Unit information: Literature 1 (1200-1500) in 2011/12

Unit name	Literature 1 (1200-1500)
Unit code	ENGL20200
Credit points	40
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. Archibald
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None.
Co-requisites	None.
School/department	Department of English
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

No previous knowledge of Middle English is required for this unit. Students are taught to read Middle English and are introduced to some of the major authors and works of the 14th and 15th Centuries, including Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the elegy Pearl; Langland's The Vision of Piers Plowman; and Malory's Morte Darthur. Some lectures will also offer general information about medieval life, thought and society. Passages from one of the Canterbury Tales and from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight will be set for translation and commentary in a final exam. Students will be prepared for the exam both in tutorials and in lectures.

Aims:

The aim of this unit is to give students a grounding in Middle English literature of the 14th and 15th centuries. This literature will be studied in the original language. At the end of this unit, students should have developed a basic command of Middle English language. We also aim to give students and understanding of the distinctive qualities of medieval literature, as well as an understanding of the ethos and aesthetics of some important writers of the period.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Learning objectives include the ability to develop and express, in lucid and correct prose, cogent arguments in essays; the ability to select and analyse pertinent passages from the literary text that would support such arguments; the ability to make intelligent use of secondary criticism and theoretical perspectives (where appropriate); mastery of the technical vocabulary and analytical tools of literary criticism and of the conventions of academic style and referencing.

Teaching Information

3 lectures and 1 tutorial a week, plus 1 to 1 consultation hours where desired.

Assessment Information

• Critical commentary of 1,500 words (20%)

• Long essay, 2,500 words max (40%)

• Sit-down examination (2 hour) (40%)

Reading and References

• Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, ed. by Jill Mann (Penguin, 2005)

• ---------------------, Troilus and Criseyde, ed. by Barry Windeatt (Penguin, 2003)

• Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, ed. by Helen Cooper (Oxford, 1998).

• The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript (Exeter: Exeter University Press, rp. 2002)