Unit name | Literature 1 (1200-1500) for Joint Honours |
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Unit code | ENGL20202 |
Credit points | 20 |
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 |
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 fourteenth and fifteenth Centuries - e.g. 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 D'Arthur. 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.
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.
3 lectures and 1 tutorial a week, plus 1 to 1 consultation hours where desired.