Estb. 1882

University of the Punjab

18th Century Novel






























Code: 306

Title: 18th Century Novel

Rating: 3 Credit hours

Type: Compulsory
Pre-requisites:

No such pre-requisites are required for this course. However, the students will be expected to have excellent class participation and attendance for this course. All readings must be completed by the given deadlines, and no student without reading materials will be allowed to enter the classroom.
Introduction:

"The Victorian novel is notably ambitious, eager to show it knows everything and everyone", writes Dierdre David in his essay on the development of the eighteenth-century novel. This course will be a foray into the ways in which the novel form developed and evolved in the eighteenth-century and the ways in which it participated in constructing national identity. We will examine two leading Victorian novelists and study the ways in which they contributed to the development of the novel. We will look at the relationship between Jane Austen and “the formation of a national domesticity”, as Maryam W. Khan puts it, and study the deployment of irony and comedy in her magnum opus. We will then move on to Anthony Trollope and study his unique deployment of satire, and issues of class and gender in his novel.
Objectives:

The purpose of this course is to equip students to analyse the various thematic and ideological concerns of the eighteenth-century novel along with its formalistic elements. The students will be trained to formulate in-depth responses to issues of gender and class in eighteenth-century fiction, as well as respond to the precise deployment of genre, narrative, and form. Through this course, the students will acquire a deep understanding of the ways in which the novel emerged as the dominant literary form in the eighteenth century and the reasons why it still carries resonance to this day.
Contents:
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Barchester Towers
, Anthony Trollope
Outcome:

By the end of this course, the students will be expected and evaluated to show a close understanding of the formal elements and thematic concerns of the eighteenth-century novel, and the ways in which the novel developed as one of the most dominant literary forms of the age. This course will prepare the students for future deeper explorations of the novel as it evolved from eighteenth century realism to nineteenth century avant-gardism, and all that it lost and gained along the way.
Credit hours/ Marks:- 03

Reference Books

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