ENGL-UA 710 Narratology: Narrative Theory Professor Elaine

ENGL-UA 710
Narratology: Narrative Theory
Professor Elaine Freedgood
How do stories work? What difference does it make if a narrator is in the first, second or third person?
What is omniscience? What happens if a character decides to leave the novel he’s in and tries to find
other employment? What if a character is killed by a character in a novel she is reading in the novel we
are reading? We will think about questions like these while we read theories and novels together. This
will be an extremely challenging course, heavy on reading and writing. Novels may include Flann
O’Brien, At-Swim-Two-Birds, Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts, George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, James
Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room, Dennis Cooper, The Sluts. Theory: Gerard Genette, Dorrit Cohn, Roland
Barthes, Judith Butler, Fredric Jameson, Edward Said, Laura Mulvey. Weekly writing assignments, 2
exams, 4 papers, class presentations.