Specialization - Dangerous Liaisons: The 18th-Century Novel

ENGL 3196  Dangerous Liaisons: The 18th-Century Novel

Prerequisites:

Six credits of 2000 level English (excluding ENGL 2001, ENGL 2002 and ENGL 2011).

Antirequisites:

ENGL 3095

Hours:

Three hours of lecture per week for one term

Credits:

3

Description:

In Sheridan’s play The Rivals, inveterate novel reader Lydia Languish vows to marry against her guardian’s wishes to gain the glory of losing her £30,000 fortune for love. A comic character, Lydia nonetheless represents what was thought to be a serious problem: the dangers of reading novels. Students examine the emergence and development of the English novel, considering the social and moral dangers novels both represented in their narratives and were thought to pose to their readers.