3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

This new course explores current trends in longer fiction, comparing innovative and traditional visions of the novel, as well as changing techniques of style, pace, character, structure and language. The modern novel, in print or digital form, has expanded into interactivity, shaped text, alternative history, and graphic forms; new technologies allow broader experimentation uncurated by traditional publishers. For this course, readings might include novels with innovative forms, such as Cloud Atlas and A Visit from the Goon Squad, in which an entire chapter is delivered in PowerPoint, or novelists who experiment with language, such as Jamaica Kincaid in See Now Then, Peter Carey in The True History of the Kelly Gang, or David Foster Wallace and Mark Richard. We’ll also consider traditional novels influenced by culture, science and history, such as McCarthy’s The Road or Ian McEwen’s The Children Act.