This seminar will explore the concept of intertextuality through analysis of three sets of linking novels from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea; Gustav Flaubert's Madam Bovary and Julian Barnes's Flaubert's Parrot; E.M. Forster's Howards End and Zadie Smith's On Beauty. In addition to writing assignments, you can expect to do close reading of the six novels, oral presentations, and library and internet research. A large part of your grade will depend upon your active participation in class discussions.