This years programme of Literary Society lectures got off to a triumphant start on Tuesday 11th November when Professor Patrick Hayes of St Johns College, Oxford posed the question What are novels for?.
A large audience, comprising girls from across the school, staff and parents, listened to Professor Hayess argument that the novel, in its various guises across the broad sweep of English Literature, is a means of tackling social and cultural differences.
Professor Hayes employed examples from Henry Fieldings Tom Jones, George Eliots Middlemarch and J.M. Coetzees Foe to explore varying notions of difference and the ways in which writers address the theme: for instance, Tom Jones, in its burlesque mode, helps the reader to bridge the divide between epic conventions in literature and ordinariness, whilst Middlemarch, with Eliots emphasis on social realism, suggests that social differences can be transcended. Coetzee, meanwhile, is more sceptical of the notion of novels as a means of transcending difference Foe being a sustained dialogue on the nature of racial and gender differences.
The audience asked various, incisive questions of Professor Hayes after his talk, focusing on the nature of reading novels, writers intentions and the evolution of the novel over time. Our conversations with Professor Hayes continued into the ensuing drinks reception, closing a most engaging evening.
