Unit name | Literature 1150-1550 |
---|---|
Unit code | ENGL10042 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | C/4 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Cathy Hume |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of English |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This course introduces students to medieval literature, and will present both the diversity of literature written between 1150 and 1550 and its distinctive qualities. Students will study a selection of texts including some of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, medieval drama, romance, and court poetry; religious writing, lyrics and travel writing may also feature. They will learn to read and translate Middle English, but will also read some texts in the other languages of medieval Britain in translation, and will study texts by both male and female writers. They will learn to analyse medieval poetry and prose, and will gain an understanding of medieval modes of writing, genres and metres. They will be introduced to some key contexts and ideas to help them understand the literature, such as manuscript and oral cultures, Christianity and medieval social and gender hierarchies.
At the end of the unit a successful student will be able to:
2 x one-hour lectures and 1 x one-hour tutorial weekly.
Ad Putter and Myra Stokes, eds, The Works of the Gawain Poet (Penguin 2014)
The Riverside Chaucer, gen. ed. Larry D. Benson (OUP, 1987)
Marie de France, Lais, tr. Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby (Penguin, 1986)
J. A. Burrow, Medieval Writers and their Work (OUP, 1982) [e-book]
Malory, Works, ed. Eugene Vinaver (OUP, 1977)
The Middle English Breton Lays, ed. Eve Salisbury and Anne Laskaya (Medieval Institute, 1995), http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/publication/laskaya-and-salisbury-middle-english-breton-lays