| Unit name | Literature and the Sea: The Seafarer to The Shipping News |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ENGL20020 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Publicover |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None. |
| Co-requisites |
None. |
| School/department | Department of English |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
From The Odyssey onwards, the sea has afforded inspiration for a rich and strange sub-genre of literature: poems, plays, and novels have contemplated the sea’s mystery and depth; recorded the terrors and excitements of voyaging across its surface; and attempted to understand its attractions. Additionally, when authors confront the secretive, alien, and unfathomable oceans, they often do so in order to ask questions about themselves.
On this unit, which engages a cutting-edge area of critical study (sometimes dubbed ‘The New Thalassology’), we will examine some of the finest sea-writing in English. Beginning within the medieval period, and moving chronologically through Shakespearean drama, Romantic poetry, nineteenth-century novels, and twentieth-century texts, we will study with writers who, despite being in many respects very different, share a fascination with, and a desire to understand, the sea. Authors covered will include Shakespeare, Marvell, Byron, Coleridge, Melville, Tennyson, Conrad, T.S. Eliot, Plath, Rich, and Proulx.
Students will be given the opportunity to submit a draft or outline of their final, summative essay of up to 1,000 words and to receive feedback on this.
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:
(1) demonstrate a detailed knowledge and critical understanding of writing about the sea;
(2) show an in-depth understanding of recent literary-critical thought on the sea, especially in connection with eco-criticism;
(3) analyse and evaluate differing critical accounts of the primary literature;
(4) identify and evaluate pertinent evidence in order to illustrate/demonstrate a cogent argument;
(5) demonstrate skills in argumentation and academic writing, appropriate to level I/5
1 x 2-hour seminar per week.
