ENGL 341 A: Studies In The Novel

This course will introduce you to the interplay in the history of fiction of the genres of romance and realism.  Romance as a technical literary-critical term doesn’t mean “love story,” it fundamentally means a “hero quest,” but also is defined in relation to the “marvelous” things that happen in this kind of narrative (superheroes, giants, wizards, magic spells) and the exotic settings in which such tales take place. The genre of romance as we know it begins in the European Middle Ages with the “knights in shining armor” narrative, and we’ll begin the course with one by the most famous writers of medieval romances, Chretien de Troyes (12th century), followed by a book from the mid-16 century that was the first to poke fun at the knightly ideal from a "realistic" point of view, Lazarillo de Tormes.  Then we'll read the first "Gothic" romance, The Castle of Otranto, which is the ancestor of our horror genre.  We'll finish with two classic English novels, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre,  which combine the conventions of romance with those of realism.  My aim is to show how the approach through these genre concepts can not only give you fresh new insights into the style and structure of these novels, but change how you look at every movie you see, by making apparent how these movies  (Star Wars, for example) are using the  conventions of romance and realism.  We will also read some literary criticism and theory, which will be available in a packet from Ram’s Copy Center on the Ave.