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"The novel parodies other genres (precisely in their role as genres); it exposes the conventionality of their forms and their language,- it squeezes out some genres and incorporates others into its own peculiar structure, re formulating and re-accentuating them. Historians of literature sometimes tend to see in this merely the struggle of literary tendencies and schools. Such struggles of course exist, but they are peripheral phenomena and historically insignificant. Behind them one must be sensitive to the deeper and more truly historical struggle of genres, the establishment and growth of a generic skeleton of literature" (Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. 1975. ed. Michael Holquist, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981)
This course examines the emergence of novels in various parts of the globe that address a readership beyond their respective nations or regions of origins, sometimes even beyond the novelist's national language. Throughout the semester, we shall pursue a collaborative investigation of the formal innovations allowing these works of fiction to move "outside" or "beyond" the modern nation states whose formation coincided with their own. Under the specific heading of "Contemporary Genre Fiction," we will look at subgenres of the novel and address these questions: How do various contemporary novels transform generic prototypes that once enabled readers to imagine belonging to a coherent national community, the historical origins of that community, the social bonds needed to hold it together, what had to be kept out, how it perpetuated itself, and thus its possible futures. To do see, we’ll try to determine that forces to which contemporary genre novels attribute this transformation. What sensory, cognitive, and/or affective equipment does one require to negotiate the altered world of these novels? What political possibilities do these novels open up or close down?
This course examines the emergence of novels in various parts of the globe that address a readership beyond their respective nations or regions of origins, sometimes even beyond the novelist's national language. Throughout the semester, we shall pursue a collaborative investigation of the formal innovations allowing these works of fiction to move "outside" or "beyond" the modern nation states whose formation coincided with their own. Under the specific heading of "Contemporary Genre Fiction," we will look at subgenres of the novel and address these questions: How do various contemporary novels transform generic prototypes that once enabled readers to imagine belonging to a coherent national community, the historical origins of that community, the social bonds needed to hold it together, what had to be kept out, how it perpetuated itself, and thus its possible futures. To do see, we’ll try to determine that forces to which contemporary genre novels attribute this transformation. What sensory, cognitive, and/or affective equipment does one require to negotiate the altered world of these novels? What political possibilities do these novels open up or close down?
Syllabus
Syllabus
Jan 10, Jan 15: Introduction to the class: What is a genre novel now?
• Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich. “Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel: Notes Towards a Historical Poetics." The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981. 84-258.
• Litz, A. Walton. “The Genre of Ulysses.” James Joyce: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Mary T. Reynolds. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993. pp. ??
• Jameson, Fredric. “Postmodernism and Consumer Society.” The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings on the Postmodern, 1983-1998. London: Verso, 1998. 1-20.
• Rancière, Jacques. “The Politics of Literature.” SubStance: A Review of Theory and Literary Criticism 33.1 (2004): 10-24.
• McGurl, Mark. “Everything and Less: Fiction in the Age of Amazon.” Modern Language Quarterly 77.3 (2016): 447-71.
• Volodine, Antoine. Post-Exoticism in Ten Lessons, Lesson Eleven. Trans. J. T. Mahany. Rochester: Open Letter, 2015.
Jan 22, Jan 29: Bildungsroman
• Sebald, W.G. Austerlitz. Trans. Anthea Bell.10th ed., New York: Modern Library, 2011.
• Hamid, Mohsin. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. New York: Mariner Books, 2008.
• Lukács, György. “The Inner Form of the Novel” and “The Historico-Philosophical Conditioning of the Novel and its Significance." The Theory of the Novel: A Historico-Philosophical Essay on the Forms of Great Epic Literature. 1916. Trans. Anna Bostock. Cambridge, Mass.: Merlin Press, 1971. 7-95.
Feb 5: Historical Novel
• Miéville, China. October: The Story of the Russian Revolution. Verso, 2017.
• Readin what has happened lately to the historical novel TBA.
Feb 12: Erotic Novel
• Houellebecq, Michel. Submission: A Novel. Trans. Lorin Stein. New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2016.
• Bataille, Georges. “The Use-Value of D. A. F. Sade (an Open Letter to My Current Comrades).” Trans. Allan Stoekl. Sade and the Narrative of Transgression. Eds. David B. Allison, Mark S. Roberts, and Allen S. Weiss. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 16-32.
• Foucault, Michel. “Theoretical Discourses and Erotic Scenes,” Language, Madness, and Desire: On Literature. Eds. Philippe Artières, Jean-François Bert et al. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015.
Feb 19: Romance
• James, E. L. Fifty Shades of Grey. New York: Vintage Books, 2012.
• Mark McGurl on self-published online romances.
• Marsh, Kelly. “The Neo-Sensation Novel: A Contemporary Genre in the Victorian Tradition.” Philological Quarterly 74.1 (1995): 99-123.
Feb 26: Exotic Novel
• Wang, Anyi. The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai. Trans. Susan Chan Egan. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
• Said, Edward W. “The Scope of Orientalism.” Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979. 31-112.
March 5: Planning meeting for research projects: initial proposals due
March 12: SPRING BREAK
March 19: Discussion of Global Novel Symposium papers (March 19)
• Readings TBA
March 26: Detective Novel (March 26)
• Mankell, Henning. The White Lioness. Trans. Laurie Thompson. New York: Random House, 2003.
