THE EUROPEAN NOVEL

THE EUROPEAN NOVEL

Module Level:

III

Module Leader:

Dr Richard Dover

Module Credit Value:

20 Credit Points

Recommended Prior Knowledge: Level II modules The Nineteenth Century Novel and The Twentieth Century Novel.

Aims

to enable the development of reading and understanding a number of key European novels
to explore the developments in style and content of the European novel, and consider some of the social, cultural and political contexts which have informed those developments
to examine key concepts in contemporary literature ( high art/ popular culture, race, gender, class) in the light of these developments

Indicative Content

This double module course is intended as an introduction to a number of major European novels written and published in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Texts will be studied in a recommended English translation, with full recognition of the limits of individual translations. A wide range of examples, selected both for their literary significance and their representative status, will be studied in relation to their immediate social, historical and cultural contexts. Students will, further, be encouraged to discuss the links between novels and contemporary developments in the history of European ideas, including Marxism, Naturalism, Existentialism and Structuralism, with reference to the writings of intellectuals such as Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, Sartre and Barthes.

Following introductory lectures on the general development of the European novel since 1830 to the present, the course will proceed to the exploration of the following exemplary texts:

Stendahl, Scarlet and Black (1830)
Honore de Balzac, Cousin Bette, (1846)
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (1856-7)
Fyodor Dostoevesky, Crime and Punishment (1866)
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenin (1877)
Emile Zola, Germinal (1885)
Andre Gide, The Immoralist (1902) and Fruits of the Earth (1897)
Thomas Mann, Death in Venice (1911) and The Magic Mountain (1927)
Franz Kafka, The Trial (w. 1914-5) and 'Metamorphosis' (w.1912)
Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past (Swann's Way 1913, and Time Regained, 1927)
Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf (1927) and Narziss and Goldmund (1930)
Jean-PaulSartre, Nausea (1938)
Albert Camus, The Plague (1948) and The Outsider (1942)
Gunter Grass, The Tin Drum. (1959)

The course will also introduce students to writers and texts outside of the range of the course, including Theodor Fontane, (Effi Briest), George Huysmans (Against Nature), Italo Svevo, (The Confessions of Zeno), Alfred Doblin (Berlin Alexanderplatz), Alain Robbe-Grillet (In the Labyrinth), and Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being).

In the study of the above texts a number of key themes and issues will be explored, including the following:

The changing relationship between writer and society, and the issues of the writer's social "responsibility". Issues for discussion here would include the development of post-Flaubertian asceticism; the question of commitment and engagement (with reference to the writings of Georg Lukacs, J.P. Sartre, and Walter Benjamin); alienation and expressionism; the issue of political affiliation amongst nineteenth and twentieth century European novelists;

Responses to social and historical change and revolution within the period. Issues for discussion here would include responses to Industrialisation; the representation of class relations and political unrest; responses to War, Revolution and Exile; and the representation of bourgeois Capitalist and advanced Capitalist "mass society";

The novelistic expression and exploration of contemporary developments in nineteenth and twentieth century intellectual history. This will entail reference to intellectual and artistic movements such as Naturalism, Existentialism, Absurdism, Phenomenology, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, and to the writings of Marx, Kierkegard, Nietzsche, Bergson, Freud, Jung, Sartre, Gramsci and Barthes. Particular emphasis will be placed on the assimilation of the ideas of Nietzsche in twentieth century writing, including the Apollonian and Dionysiac, (in the writings of Mann, Gide, and Hesse), and relativist/subjectivist responses to secularisation and the "death of God".

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the double module students will be able to:

demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of a range of major European nineteenth and twentieth century novels;
apply relevant and contemporary critical approaches to the study and analysis of a range of European novels;
demonstrate an understanding of some of the determining literary, cultural and philosophical contexts which have informed the development of the European novel;
understand some of the ways in which European novels have addressed, and been determined by, their immediate and wider social and historical contexts.
have acquired a foundation upon which to base their subsequent reading and analysis of European fiction and literature.

Teaching and Learning Strategies

Texts will be studied in 2 week blocks. Introductory lectures will identify key issues and provide background information. These will be followed by seminars in which students will be given the opportunity to discuss the texts and related issues. The seminars will be a combination of tutor-led and student-led. Individual study time will be used for the reading of texts and background material, and the preparation of seminar activities.

Assessment Strategies

This course will be assessed by coursework (50%) and exam (50%). The student will choose 2 topics from a selection prepared by the tutor and write 2000 words in response to each. The assignment questions will be designed to elicit detailed analytic and interpretive responses to issues raised by the course. The students will be assessed in the coursework on their ability to deal with complex, abstract and challenging material. A depth of understanding of texts will be required as well as a breadth of knowledge and ability to relate the specific example to movements, trends and patterns in literature and culture.
The examination will be a 3 hour unseen paper during which the student will write three answers in response to questions selected from a range of text related questions. In the examination the student will be assessed on their ability to think independently, form reasoned judgements and present arguments at a high level in order to substantiate their point of view.

