106-408 The Novel & the Invention of the Modern

Formerly available as 106-017. Students who have completed 106-017 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth-year honours in English, see Honours entry.

This subject examines the novel as a key genre within the ongoing history of modernity. It will trace formal and thematic developments within the genre in its current form from its emergence in the 18th century to the present. It will analyse how the novel has registered social and cultural changes, characteristic of modernity, over that period, focusing on the novel's representation of everyday life especially as organised through class and sexuality. It will also address such matters as the genre's increasing cultural value and the transformations of its relations to other media, old and new. It aims to provide students with a general map of the novel's history against the backdrop of a society undergoing modernisation.