ENG 4936

Honors Seminar:

The Pleasures of Genre: Fiction and Theory

Professor Phillip Wegner

Wednesday, 9-11 (4:05-7:05 p.m.)

TUR 2341

genre n [F, fr. MF genre kind, genderãmore at GENDER] (1816) 1 : KIND, SORT 2 : a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content

The great literary critic Tzvetan Todorov (whose work we will read this semester) notes, ≥for nearly two centuries, there has been a powerful reaction in literary studies against the very notion of genre. We write either about literature in general or about a single work, and it is a tacit convention that to classify several works in a genre is to devalue them.≤ At the same time, however, many of the most influential examples of the novel are in fact genre fictions. This includes rich and brilliant work in the genres of the historical novel, science fiction, the romance, bildungsroman, and the fantastic. Moreover, the category of genre was the site for some of the most important statements in literary theory produced during the preceding century. This course will introduce you to the study of genre, its potential and pleasures, through a careful examination of major works in genre theory coupled with significant examples of each form selected from the canons of nineteenth and twentieth century British literature and popular film. Although the reading list is not set in stone, some likely pairs include, Nancy Armstrong, Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel and Jane Austen, Emma; Georg Luk·cs, The Historical Novel and Walter Scott, Waverly; Tzvetan Todorov, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre and James Hogg, The Last Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner; essays on science fiction by Darko Suvin, Fredric Jameson, Mark Rose, and H.G. Wells, The Time Machine; Franco Moretti, The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture and James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Stanley Cavell, Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage and the films, The Lady Eve and Groundhog Day.

Students will be expected to participate in the seminar discussion; keep an ongoing journal on the readings; and produce a final formal seminar paper.