This course introduces students to some selected novels written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries successively by renowned literary icons. The course is also intended to familiarize students with the different literary features and distinctive characteristics of both centuries, especially the concept of Western individualism, guiding students toward an appreciation of the genre as an art form. Western individualism was initiated in the 18th-century novel as a manifestation of the rationalism of the age, and was further developed in the 19th-century novel The course also sheds light on the tremendous cultural, social, political and historical factors that had influenced prose writing in both centuries, helping students understand the inevitable connection between literature and culture. Further, the course requires students to engage in literary analysis of chosen texts from a cultural perspective to highlight the fact that a profound analysis of literary texts requires basic knowledge of their cultural context.
