ENG 3570 BRITISH WOMEN NOVELISTS
What factors contributed to the rise of the novel in eighteenth-century Britain, and what role did women writers play in the development of the novel as a form? What lasting contributions have they made to the genre as a whole? These questions will animate our explorations in this course, which will focus on British women novelists writing from the eighteenth century to the present day. From Eliza Haywood’s Love in Excess to Jeannette Winterson’s Written on the Body, we will study the contributions of British women writers to the creation of the novel form. We will trace the development of the genre through its various incarnations: from its epistolary roots in the eighteenth century (when novels were written in the form of letters); to its Victorian sub-genres (when intricate plotting resulted in “loose baggy monsters” otherwise known as triple-deckers); to its postmodern permutations (when the conventions of narrative, form, and style have become open to experimentation and change).
Course Types
Expression, Literature, Advanced Studies