Syllabus English 683 Structure of Fiction Fall 2009

Syllabus – English 683 –Structure of Fiction Fall 2009

As I said in my opening remarks, we are going to do an analysis of each of these books, by which I mean that we are going to look at the obvious items first. The first is dramatic structure (that is, those events in which the reader can feel the gravity or tug of the story, or that moment when the reader wants to know what is going to happen next). This gravity or tug of fiction is the glue that holds most books together.

So, that is the first part of how we are going to see the way in which these books are put together. The second part is going to be a look at basic organization. Does the story move directly through time, or is time fractured and used to produce unusual effects? Is the narrative omniscient or first person, or told from multiple points of view, and if so, what effects are produced?

These, of course, are the basics of structure. Once we have taken a look at them, we are going, for each title, to look at more complicated aspects of the structure of these novels. And in this endeavor we are going to look at other elements, such as character, language, moral vision, humor, the method and pace with which information is given, the nature of the structure between author and reader, and other concerns. Each one of these elements can change and often do change within a book, and so we are going to look at the use of these secondary elementsand how they combine to effect the structure of these novels, both in thetechnical execution of the books and in their beauty and meaning, too.

Some of these titles are obviously meant to be compared with one another (such as Jazz and Love In The Time of Cholera), and others have an historical significance, but others are more random and reflect the wide variety of novels being published now.

We are going to read the books for this course in this order:

September 1: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

September 8: So Long, See You Tomorrow

September 15: Brighton Rock

September 22: Jazz

September 29: Great Expectations

October 6: Hotel Du Luc

13th Break

October 20: Love In The Time Of Cholera

October27: Perfume

November 3: Disgrace

November 10: Bel Canto

November 17: Handful of Dust

November 24: Altered Carbon

December 1: The Voyeur