ENGL 247

Spring 2025 All Classes

All Classes

The British Novel

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Credit: 3 hours.

A study of some of the more noteworthy and influential writers of the last two hundred and fifty years. The course traces the development of the novel as a genre that both celebrated and critiqued Britain and British nationalism. Examines how the novel has been important culturally over time.

Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2022 for:

Humanities – Lit & Arts

Cultural Studies - Western

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ENGL 247 class schedule data for spring 2025
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	32062	Lecture-Discussion	S	2:00PM -3:15PM	TR	336 Davenport Hall	Courtemanche, E	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/21/25-05/07/25 Degree Notes: Humanities - Lit & Arts, and Cultural Studies - Western course. Section Info: SP25 - ENGL 247: The British Novel - Eleanor Courtemanche - Novels are experimental spaces for dramatizing the problem of freedom in a chaotic modern world. If we could act with complete freedom, would we like the results, or end up isolated and self-centered? Since the Magna Carta, Britain has defined itself as a free society—but it’s also a small set of islands where it’s not always easy for people to run away from their choices. The British novel of the last three centuries dramatizes the clash between individual desire and community responsibility by using wit and satire to create a limited space of social freedom, and the marriage plot to fetishize a single moment of free choice in a materially determined world. We will learn some historical background that explains the distinctiveness of British traditions from Regency romance to punk rock, but also respond to the novels’ characters as they explore their moral choices and unsettle the hierarchies that constrain them. Our texts will include Daniel Defoe’s "Moll Flanders," Jane Austen’s "Sense and Sensibility," Charles Dickens’s "A Tale of Two Cities," George Eliot’s "The Mill on the Floss," E. M. Forster’s "Howards End," Virginia Woolf’s "To the Lighthouse," and Hanif Kureishi’s "The Buddha of Suburbia." There will be two papers, a midterm and final, and weekly written assignments; be prepared to read up to 200 pages a week.