Long Books
Why are long books long? Beyond its length, what makes a long book different from a short book? How is the experience of reading a long book distinct from that of reading a short book? Should long books be shorter? Should short books be longer? What, if any, characteristics do long books share? Is there a politics of extension? This course sets out to answer these apparently simple questions. Along the way, we will also consider the phenomenology of reading, and ask how we read and why?
We will begin by reading a couple of long books (and, for the sake of comparison, also a couple of short books by the same authors) together. After that, students will choose a long book of their own for further study and investigation.
Language of instruction: English
Instructor: Jon Beasley-Murray
Coming soon!
Examples of long books that we might read either individually or collectively include…
Roberto Bolaño, The Savage Detectives
Roberto Bolaño, 2666
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
Julio Cortázar, Hopscotch
Euclides da Cunha, Rebellion in the Backlands
Elena Ferrante, The Neapolitan Quartet (at least two volumes)
Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Georges Perec, Life a User’s Manual
Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time (at least two volumes)
Augusto Roa Bastos, I the Supreme
Italo Svevo, Zeno’s Conscience
…but students are also welcome to make their own suggestions.