The Rise of the Novel
Charles Knight
Continuing Themes and Topics
1. Heroism and Domestic Life. Many novels treat the subject of family life, at least in passing. What do the novels tell us about the nature of the family and family roles and about changes in the family? What is the relationship of the family as a topic to the kinds of novels written about it? In what ways (and for what purposes) are family characters made to seem heroic and domestic concerns made to seem of major importance?
2. The Character of the Storyteller. To what degree does the storyteller have a character--conspicuously present or indirectly implied? How does that character influence or determine the nature of the story and the way it is told? What is the relationship between the storyteller's character and the characters of the story? Storytellers often provide standards for judging the events within the novel, but what are the criteria by which we evaluate the storyteller?
3. Novelty and the Novel. Novels often claim to be new, and particular novels often claim to be innovations upon previous fictions. What is the substance of this novelty in the case of individual novels? What do they say or imply they are doing that differs from what has previously been done? What do they actually do that is different? Are there general patterns that are common to the claims of newness in various novels?
4. The Definition of Selfhood. How do the major characters develop or discover their personal identity? What is the nature of that identity, and how is it related to the process that produced it? What is the function of the novel as a way of defining or exploring this personal self? What relationships are there between the personal selves of the major characters and the personal selves of the reader?
5. Public and Private Worlds. People have private lives, feelings, and attitudes. They also have public responsibilities and obligations. The private self is often hidden from the scrutiny of others; the public self is often manipulated to conform to social values and expectations. To what extent are these public and private worlds substantially different? To what degree are they at tension for central characters of the novel?
6. The Definition of Society. How do novels succeed in presenting a coherent or significant picture of society? What kinds of generalizations and evaluations of society do they suggest, and how do they suggest them? Even novels as long as Clarissa or Tom Jones can hardly present a full picture of society: how do novels develop a credible construct for society, and what values does that construct imply? How is the image of society that is presented in novels different from that of a social history, for example?
7. Education, Time, and the Passing of Generations. Novels often deal with change and the passing of time, especially as it is reflected in the life cycles of the characters. Change and the passing of time are also often important in the relationship of generations--in education and the transmission of values and experience. One can explore either aspect of the topic (temporal change in individual characters, time as defined by successive generations) or both.
8. The Management of Economic Affairs. Money (and how it is got and spent) is a personal and social problem in many novels. What is the relationship between money and other issues, both personal and social? Do many novelists agree with Karl Marx that the cash nexus replaces traditional human relationships in a capitalist society? To what extent do novels have a view of economy that is not monetary?
9. The Situation of Women. Novels obviously have women as characters, but their depiction of the internal feelings of women, their occasional exploration of the victimization of women, their relative accessibility to an audience of women, and the fact that women began to write novels and to articulate a female voice and consciousness have led some critics to see the novel as a genre particular sympathetic to women, even as an agent in their gradual emancipation. But other critics argue that most novels perpetuate the ideology of patriarchy. How do you evaluate these claims, for the eighteenth-century novels in general and for particular novels or novelists?
10. The Feckless Aristocracy. The novel is often regarded as a "middle-class" form. What picture does it present of the aristocracy--its personal behavior and its social values? Are noblemen and noblewomen presented as sympathetic, as dangerous, or as silly and inconsequential? Do they function as useful social stereotypes, or do novelists present serious criticism of aristocrats?
11. The Problem of Knowledge. How do the characters in novels know what they claim to know? For that matter how do the storyteller and the supposed readers? Are verification and false knowledge significant issues for the characters and for the plot? What is the relationship between subjective perception and objective knowledge? Is epistemology a central issue for the criticism of novels even if the novelist does not consciously define it as a topic?
12. The Psychology and Morality of Feeling. What is the importance of emotions, both as expressed by characters and as expressed by readers towards characters? What value is placed on feeling and the expression of emotions--or on self-control and the restraint of emotions? What is the relationship between emotions and character or even between emotions and identity (you are what you feel)? Is there a universal human heart?
13. Conflicting Worlds and Cultures. One way of looking at the history of the novel is as the record of a long transition between differing values, institutions, and cultural assumptions, especially as these come into conflict. How would you account for individual novels and pairs of novels as battlegrounds among large ideas, beliefs, values, systems, and ways of life-- especially as these have some self-conscious definition?