What makes a novel a novel? What are the special moves that novels make? The primary aim of this course is for students to engage closely with the novel as a genre, at the same time as you will be asked to step back to consider the frameworks through which we read. We will read innovative, acclaimed novels in translation from across the world that push the boundaries of the genre, including a novel that has entirely genderless characters, a gothic novel with surreal effects, and a murder mystery in which the murdered man gets his own narrative. Through these texts we will uncover some of the fundamental conceptual issues concerning novels: their use of narrative, their expression of subjectivity, and their representation of reality. We will be using a framework of theoretical texts to inspire our discussions and assignments. You can expect to encounter postcolonial, historical, formalist, psychoanalytical, and feminist points of view in the context of some fascinating novels. The course is designed around the following novels: Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, James de Mille’s A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, Nobel prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red, and Anne Garétta’s Sphinx. Assignments will include one 8-page paper written in drafts, and one creative assignment that will reflect techniques from the novels (possibilities include producing a draft of the opening of a novel, writing a review that might be published on a literary website, or making an annotated map). The course is designed to allow students to integrate theory with practice, close reading with broader questions of genre, and creativity with rigor.