Senior Seminar

In this senior seminar, we will revisit an age-old problem in the study of fiction:  how do readers become involved in the lives of literary characters? In particular, we will ask how the representation of thought and feeling influence our conception of fictional character.  Primary texts include Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility; Henry James, What Maisie Knew; Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway; the anonymous Plum in the Golden Vase (Jin Ping Mei); and Cao Xueqin, Story of the Stone (Hong lou meng); critics include Peter Brooks, Sharon Cameron, Dorrit Cohn, Dorothy Hale, Alex Woloch, Blakey Vermeule, and traditional Chinese commentators.  All Chinese texts will be available in English translation.