqued. Supplementary material and criticism will also be available in a course pack.

Because the course is primarily discussion-based, a significant portion of your grade is based on class participation. Students will also write two short response papers (3-4 pages each), and one longer essay (5-7 pages), with required revisions. The workload also includes a presentation, discussion-leading, Go Post responsibilities, quizzes, and a heavy reading schedule.


Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. 1719. (978-0393964523)
Coetzee, J.M. Foe: A Novel. 1986. (978-0140096231)
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 1847. (978-0393975420)
Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. 1966. (978-0141185422)
Fowles, John. The French Lieutenant's Woman. 1969. (978-0316291163)
Course Reader, available at Ave Copy (4141 University Way)