Module overview
Where did the idea of ‘English Literature’ as we know it today come from? When and how did writers first start thinking of themselves as English authors? How did the mechanisms of book production and the material forms of books shape readers’ understanding and judgements of literary texts? This module will focus on the fourteenth through to the seventeenth centuries, a period in which writers invented and wrote themselves into literary traditions, made new, bold claims for English as a literary language and for their own literary art, and crafted new poetic, dramatic and prose forms. In so doing, they profoundly shaped later generations’ understanding of what English Literature is. But creating an idea of what English Literature is also involves forming an opinion about what it is not, and the module will encourage you to consider how literary traditions are created selectively, to think about inevitable silences and exclusions, and to reflect on how ‘English Literature’ is an invention, and how it might be constructed differently.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Identify and make use of relevant cultural-historical and critical discussions of concepts such as authorship, literary value, and canonicity in academic writing
- Reflect on how individual medieval and early modern English texts, books and authors shaped, and were shaped by, literary traditions
- Analyse medieval and early modern English texts in a range of forms in their original language
- Recognise the cultural value of manuscripts, early printed books, and miscellanies as material objects
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- articulate a clear and persuasive argument of your own
- structure a complex written response effectively and present the work appropriately
- analyse a wide variety of texts and arguments
- undertake independent research in libraries and online archives
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- The roles of language, communities, technologies of book production, authors, editors, and readers in shaping the English literary tradition
- A range of English literary texts, authors and genres from the medieval and early modern periods and the manuscript and print contexts in which they circulated
- The changing conceptions of authorship and literary value in the medieval and early modern periods that helped shape ideas of English literary tradition
Syllabus
The module will take you through a series of case studies, each anchored in a specific medieval or early modern text, that enable you to explore the relationship between constructions of authorship, the book, ideas of literary value, and literary tradition. Specific texts and authors will vary from year to year, but topics are likely to include: Geoffrey Chaucer and Authorship; Creating the English Epic; Authorship, Prestige, and Income; Shaping the Anthology; Translating the Word of God; Anonymity and Collaboration; Female Readers, Translators, Writers.
Texts and books for close study will vary from year to year, but will include a selection of the following:
Geoffrey Chaucer – the Ellesmere manuscript of The Canterbury Tales (early 15th century)
The Findern manuscript collection of poems (late 15th/early 16th century)
Richard Tottel’s miscellany (1557)
Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, first edition (1590)
The King James Bible (1611)
Ben Jonson – the First Folio of Jonson’s Works (1616)
William Shakespeare – William Johnstoune’s annotated copy of the First Folio (1623)
John Milton – ‘On Shakespeare’ (1630), ‘Lycidas’ (1638), Paradise Lost (1667)
Robert Herrick, Hesperides (1648)
King Charles I (or was it?) – Eikon Basilike (1649)
Margaret Cavendish – The Blazing World (1666)
The Nowell Codex, or Beowulf Manuscript (10-11 Century), London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius A XV, http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_vitellius_a_xv_f002r
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- lectures
- seminars
- individual consultations
- feedback on written work
Learning activities include
- reading assigned texts
- independent research
- seminar discussion
- visual analysis
- writing essays
This module includes a Learning Support Hour. This is a flexible contact hour, 5 in total, designed to support and respond to the particular cohort taking the module from year to year. This hour will include (but not be limited to) activities such as language, theory and research skills classes; group work supervisions; assignment preparation and essay writing guidance; assignment consultations; feedback and feed-forward sessions.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Seminar | 11 |
| Wider reading or practice | 19 |
| Assessment tasks | 50 |
| Follow-up work | 10 |
| Teaching | 5 |
| Preparation for scheduled sessions | 44 |
| Lecture | 11 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Internet Resources
The Bodleian First Folio of Shakespeare's Plays.
Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.
The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson Online.
Assessment
Formative
This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.
Critical commentary
- Assessment Type: Formative
- Feedback:
- Final Assessment: No
- Group Work: No
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Take-away exam | 100% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Take-away exam | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Take-away exam | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External