This semester the graduate class I am taking is on the British novel. It's a course that will explore the development of the British novel during the late 20th century (1960-2000). We will study some of the period's important works of fiction as literary texts and as commercial products. Here is the required reading list for the course:

Chapter one of The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance by Northrop Frye

"Realism and the Novel Form" from The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding by Ian Watt

"Book publishers: from family houses to international media corporations" from Inside Book Publishing by Giles Clark

"The Age of the Novel" from A History of British Publishing by John Feather

"Commissioning and Editing Modern Fiction" from On Modern British Fiction by Dan Franklin

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles

The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch

Midnight's Children by Sir Salman Rushdie

Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes

Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt

White Teeth by Zadie Smith


My professor has a Master of Arts degree from Boston College and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. :)