Beginnings: English Literature before 1800 (EAS1035)

Staff	Dr Jo Esra - Convenor
Credit Value	30
ECTS Value	15
NQF Level	4
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
Duration of Module	Term 1: 11 weeks;

Module aims

The module aims to

introduce you to these major literary texts. In doing so, we aim to cultivate modes of reading and critical analysis broadly informed by an attention to history and context. Such analysis will include ideas of subjectivity, identity, conflict, community, myth, the transmission of stories, storytelling, translation, transformation, and influence. This module will emphasise essay-writing skills that are fundamental to research and communication in English literature.

ILO: Module-specific skills

1. Demonstrate an informed appreciation of specific texts, written from ancient times through to the end of the eighteenth century
2. Demonstrate a knowledge of the early development of English literary history

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

3. Demonstrate a capacity to identify and analyse the relationships between specific texts and their cultural and historical contexts
4. Demonstrate a basic ability to analyse pre-modern literature and to relate its concerns and its modes of expression to its historical context
5. Demonstrate a basic ability to interrelate texts and discourses specific to their own discipline with wider issues of cultural and intellectual history
6. Demonstrate a basic ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas and to apply these ideas to literary texts

ILO: Personal and key skills

7. Through module work, demonstrate basic communication skills, and an ability to work both individually and in groups
8. Through essay-writing and exam, demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills, a basic capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and a capacity to write clear and correct prose
9. Through research for module work, essays and exam, demonstrate basic proficiency in information retrieval and analysis

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

Stories of origin: extracts from Genesis and Gilgamesh.
Homer, The Odyssey.
Beowulf, tr. Seamus Heaney.
Marie de France, Lays, tr. Glyn S. Burgess, and Keith Busby.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tr. Bernard O'Donoghue.
Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander.
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet ed. Rene Weis.
John Milton, Paradise Lost, books I, II, IV and IX.
Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock.
Aphra Behn, Oroonoko.
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein ed. Nick Groom.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
44	256	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	22	Lectures
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	22	Seminars
Guided independent study	33	Study group preparation and meetings
Guided independent study	70	Seminar preparation (individual)
Guided independent study	153	Reading, research and essay preparation

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay plan	750 words	1-6, 8-9	Peer feedback and seminar discussion
Close analysis	750 words	1, 3-9	Feedback sheet with opportunity for office hours follow-up

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
25	65	10

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Examination	65	24 hours	1-6, 8-9	Feedback sheet with opportunity for office hours follow-up
Essay	25	1000 words	1-6, 8-9	Feedback sheet with opportunity for office hours follow-up
Module participation	10	Continuous	1-7, 9	Oral feedback with opportunity for office hours follow-up

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Examination	24 hours	1-6, 8-9	Referral/deferral period
Essay	1000 word essay	1-6, 8-9	Referral/deferral period
Module participation	Repeat study or Mitigation	1-7, 9	Referral/deferral period

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Core reading:

Stories of origin: extracts from Genesis and Gilgamesh.
The Odyssey of Homer, trans. Emily Wilson (Norton, 2018).
Beowulf, trans. Seamus Heaney, ed. Daniel Donoghue (Norton Critical Editions, 2000).
The Lais of Marie de France, ed and tr. Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby, 2nd edn (Penguin, 1999).
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, trans. Bernard O’Donoghue (Penguin, 2006).
Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander.
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet ed. Rene Weis.
John Milton, Paradise Lost, books I, II, IV and IX.
Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock.
Aphra Behn, Oroonoko ed. Joanna Lipking (Norton Critical Editions, 1997).
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein ed. Nick Groom

The excerpts from Genesis and Gilgamesh, and the poem by Marlowe, will be supplied via ELE.

Module has an active ELE page?

Yes

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

The module description, module reading pack, lecture lists, lecture materials, additional reading materials, useful web links and a discussion forum will be available via the Exeter Learning Environment.

ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11183

Available as distance learning?

Origin date

2011

Last revision date

15/07/2021

Key words search

Beginnings, literature, English