Specialization - Dangerous Liaisons: The 18th-Century Novel
ENGL 3196 Dangerous Liaisons: The 18th-Century Novel
Prerequisites:
Six credits of 2000 level ENGL (excluding
ENGL 2001,
ENGL 2011) or any 45 credits
completed (excluding ENGL 1501, ENGL 1502,
ENGL 2001,
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.