The Novel Network

The Novel Network group examines the relationship between the novel and the ‘everyday’.

About us

Comprising academics from across the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the Novel Network examines the novel from a range of disciplinary perspectives: from the literary critical to the socio-historical, philosophical and ethnographic.

We consider:

how the global novel functions politically and socially
whether periodicity is a useful way of classifying novels or whether there is another more compelling way they can historicised
the current state of novel theory
whether there is more than a nostalgic place for the novel’s particular readerly pleasures, such as: for deep absorption, for the framework of the page and the tactile rhythm of its turning.

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Our events

We run conferences, masterclasses and reading groups which not only showcase the work of its members, but provide valuable training for our postgraduate student and future academic members.

A selection of our activity

In 2018, three core members of the Novel Network, Smith, Hardie and Frow, visited Harvard, funded combinedly by Harvard and the University of Sydney’s office of global engagement, presenting their research in a series of colloquia at the Mahindra Humanities Centre.

Sharon Marcus, Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister versus Theories of the Bildungsroman (October 18, masterclass)

Sharon Marcus, Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Goethe (October 16, lecture)

Jed Esty, Vartan Gregorian Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania (May 24, masterclass)

Tina Lupton, Copenhagen, 2024: ‘Who’s got the Kids?: Women, Child Care and Writing to the Moment (April 12, masterclass)

Deidre Lynch, Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature, Harvard, 2023: Believing in Novels: Hoax, Hocus, and the Gothic (November 7, lecture); Ephemera, Leavings, and the Boundaries of the Book in the Electronic Age: The Case of Ali Smith (November 8, masterclass)

Jonathan Arac, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh, 2016: Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy in American World Literature (lecture); Triangulating Moby Dick: Intersections of American Studies, World Literature, and Theory of the Novel (masterclass)

Nancy Armstrong, Gilbert, Louis, and Edward Lehrman Distinguished Professor of English, Duke Univeristy, 2013: The Affective Turn in the Contemporary Novel (lecture and masterclass)

Our publications

We've generated numerous publications and core members of the Novel Network, Frow, Hardie and Smith, edit the Oxford University Press series Approaches to the Novel.

Frow, J., Hardie, M., Smith, V. (2020). The Bildungsroman: form and transformations. Textual Practice, 34(12). [More Information]

Cogle, J., Fischer, N., Saleh Rofail, L., Smith, V. (2018). Portable Prose: The Novel and the Everyday. Lexington Books. [More Information]

Frow, J., Smith, V. (2017). The Prosaic Imaginary. Novel, 50(1). [More Information]

Smith, V., Frow, J. (2016). Novel Worlds. Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, 63(2-3). [More Information]

Affiliations

The Novel Network is formally affiliated (via a Memorandum of Understanding) with the Society for Novel Studies in the United States.

Our people

Professor Vanessa Smith

Dr Vanessa Berry
Dr Nienke Boer
Dr Meg Brayshaw
Dr Anthony Cordingley
Dr Daniel Dixon
Dr Briohny Doyle
Professor John Frow
Associate Professor Sarah Gleeson-White
Associate Professor Melissa Hardie
Dr Isabelle Hesse
Dr Alex Howard
Professor Adam Morton
Professor Brendan O’Connor
Dr Nicola Parsons
Dr Brangwen Stone
Dr Matthew Sussman
Dr Lucas Thompson
Dr Léa Vuong
Dr Anne Walsh