Thanks to Pamela Gilbert and Paul Fyfe for suggesting readings!
ENGL 366: English Novel to 1900: Technologies of Reading
What did it mean to read a novel in the nineteenth century? This course will consider the novel as a technology and reading as a process of adapting to new forms in different time periods and with different mediums and materials. As we examine the history of the novel, we will experiment with different reading styles: serialized reading, close reading, reading out loud, collaborative and networked reading, e-reading, and even not reading. We will read canonical novels, gothic and sensational fiction, and popular novels during the nineteenth century that are no longer read today. Along the way, we will gain an appreciation for the sheer volume of published novels in the nineteenth century, as well as examine how attitudes towards reading in the nineteenth century parallel some of the controversies surrounding the supposed death of print and reading today.
Possible Texts:
Note: Novels on this list are available in digital editions for those of you who have e-readers. Since we are going to discuss the way different editions and formats of novels impact the way we read them, the specific editions I’ve listed are very important to your understanding of the course material. Please purchase the editions I’ve linked to here.
- William Godwin. Caleb Williams, or Things as They Are. (Digital)
- Mary Shelley (with Percy Shelley). The Original Frankenstein. (Digital)
- Mary Elizabeth Braddon. The Doctor’s Wife. (Digital)
- Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist: The Parish Boy’s Progress.
- Serialized in Bentley’s Miscellaney Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4.
- Arthur Conan Doyle. A Study in Scarlett. (Digital)
- Richard Marsh. The Beetle. (Digital) *The Kindle edition on amazon is not the correct edition.