The Moral Universe of the Novel in Defoe, Dickens, and Joyce

This class will assess the conditions for the original popularity of the novel. The course texts will be placed against the industrial and political background of the period, the rapid growth of the middle-class reader, and contemporary responses to these narratives. Our discussions will focus on traditional interpretations of the novel in relation to how narrative voice, point of view, descriptive scenes (the compelling story), character development, theme, and rhetoric shape the social and moral universe of the novel. We will also discuss how reader-response (the reader in the text) shapes meaning; and how shifts in literary criticism and narrative affected the novel. At the conclusion of the course, students will have an opportunity to discover, debate, and define what (if anything) these works mean to a post-industrial, contemporary audience.