What is the first modern novel? The question has different answers in different literary traditions. In this graduate seminar, we will survey what counts as "the first modern novel" around the world. In the process, we will critically reassess the concept of modernity and the role of the novel form in its production. We will read novels like Rabindranath Tagore's The Home and the World; Mohammed Hussein Haikal's Zainab; Lu Xun's The Real Story of Ah-Q; Futabatei Shimei, Ukigumo; and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Graduate students in this seminar will write a syllabus for an undergraduate course titled "The First Modern Novel" and work collaboratively to produce a pedagogical database for the teaching of such a course.
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