Charles Darwin meets Sigmund Freud. Critical analysis of John Fowles's novel The French Lieutenant's Woman

elective courses

Close reading of John Fowles's "The French Lieutenant's Woman". Every week students read about 5 chapters of the book. During the class the novel is discussed in the context of literary theories.

Close reading of John Fowles's "The French Lieutenant's Woman". Every week students read about 5 chapters of the book. During the class the novel is discussed in the context of: psychoanalysis, Neo-Victorian studies, Darwinian studies, Marxism and the theory of Malthus. As far as narration is concerned, the critical approaches include: metafiction, historiographic metafiction, and intertextuality (references to Charles Dickens's novels, mainly "The Pickwick's Papers", and William Makepeace Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" as well as poems by Alfred Tennyson and Thomas Hardy).

Primary sources:

Fowles, John, The French Lieutenant’s Woman (London: Penguin,1969).

Secondary readings (selected):

Barthes, Roland, The Pleasure of the Text, trans. Richard Miller (New York: Hill and Wang, 1975).

Barthes, Roland, Image-Music-Text, trans. Stephen Heath (New York: Hill and Wang, 1994).

Boyd, Brian, Joseph Carroll, and Jonathan Gottschall, eds, Evolution, Literature and Film (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010).

Byatt A.S., A New Body of Writing: Darwin and Recent British Fiction (London: Vintage, 1995).

Darwin, Charles, On the Origin of Species (New York: Bantam Dell, 1999).

Darwin, Charles, The Voyage of the Beagle: Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World (Ware Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 1997).

Darwin, Charles, The Descent of Man And the Selection in Relation to Sex (New York: A.L. Bert Company Publishers, 1874).

Freud, Sigmund, The Claims of Psychoanalysis to Scientific Interest', trans. James Strachey, in: The Pelican Freud Library, Albert Dickson, ed.,vol. 15 - Historical and Expository Works on Psychoanalysis (London: Penguin Books, 1986).

Freud, Sigmund, ‘The Uncanny’ in Great Books of the Western World, Mortimer J.A., ed. Dler, v.54 Freud (Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. ,1994).

Freud, Sigmund, Beyond the Pleasure Principle in Great Books of the Western World, Mortimer J.A.,ed., Dler ,v. 54 Freud(Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 1994).

Freud, Sigmund, ‘An Outline of Psychoanalysis', trans. James Strachey, in: The Pelican Freud Library, Albert Dickson, ed., vol. 15 - Historical and Expository Works on Psychoanalysis, (London: Penguin Books, 1986).

Hutcheon, Linda, 1988, ‘Historiographic Metafiction. Parody and the Intertextuality of History’ <http://hdl.handle.net/1807/10252>

Irvine, William, Apes, Angels, and Victorians (London: Readers Union Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1956).

Hutcheon, Linda , A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction (London and New York: Rout1edge) 1988.

Llewellyn Mark, What Is Neo-Victorian Studies?, Neo-Victorian Studies 2008, nr 1 (1). http://www.neovictorianstudies.com/past_ issues/Autumn2008/NVS%201-1%20M-Llewellyn

Lyell Charles, Principles of Geology, t. 1–3, red. Robert Robbins, 1830. http://www.esp.org/books/lyell/principles/facsimile/

Moorehead, Alan, Darwin and the Beagle (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1969).

Stone, Irving, The Origin. A Biographical novel of Charles Darwin (London: Corgi Books, 1982).

The students who complete the course are:

1. familiar with the critical theories mentioned above;

2. able to apply their knowledge to analysis of literary texts.

During the term students are expected to regularly attend classes and contribute to group discussions. They may also be asked to report on what they have read on their own (short presentations/ speeches). At the end of the term students should EITHER write a semester paper OR take an oral exam.