Bibliography

General Studies
W. Benjamin, Illuminations, (Fontana, 1973)
L. Bersani, Balzac to Beckett, (OUP, 1970).
(eds.) M. Bradbury and J. McFarlane, Modernism, (Penguin, 1976)
R. Gray, The German Tradition in Literature, 1871-1945, (CUP, 1972).
H. Hatfield, Modern German Literature, (Arnold, 1966).
E. Heller, The Disinherited Mind, (Bowes and Bowes, 1952)
(ed.) F.W.J. Hemmings, The Age of Realism, (Penguin, 1974)
G. Jospivici, The Lessons of Modernism, (Macmillan, 1973)
G. Lukacs, Studies in European Realism, (Merlin, 1973)
G. Lukacs, The Meaning of Contemporary Realism, (Merlin, 1974)
H.T. Moore, Twentieth Century French Literature to World War II, (Feffer and Simons, 1966).
H. Reiss, The Writer's Task from Nietzsche to Brecht, (Macmillan, 1978)
M Scott, The Struggle for the Soul of the French Novel: French Catholic and Realist Novelists, 1850-1970, (Macmillan, 1990)
C.P. Snow, The Realists, (Macmillan, 1978).
M.Turnell, The Novel in France, (Hamish Hamilton, 1950)
H.M. Waidson, The Modern German Novel, (CUP, 1964).
C.E. Williams, Writers and Politics in Modern Germany, (Holmes and Meir, 1976).
E. Wilson, Axel's Castle, (Fontana, 1972).

Individual Author Studies

J. Bailey, Tolstoy and the Novel, (Chatto and Windus, 1966).

M.M. Bahktin, Problems of Dostoeveky's Poetics, (Ann Arbor, 1973).

K. Beizer, Balzac's Narrative Generations, (Yale, 1986).

P. Bertault, Balzac and the Human Comedy, (New York UP., 1963)

(ed.) H. Bloom, Stendahl's Red and Black: Modern Critical Interpretations, (Chelsea House, 1970)

G. Bree, The World of Marcel Proust, (Chatto and Windus, 1967).

G. Bree, Sartre and Camus: Crisis and Commitment (M. Boyars, 1974)

J.G. Brennan, Three Philosophical Novelists: Joyce, Gide, Mann. (Yale, 1974)

V. Brombert, Stendahl: Fiction and the themes of Freedom, (New York, 1968)

R.F. Christian, Tolstoy, (CUP, 1969)

P. Conradi, Fyodor Dostoevsky (Macmillan, 1988).

J. Culler, Flaubert: The Uses of Uncertainty, (CUP, 1974).

J. Danton, Sartre, (Fontana, 1991).

G. Deleuze, Proust and Signs, (Allen Lane, 1973).

D. Fanger, Dostoevsky and Romantic Realism, (Cambridge, Mass., 1967).

R. Freeman, Hermann Hesse: Pilgrim of Crisis (Harper Row, 1978).

H. Gifford, Tolstoy, (OUP, 1982)

E. Grant, Zola's Germinal, (Leicester UP, 1970)

R. Gray, Franz Kafka, (RKP, 1973).

E.B. Greenwood, Tolstoy: The Comprehensive Vision, (RKP, 1975).

E. Heller, Kafka, (Fontana, 1974).

E. Heller, The Ironic German: A Study of Thomas Mann, (CUP, 1981).

F.W.J. Hemmings, Emile Zola, (Clarendon, 1966)

D. Hollington, Gunter Grass: The Writer in a Pluralist Society, (Marion Boyars, 1982).

R. Howells, Jean-Paul Sartre: The Necessity of Freedom (CUP, 1988).

A. Jefferson, Reading Realism in Stendahl, (CUP, 1988).

M.V. Jones, Dostoevsky: The Novel of Discord, (Elek, 1976).

M. Kanes, Balzac's Comedy of Words, (Dent, 1975).

R. Kuna, Kafka: Literature as Corrective Punishment, (Elek, 1972).

H. Levin, The Gates of Horn, (OUP, 1963)

R. Lottman, Albert Camus, (Collins, 1979).

A. Maser, Sartre: A Philosophical Study (Greenwood, 1981).

F. Merceau, Balzac and his World, (W H Allen, 1967)

K. Miles, Gunther Grass, (RKP, 1975).

I. Murdoch, Sartre: Romantic Rationalist, (Penguin1989).

B. Nelson, Zola and the Bourgeoisie, (Macmillan, 1983).

I. Nersayan, Andre Gide: The Theism of an Athiest, (Syracuse UP, 1969).

C. Prendergast, Balzac, Fiction and Melodrama, (CUP, 1978).

C. Prendergast, Order of Mimesis: Balzac, Stendahl, Nerval, Flaubert, (CUP, 1986).

V.S. Pritchett, Balzac, (Chatto and Windus, 1973)

T.J. Reid, Thomas Mann: The Uses of Tradition, (OUP, 1974).

J. Richardson, Zola, (Dent, 1978).

D. Roe, Gustave Flaubert, (Macmillan, 1988).

W.W. Roe, Leo Tolstoy, (Macmillan, 1986).

D. Rossi, Andre Gide, (Columbia UP, 1969).

A. Savarus, Balzac, (Macmillan, 1970).

R. Shattuck, Proust, (Fontana, 1974).

E. Starkie, Flaubert: The Making of the Master (J. Cape, 1967).

E. Starkie, Flaubert: The Master (Collins, 1970).

G. Steiner, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, (New York, 1959).

P. Thody, Marcel Proust, (Macmillan, 1987).

P. Thody, J.P. Sartre, (Macmillan, 1992).

P. Thody, Albert Camus, (Macmillan, 1988).

A. Thorlby, Kafka: A Study, (RKP, 1972).

B. Travers, Thomas Mann, (Macmillan, 1992).

C. Wakefield, Stendahl: The Promise of Happiness, (Newstead, 1984).

D. Walker, Andre Gide, (Macmillan, 1988).

P. Walter, Emile Zola, (RKP, 1968).

(ed.) R. Wellek, Dostoevsky: A Collection of Critical Essays, (Englewood Cliffs, 1962).

M. Wood, Stendahl, (Elek, 1971).

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