Monday, May 15, 2006

Historical fiction course at Manchester University

I found this course description while surfing around today:

EN 3131: The Historical Novel

It's an undergraduate course in the English Department at Manchester University. Looks like a great selection of reading material, from Philippa Gregory to Bernard Cornwell to Umberto Eco. No American authors or settings in the bunch as far as I can tell, unless you count Janice Radway (an American academic who wrote a critical study of the romance field). My book's on their recommended reading list, which I was surprised and pleased to see.

It's nice to see historical fiction getting some attention in academic circles. Why couldn't they have taught such a course when I was in school?

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:41 PM

    Hi, Sarah, congrats on having your book on the recommended reading list for that historical novel course--Alana

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  2. That's my old university! :) Wish they'd had that course when I was there! And many congrats from me too.

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  3. Sounds an interesting course. And good to see your book getting some recognition! I guess the absence of American authors reflects the course location; presumably it would be reversed if there were a similar course on your side of the Pond?

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  4. Thanks, everyone! I know how often I bothered with secondary reading materials when I was in college (not very often!) but it's nice to see the professor recommending the book.

    If such a course were held in the USA, I'm sure there'd be a fair number of British authors represented... only because I think more British historical novelists are read in the US than the reverse. Here are some US-based course syllabi that I found: Oregon State University and Columbia University, which seems to be on postmodern HF.

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  5. I just checked: our university library has your book. :)

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  6. Gabriele - that's good to know :) I really didn't know if any libraries outside the US would buy it, but I'm pleased some of them have.

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  7. Anonymous11:00 PM

    My colleague and I just purchased your book for our library for a project we're doing. It is excellent!

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  8. Hi Troy - thank you so much!

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