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EAS1035 - Beginnings: English Literature before 1800
2014/5 Module description
| Staff | Dr Elliot Kendall - Convenor |
|---|---|
| Credit Value | 30 |
| ECTS Value | 15 |
| NQF Level | 4 |
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Co-requisites | None |
| Duration of Module | Term 1: 11 weeks; |
Module description
This module selects texts that represent some of the richest sources and most complex moments of English cultural history before 1800. These texts, and the cultural elements they combine, went on to have afterlives of great significance for English language, literature and other media. In other senses, they offered legacies that were not taken up, and what has been lost in cultural transformations will also be considered.
Module aims
The module will introduce students to these major literary texts. In doing so, it aims to cultivate modes of reading and critical analysis broadly informed by an attention to history and context. Such analysis will include ideas of subjectivity, identity, conflict, community, myth, the transmission of stories, storytelling, translation, transformation, and influence. This module will emphasise essay-writing skills that are fundamental to research and communication in English literature.
ILO: Module-specific skills
- 1. demonstrate an informed appreciation of specific texts, written from ancient times through to the end of the eighteenth century;
- 2. demonstrate a knowledge of the early development of English literary history;
- 3. demonstrate a capacity to identify and analyse the relationships between specific texts and their cultural and historical contexts;
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
- 4. demonstrate a basic ability to analyse pre-modern literature and to relate its concerns and its modes of expression to its historical context;
- 5. demonstrate a basic ability to interrelate texts and discourses specific to their own discipline with wider issues of cultural and intellectual history;
- 6. demonstrate a basic ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas and to apply these ideas to literary texts;
ILO: Personal and key skills
- 7. through seminar work, demonstrate basic communication skills, and an ability to work both individually and in groups;
- 8. through essay-writing and exam, demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills, a basic capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and a capacity to write clear and correct prose;
- 9. through research for seminars, essays and exam, demonstrate basic proficiency in information retrieval and analysis.
Syllabus plan
1. Stories of origin: extracts from Genesis and Gilgamesh
2. Homer, The Odyssey
3. Beowulf, tr. Seamus Heaney
4. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tr. Bernard O’Donoghue
5. Robert Henryson, Moral Fables, tr. Seamus Heaney
6. Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander
7. William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale
8. John Milton, Paradise Lost, books 1, 2, 4, 9
9. Alexander Pope, The Rape of the lock
10. Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
11. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 44 | 256 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 22 | Lectures |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 22 | Seminars |
| Guided independent study | 33 | study group preparation and meetings |
| Guided independent study | 70 | seminar preparation (individual) |
| Guided independent study | 153 | reading, research and essay preparation |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay draft | 1000 words | 1-6, 8, 9 | Peer feedback and seminar discussion |
| Close Analysis | 500 words | 1, 3-9 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for office hours follow-up |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 90 | 0 | 10 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exam | 65 | 2 hours | 1-6, 8, 9 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for office hours follow-up |
| Essay | 25 | 1000 words | 1-6, 8, 9 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for office hours follow-up. |
| Seminar participation | 10 | Continuous | 1-7, 9 | Oral feedback with opportunity for office hours follow-up. |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exam | 2 hours | 1-6, 8, 9 | Referral/deferral period |
| Essay | Essay 1000 words | 1-6, 8, 9 | Referral/deferral period |
| Seminar participation | Repeat Study or Mitigation | 1-7, 9 | Referral/deferral period |
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Core Reading:
The Odyssey of Homer, trans. Richmond Lattimore (HarperCollins, 2007)
Beowulf, trans. Seamus Heaney, ed. Daniel Donoghue (Norton Critical Editions, 2000)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, trans. Bernard O’Donoghue (Penguin, 2006)
Robert Henryson, ‘Seven Fables’, in The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables, trans. Seamus Heaney (Faber, 2010)
William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, ed. Stephen Orgel (Oxford UP, 1998)
John Milton, Paradise Lost, ed. Gordon Teskey (Norton Critical Editions, 2005)
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, ed. Claude Rawson and Ian Higgins (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008)
Alexander Pope, Selected Poetry, ed. Pat Rogers (Oxford World’s Classics, 1998)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, ed. D.L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf (Broadview, 1999)
The excerpts from Genesis and Gilgamesh, and the poem by Marlowe, will be supplied via ELE.
Module has an active ELE page?
Yes
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
The module description, module reading pack, lecture lists, lecture materials, additional reading materials, useful web links and a discussion forum will be available via the Exeter Learning Environment
Available as distance learning?
No
Origin date
2011
Last revision date
February 2012
Key words search
Beginnings, literature, English
Important please note
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All modules displayed below have been approved by the approval process but may require further minor amendments before the commencement of teaching.
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Foreign Language Centre modules 2020/21
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