EN121 Medieval to Renaissance English Literature
Convenor for 2018-19: Dr Sarah Wood
This module will study a number of works of medieval and renaissance literature in the context of contemporary beliefs and historical and social developments. The module will be taught by means of language classes (first term only) to introduce students to Middle English; lectures on the historical, cultural and critical context; and seminars to discuss particular texts. Students will be required to write two non-assessed essays and one non-assessed critical commentary.
Advance Information for Students taking this course in 2018-19
Lectures will be on Tuesdays at 12 (location tbc)
Please make sure that you attend this lecture on Tuesday of week 1, when you will be given more information about the course. Before going to the lecture you should check your timetable to find out the times and tutors for your Medieval to Renaissance seminar (which will begin in week 2).
In weeks 2-5 of the autumn term there will be medieval translation classes in addition to the weekly seminars to help you with reading Middle English. It is important that you attend these classes.
Set books
You will need to purchase your own copies of these.
NB see the Module Information page for details of which selections from these books you will need to read each week; we will not be reading all the works in these books!
- Poems Of The Pearl Manuscript: Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. by M. Andrew and R. Waldron, 5th edn (Liverpool/Exeter, 2007). **IMPORTANT NOTE: Please ensure that you buy this edition, which contains the original medieval text, and NOT The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript in Modern English Translation (2013) or any other edition.**
- Chaucer, The Riverside Chaucer, ed. L. Benson (Oxford) (see Module Information for details of which texts to read)
- Medieval drama coursepack. This will be distributed towards the end of Term 1; electronic copies of the texts can also be found here.
- The Norton Anthology of English Literature. The Sixteenth Century, the Early Seventeenth Century. Volume B. (ed.) S Greenblatt et al. Revised 10th edition, 2018.
Copies of these books have been ordered for the University Bookshop.
Suggested summer background reading:
- Maurice Keen, English Society in the Later Middle Ages 1348-1500 (Penguin, 1990)
- J.A. Burrow, Medieval Writers and their Work, 2nd edn. (Oxford, 2008)
- John Guy, Tudor England (1990)
Works studied will include:
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- Chaucer, selected Canterbury Tales
- Selected Medieval drama
- Renaissance translation theory
- Sir Thomas More's Utopia
- Renaissance sonnets and lyrics by Wyatt, Sidney, Shakespeare, Marlowe etc.
- Spenser, The Faerie Queene, book 1
Module Information (includes details of required reading week-by-week)
Research skills for Medieval to Renaissance: an interactive online course from the Library
Audio recordings of SSGK and Canterbury Tales from The Chaucer Studio