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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

March
7
Date
Fri March 7th 2025, 9:30am - 6:00pm
Location:
Terrace Room (rm. 426), Margaret Jacks Hall, Bldg 460
450 Jane Stanford Way, Bldg 460, Stanford, CA 94305

Please join the Center for the Study of the Novel for their annual conference!

Past Events

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, 

October
29
Date
Fri October 29th 2021, 12:00pm - 1:30pm

Please join us on Friday, October 29th for the Center for the Study of the Novel’s Books at the Center event.

May
14
Date
Fri May 14th 2021, 10:00am - 12:30pm

Please join the Center for the Study of the Novel on Friday, May 14th at 10:00 AM PST for our final event of the academic year:…

May
12
Date
Wed May 12th 2021, 10:00am - 12:00pm

We are delighted to host Katarzyna Ancuta, presenting her talk on “In Search of Asian Gothic”

April
30
Date
Fri April 30th 2021, 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Location:
Zoom

Please join us on Monday, April 30th for the “Crime Narratives” event at the Center for the Study of the Novel. We are delighted to welcome Andrea…

February
23
Date
Tue February 23rd 2021, 12:00pm

The Center for the Study of the Novel is pleased to invite you to our final event of the Winter quarter.…

February
8
Date
Mon February 8th 2021, 1:00pm
Location:
Zoom

Please join us on Monday, February 8th for the Center for the Study of the Novel’s third book launch event of the year.

January
15
Date
Fri January 15th 2021, 12:00pm
Location:
Zoom

Please join us on Friday, January 15th for the Center for the Study of the Novel’s second book launch event of the year.