Fall 2004

HUMS 643
Forms of Modern Fiction

Burt,Daniel S.

09/13/2004 - 12/18/2004
Tuesday 06:00 PM - 08:30 PM

Fisk Hall 115

What makes modern fiction so challenging, daring, and stimulating? How did the modern novel evolve and what are its connections with and differences from the novel that originated in the 18th century? We will explore these questions in a close reading of some of the groundbreaking novels of the 19th and 20th century, including Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS, Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS, Joyce's PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN, Woolf's TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, Pynchon's THE CRYING OF LOT 49, and Morrison's BELOVED.

Students will be expected to keep a journal of their responses to the readings as well as to make presentations and contribute to class discussions. As a final project, each student will write a critical examination of a recently published literary novel of his or her choice.

This reading and discussion course will include particular emphasis on the techniques of fiction writing. For that reason, it should be of special interest to creative writers as well as to students who enjoy the directed reading of modern texts.


Daniel Burt (B.A. Colgate University; M.A., Ph.D. New York University) is author of The Chronology of American History, The Biography Book, and a three-volume critical guide to historical fiction. He has written extensively about Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett in The Literary 100 and The Novel 100, and on Shaw, Synge, O'Casey, and Friel in the forthcoming Drama 100.

ENROLLMENT INFORMATION

Consent of Instructor Required: No

Format: Seminar

Level: GLSP Credits: 3 Enrollment Limit: 18

Texts to purchase for this course:
Joseph Conrad, HEART OF DARKNESS (W.W. Norton), Paperback

James Joyce, PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN (Penguin), Paperback

Franz Kafka, METAMORPHOSIS (W.W. Norton), Paperback

Toni Morrison, BELOVED (Vintage Books), Paperback

Thomas Pynchon, THE CRYING OF LOT 49 (Perennial Classics), Paperback

Virginia Woolf, MRS. DALLOWAY (Harcourt), Paperback

READING MATERIALS AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323

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