2016/17 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL2025 Medieval Literature

20 creditsClass Size: 40

School of English

Module manager: Dr Catherine Batt
Email: c.j.batt@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2016/17

Pre-requisite qualifications

Grade B at 'A' Level in English Language or Literature or in a modern language (or the overseas equivalent), or an achieved mark of 56 or above in a Level 1 module in English / IMS, as a tender of ability to cope with Middle English.

Please note: This module is restricted to Level 2 and 3 students. Enrolment priority will be given to Level 2 students for a restricted period (as detailed in the School's Module Handbook).

This module is mutually exclusive with

ENGL2013

The Medieval Renascence: Chaucer, Langland and the 'Gawain'

Module replaces

ENGL2013

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This module introduces students to the literature of medieval England through one of its most vibrant literary communities: the bustling, cosmopolitan city of late fourteenth-century London. We will study Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, whose social satire extends to all classes, and whose genres include everything from bawdy jest to high romance, in poetry that gives voice to the disenfranchised, to women and the poor, as well as to the privileged. We examine William Langland's kaleidoscopic dream-vision Piers Plowman, the Narrator of which searches for salvation in a fallen world, and at the same time satirises the corruption he sees in Church, state, and capitalism. Langland's tone is urgent and earnest, and his poetry ambiguous, searching, and even psychedelic, as he explores both his faith and the times in which he lives. The module closes with the Arthurian romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, widely considered one of the finest poems in English literature: its warm but wry insights into human nature still resonate today, its portrayals of the natural world are virtuosic, and its subtle seduction scenes powerfully erotic. And while Chaucer's urbane poetry inspired English makers into the Renaissance and beyond, Sir Gawain's alliterative form harks back to the earliest poetry in English.Full support is given for reading medieval English. Students will be able to reflect on fundamental medieval literary topics, including the status of poetry and the poet, narrative transformations, humour, subversiveness, gender, orality and literacy, chivalry, and the relationship between art and life. This module equips students to engage actively with some of the most imaginative literature in English.

Objectives

This module introduces students to the literature of medieval England through one of its most vibrant literary communities: the bustling, cosmopolitan city of late fourteenth-century London. We will study Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, whose social satires range from the top of society to the bottom, and from bawdy jest to high romance - and present some of the first glimmerings of feminist writing in English. We examine William Langland's kaleidoscopic dream-vision Piers Plowman, which satirises the corruption Langland saw in Church, state, and capitalism in ways which are urgent and earnest, yet ambiguous, searching, and even psychadelic. The module closes with the Arthurian romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, widely considered one of the finest poems in English literature: its warm but wry insights into human nature still resonate today, its portrayals of the natural world are virtuosic, and its subtle seduction scenes powerfully erotic. And while Chaucer's urbane pentameters inspired English poets from the Renaissance onwards, Sir Gawain's alliterative form harks back to the earliest poetry in English.

Full support is given for reading medieval English. Students will be able to reflect on fundamental medieval literary topics, including the status of poetry and the poet, narrative transformations, humour, subversiveness, gender, orality and literacy, chivalry, and the relationship between art and life. This module equips students to engage actively with some of the best literature in English.

Learning outcomes
Skills outcomes and Graduate Attributes

In terms of Academic Excellence this module develops critical thinking, flexibility of thought and analytical skills. It supports and develops the ability to work autonomously, initiative, planning and organisational skills. Students will learn to analyse information, synthesise views and make connections; students will be critically aware of, and be informed by, current knowledge; and will develop research skills. In short:

- Skills for effective communication, oral and written.
- Capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse.
- Ability to acquire quantities of complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way.
- Capacity for independent thought and judgement.
- Critical reasoning.
- Research skills, including information retrieval skills, the organisation of material, and the evaluation of its importance.
- IT skills.
- Time management and organisational skills.
- Independent learning.

Skills outcomes
Skills for effective communication, oral and written.
Capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse.
Ability to acquire quantities of complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way.
Capacity for independent thought and judgement.
Critical reasoning.
Research skills, including information retrieval skills, the organisation of material, and the evaluation of its importance.
IT skills.
Time management and organisational skills.
Independent learning.

Syllabus

This module introduces students to the literature of medieval England through one of its most vibrant literary communities: the bustling, cosmopolitan city of late fourteenth-century London. We will study Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, whose social satire extends to all classes, and whose genres include everything from bawdy jest to high romance, in poetry that gives voice to the disenfranchised, to women and the poor, as well as to the privileged. We examine William Langland's kaleidoscopic dream-vision Piers Plowman, the Narrator of which searches for salvation in a fallen world, and at the same time satirises the corruption he sees in Church, state, and capitalism. Langland's tone is urgent and earnest, and his poetry ambiguous, searching, and even psychedelic, as he explores both his faith and the times in which he lives. The module closes with the Arthurian romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, widely considered one of the finest poems in English literature: its warm but wry insights into human nature still resonate today, its portrayals of the natural world are virtuosic, and its subtle seduction scenes powerfully erotic. And while Chaucer's urbane poetry inspired English makers into the Renaissance and beyond, Sir Gawain's alliterative form harks back to the earliest poetry in English.

Full support is given for reading medieval English. Students will be able to reflect on fundamental medieval literary topics, including the status of poetry and the poet, narrative transformations, humour, subversiveness, gender, orality and literacy, chivalry, and the relationship between art and life. This module equips students to engage actively with some of the most imaginative literature in English.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Workshop	20	1.00	20.00
Lecture	11	1.00	11.00
Private study hours			169.00
Total Contact hours			31.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

This module will be taught through twice weekly workshops (20 x 1 hour) and lectures 11 x 1 hour).

Private study: Seminar preparation, reading, essay writing.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Contribution to seminars.
Submission of assessed work.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	1,700 word essay.	33.30
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		33.30

Students must submit/sit and pass both elements. Students who fail either element (essay or examination (even as a result of penalties)) will have to resit the failed element in order to pass the module.

Exams

Exam type	Exam duration	% of formal assessment
Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc)	3 hr	66.70
Total percentage (Assessment Exams)		66.70

Students must submit/sit and pass both elements. Students who fail either element (essay or examination (even as a result of penalties)) will have to resit the failed element in order to pass the module.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 26/04/2016

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