Sections offered FALL 2020:
#13658 |
JESSE MOLESWORTH |
TR 9:25-10:40am |
WEB |
CLASS NOTES: COLL Intensive Writing section; IUB GenEd A&H credit; COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry credit
Above class meets 100% Online with a combination of Synchronous and Asynchronous instruction. For more information visit https://fall2020.iu.edu/learning-modes/
This course offers a slow, unhurried reading of three very long novels: Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749), George Eliot’s Middlemarch (1871-72), and Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1998). Our central question is: what is gained from excessive length? What can be accomplished within the form of a long novel that cannot be accomplished in the form of a short novel?
Since this course is intended to offer an introduction to the study of fiction, we will spend much time discussing the fundamental formal features of fiction, including point of view, plot, characterization, description, setting, and style. Since we will be reading three works drawn from three different centuries, we will also spend much time discussing the historical development of the novel, from its origins to the present. Topics will include the novel’s relationship with the epic tradition, the rise of realism, the globalization of the novel, and the emergence of more recent aesthetic trends like postmodernism, parody, and pastiche.
Assignments will include 3 medium-length essays (one of which will be revised), short in-class writing assignments, and regular class attendance and participation.