Convenor: Dr John WestLink opens in a new window

Module Information

This module will introduce students to aspects of epics and epic traditions in Western and other literatures, making use of a range of longer and shorter texts, and explore ways in which novels engage with epic traditions. The module will be taught through weekly lectures and seminars that will introduce contextual and critical information and be a space for discussion of particular texts. Works to be studied include The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Paradise Lost, Tom Jones and The Penelopiad.

Course Outline

Please see the link to the lecture list above for details of the set texts for the this module and a week by week outline.

A Talis Aspire reading list of primary and secondary works is available hereLink opens in a new window.

Books Required for 2024/25

Please obtain your own copies of the books listed below. Incoming first years in the English Department will be provided with free copies of some set texts but others you will need to purchase yourself. It is important that you use the translations and editions specified.

• The Epic of Gilgamesh, trs. Andrew George (Penguin Classics, 2002) - please read the 'Standard Version' (approximately the first 100 pages of the George edition).
• Homer, The Iliad, trs. Caroline Alexander (London: Vintage, 2015)
• Homer, The Odyssey, trs. Emily Wilson (New York and London: Norton, 2018)
• Vergil, The Aeneid, trs. Shadi Bartsch (London: Profile Books, 2020)
• D.T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (Longman African Writers series, 2^nd ed., 2006)
• Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling ed. Thomas Keymer and Alice Wakely (Penguin, 2005)
• Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2005)
• Madeline Miller, Circe (London: Bloomsbury, 2018)
• Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, The Perfect Nine (Harvill Secker, 2020)

Recommended Summer Reading

To get ahead you could read The Epic of Gilgamesh or get started on The Odyssey.