Seminar in Literary Interpretation - Fielding, Tom Jones

Henry Fielding’s Stage & Page

Containing what the reader may, perhaps, expect to find in it. This course looks at playwright, journalist, novelist, and man of law Henry Fielding’s approach to authorship and authority. It begins with Fielding’s satirical drama, The Author’s Farce (1730) and considers institutional forms of censorship including the Theatrical Licensing Act (1737) and their effects upon Fielding’s career. The course then moves to consider Fielding’s major novel, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling (1749) in tandem with associated literary scholarship.