View Timetable
Realism and Naturalism in the American Novel
LW421
| THU |
| 27 |
| OCT |
Romance is the most characteristic form of the American novel, but in the second half of the nineteenth century American writers began looking to the European traditions of realism and naturalism. Contrary to the romantic belief that individuals have the power to control their own destiny, realists and naturalists see people as controlled by the combined forces of their heredity and their environment – ‘nature and nurture’. William Dean Howells, who defined realism for American readers, was also its first American practitioner. We will read his novel The Rise of Silas Lapham as well as Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth and important works by two American naturalists: Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie and Frank Norris's The Octopus.
27th October - The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
3rd November - The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
10th November - Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
17th November - The Octopus by Frank Norris
27th October - The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
3rd November - The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
10th November - Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
17th November - The Octopus by Frank Norris
Course Dates
- Thu 27th October 11
- Thu 3rd November 11
- Thu 10th November 11
- Thu 17th November 11