English 139 - Winter, 2011

Topics in Global Literatures & Cultures

Topic: How Novels Took Over the Globe

Class Information

Instructor: Marx, John
Time: TR 10:30-11:50
Location: 217 Olson

Description

The lens of “the globe” makes visible not only the novel’s worldly aspect, but also its worldly work. That work, we will see, is simultaneously social and personal. Novels show us whether societies are well organized and raise questions about how societies might be better run. In addition to its interest in social governance, fiction is equally transfixed by the problems of individual self-governance. Novel after novel seeks to show how individuals organize their lives into stories, place themselves amidst groups, and locate those groups in diverse settings. The novel conquers the globe, we might say, character by character and society by society. We will map the novel’s global ambition by reading an array of contemporary fictions and one singular tale published in 1900. We will supplement our novel reading with pertinent essays in literary criticism and social science.

Grading

• two 5-7 page argument papers (20% each)
• mid term essay exam (15%)
• comprehensive final exam (20%)
• class participation (includes participation on SmartSite) (25%)

Texts

Mister Pip, Jones, Lloyd (ISBN 0385341075)
Kim, Kipling, Rudyard (Dover edition ISBN 0486445089)
Zero History, Gibson, William (ISBN 0399156828)
Half of a Yellow Sun, Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi (ISBN 1400095204)
Sputnik Sweetheart, Murakami, Haruki (ISBN 0375726055)
The Inheritance of Loss, Desai, Kiran (ISBN 0802142818)