Credit Points 10

Legacy Code 100893

Coordinator Jason Tuckwell Opens in new window

Description This subject explores the status and success of the novel as the dominant modern literary form. It examines aspects of the history and development of the novel from the seventeenth century up to the present, along with a range of novelistic texts from one or a number of literary traditions: from classic British and/or American texts to contemporary postcolonial fiction; from the search for the mythical "great Australian novel" to famous and not-so-famous works in languages other than English.

School Humanities & Comm Arts

Discipline Literature

Student Contribution Band HECS Band 1 10cp

Check your HECS Band contribution amount via the Fees page.

Level Undergraduate Level 3 subject

Restrictions

Successful completion of 60 credit points of study in currently enrolled program.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1. Read and critically examine a range of novelistic texts from one or a number of cultural traditions.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of a number of fictional modes eg.. modernist, post-modernist.
3. Describe and evaluate a range of narrative techniques and features - e.g. point of view, narrative time, plot versus story, characterisation, dialogue, structure.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of changes that have taken place in novelistic forms over a period of time, thereby showing also their understanding of literary genre.
5. Describe the relationships between the novel and other literary and narrative forms.

Subject Content

. The origins of the novel in earlier genres such as the poetic epic, the prose romance, and Menippean satire.
. The relationship between novelistic writing and journalism, from Defoe to the present.
. The epistolary novel, from Richardson to the present.
. The historical novel, from Scott to the present.
. Romanticism and the novel.
. Modernism and the novel.
. Postmodernism and the novel
. Focus study of a national tradition; for example, the American novel, the Australian novel, the English novel, the Irish novel, the Scottish novel, etc.
. Novels in languages other than English: French, German, Spanish, Russian, Indonesian, Japanese, etc. - to be studied in translation.
. The novel and high culture: F.R. Leavis and "The Great Tradition".
. "Genre" fiction - such as sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, romance, gothic - and popular culture.
. The adaptation of novels into film and television.