• Moretti, Franco. “The Slaughterhouse of Literature.” Distant Reading. London: Verso Books, 2013. 63-89.
• Somigli, Luca. TBA.
March 29: GLOBAL NOVEL SYMPOSIUM
• Symposium to be held 10-6 in the FHI
April 2: City Novel
• Beukes, Lauren. Zoo City. New York: Mulholland Books, 2016.
• Jameson, Fredric. Raymond Chandler: The Detections of Totality. London: Verso, 2016.
April 9: Science Fiction (Guest facilitator, Rita Monticelli)
• Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go. New York: Vintage, 2006.
• Csicsery-Ronay, Istvan. “What Do We Mean When We Say ‘Global Science Fiction’? Reflections on a New Nexus.” Science Fiction Studies 39.3 (2012): 478-93.
April 16: Discussion of Research Projects
April 20: Graduate Students Symposium
Jan 10, Jan 15: Introduction to the class: What is a genre novel now?
• Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich. “Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel: Notes Towards a Historical Poetics." The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981. 84-258.
• Litz, A. Walton. “The Genre of Ulysses.” James Joyce: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Mary T. Reynolds. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993. pp. ??
• Jameson, Fredric. “Postmodernism and Consumer Society.” The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings on the Postmodern, 1983-1998. London: Verso, 1998. 1-20.
• Rancière, Jacques. “The Politics of Literature.” SubStance: A Review of Theory and Literary Criticism 33.1 (2004): 10-24.
• McGurl, Mark. “Everything and Less: Fiction in the Age of Amazon.” Modern Language Quarterly 77.3 (2016): 447-71.
• Volodine, Antoine. Post-Exoticism in Ten Lessons, Lesson Eleven. Trans. J. T. Mahany. Rochester: Open Letter, 2015.
Jan 22, Jan 29: Bildungsroman
• Sebald, W.G. Austerlitz. Trans. Anthea Bell.10th ed., New York: Modern Library, 2011.
• Hamid, Mohsin. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. New York: Mariner Books, 2008.
• Lukács, György. “The Inner Form of the Novel” and “The Historico-Philosophical Conditioning of the Novel and its Significance." The Theory of the Novel: A Historico-Philosophical Essay on the Forms of Great Epic Literature. 1916. Trans. Anna Bostock. Cambridge, Mass.: Merlin Press, 1971. 7-95.
Feb 5: Historical Novel
• Miéville, China. October: The Story of the Russian Revolution. Verso, 2017.
• Readin what has happened lately to the historical novel TBA.
Feb 12: Erotic Novel
• Houellebecq, Michel. Submission: A Novel. Trans. Lorin Stein. New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2016.
• Bataille, Georges. “The Use-Value of D. A. F. Sade (an Open Letter to My Current Comrades).” Trans. Allan Stoekl. Sade and the Narrative of Transgression. Eds. David B. Allison, Mark S. Roberts, and Allen S. Weiss. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 16-32.
• Foucault, Michel. “Theoretical Discourses and Erotic Scenes,” Language, Madness, and Desire: On Literature. Eds. Philippe Artières, Jean-François Bert et al. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015.
Feb 19: Romance
• James, E. L. Fifty Shades of Grey. New York: Vintage Books, 2012.
• Mark McGurl on self-published online romances.
• Marsh, Kelly. “The Neo-Sensation Novel: A Contemporary Genre in the Victorian Tradition.” Philological Quarterly 74.1 (1995): 99-123.
Feb 26: Exotic Novel
• Wang, Anyi. The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai. Trans. Susan Chan Egan. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
• Said, Edward W. “The Scope of Orientalism.” Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979. 31-112.
March 5: Planning meeting for research projects: initial proposals due
March 12: SPRING BREAK
March 19: Discussion of Global Novel Symposium papers (March 19)
• Readings TBA
March 26: Detective Novel (March 26)
• Mankell, Henning. The White Lioness. Trans. Laurie Thompson. New York: Random House, 2003.
• Moretti, Franco. “The Slaughterhouse of Literature.” Distant Reading. London: Verso Books, 2013. 63-89.
• Somigli, Luca. TBA.
March 29: GLOBAL NOVEL SYMPOSIUM
• Symposium to be held 10-6 in the FHI
April 2: City Novel
• Beukes, Lauren. Zoo City. New York: Mulholland Books, 2016.
• Jameson, Fredric. Raymond Chandler: The Detections of Totality. London: Verso, 2016.
April 9: Science Fiction (Guest facilitator, Rita Monticelli)
• Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go. New York: Vintage, 2006.
• Csicsery-Ronay, Istvan. “What Do We Mean When We Say ‘Global Science Fiction’? Reflections on a New Nexus.” Science Fiction Studies 39.3 (2012): 478-93.
April 16: Discussion of Research Projects
April 20: Graduate Students Symposium
Requirements
Students will be evaluated on their participation in seminar meetings, their ability to plan and facilitate a group discussion, and their respective contributions to a collaborative research project designed by the group as a whole.
N. B., Admission to this course by permission of instructors only.
N. B., Admission to this course by permission of instructors only.
Meeting Time & Place
M 4:40-7:10, Allen 318