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Academic Year 2005/2006

The Culture of the Quixote
ENGL 308 FA

This course undertakes to explore the ideas that enter into literary discourse with the publication of DON QUIXOTE in 1605. The major ideas we will discuss at length concern three particular issues Cervantes used his eponymous hero to raise in the novel: 1) the effects of reading on an uncritical mind; 2) the dynamics of desire in a media-saturated world; and 3) the role of parody in the transformation of literary history. In the first third of the course, we will deal with the first two ideas in DON QUIXOTE and fiction and film in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the rest of the course, we will look at two exemplary cases of quixotic parodic practice in English literary history in the mid- and late- 19th century.

MAJOR READINGS

Allen, Woody, "The Kuglemass Episode"
Allen, Woody, THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO
Alter, Robert, PARTIAL MAGIC
Austen, Jane, "Love and Friendship"
Austen, Jane, NORTHANGER ABBEY
Borges, Jorge, LABYRINTHS
Cervantes, Miguel de, THE ADVENTURES OF DON QUIXOTE
Fielding, Henry, SHAMELA AND JOSEPH ANDREWS
Flaubert, Gustave, MADAME BOVARY
Girard, Rene, DECEIT, DESIRE, AND THE NOVEL
Greene, Graham, MONSIGNOR QUIXOTE
Johnson, Samuel, THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA
Kosinski, Jerzy, BEING THERE
Lennox, Charlotte, THE FEMALE QUIXOTE
Mackenzie, Henry, THE MAN OF FEELING
Radcliffe, Ann, THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO
Richardson, Samuel, PAMELA, OR VIRTUE REWARDED

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Two short essays (4-6 pages), one long research paper (10-12 pages).

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

This course meets the English Departments pre-1800 requirement.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006

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