Center for the Study of the Novel

The Center for the Study of the Novel promotes conversation on the novel and related narrative genres as these forms have been practiced across history and cultures. CSN is committed to the importance of studying literature as a primary form of human expression, even as it examines what interdisciplinary perspectives may tell us about literature and the novel in particular. CSN further is committed to studying the history and practice of literary criticism and theory illuminating the novel and its relations to society and culture. 

Objects of inquiry include long prose fictions, the powerful cultural role played by the novel, oral forms and their relation to print culture, as well as the expansion of narrative into newer media, such as cinema and digital technologies. We attend to the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of the novel and ask how the literary aspects of the novel are shaped by extra-literary contexts and other artistic paradigms. Even as CSN devotes significant attention to major works of the novelistic canon, we also study forgotten and poetically devalued novels, including those that are situated at, and help to define, the boundaries of the genre. 

Click here to visit the Center for the Study of the Novel website

Upcoming Events

April
5
Date
Fri April 5th 2024, 9:00am - 5:30pm
Location:
Building 460, Margaret Jacks Hall
450 Jane Stanford Way, Building 460, Stanford, CA 94305
Terrace Room (Rm. 426)

We are excited to announce our CSN 2024 Conference, Stories and the Seas, which will be happening all day on Friday, April 5th.

Past Events

February
20
Date
Tue February 20th 2024, 5:00pm
Location:
Building 460, Margaret Jacks Hall, 426 (Terrace Room)

We are excited to welcome Caroline Levine to campus this February for our annual Ian Watt lecture!

February
6
Date
Tue February 6th 2024, 5:00pm
Location:
Margaret Jacks Hall, Terrace Room (Room 426)
October
24
Date
Tue October 24th 2023 - Thu October 26th 2023, All day
Location:
Terrace Room on the 4th Floor of Building 460

Tuesday, October 24th

Noon-2pm

Futures of Short Story Criticism

October
23
Date
Mon October 23rd 2023, 4:30pm
Location:
Terrace Room in Margaret Jacks Hall

Speaker: Kevin McLaughlin (Brown University)

October
12
Date
Thu October 12th 2023, 5:00pm
Location:
Terrace Room of Margaret Jacks Hall

Author: Jennifer Fleissner

May
19
Date
Fri May 19th 2023, 12:00am - Sat May 20th 2023, 12:00am
Location:
Terrace Room, Margaret Jacks Hall (460-426)
November
3
Date
Thu November 3rd 2022, 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Location:
Terrace Room, Margaret Jacks Hall (460-426)
June
3
Date
Fri June 3rd 2022, 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Location:
Terrace Room, Margaret Jacks Hall, Room 426
Please join us on Friday, June 3rd…
November
17
Date
Wed November 17th 2021, 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Speaker
Cynthia Laura Vialle-Giancotti

Dear colleagues, 

November
3
Date
Wed November 3rd 2021, 5:00pm - 6:30pm
Location:
Margaret Jacks Hall, Terrace Room
Speaker
Andrea Capra

Dear colleagues,