An archetype of human experience
I’m listening to The Rise of the Novel from The Great Courses—a fascinating journey through a genre we take for granted today, yet which wasn’t always part of our cultural landscape. Many scholars agree that the first true novel was Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. I had known this for a while, but never really explored why—or what that meant at the time. In this course, professor Leo Damrosch, an expert in literature, guides us through these questions with a rare clarity. He reminds us to approach them from a distance, aware that we belong to a different culture and time. We inevitably bring our own lens to the discussion, yet must also imagine how the people of that era understood these issues. ...