Module description
This module provides an introduction to the literary culture of the medieval period, highlighting some of the key cultural issues of this era. We will orient ourselves in this long period (roughly from 600 to 1500) by looking at a range of texts and genres - poetry, prose, drama, lyric - from the early medieval as well as the later medieval periods. In exploring the various locations of the Middle Ages, we will consider borders, boundaries and zones between different places and periods. We will address, for example, the relation between modern and the medieval, and we will travel through different conceptions of time, space and bodies.
Medieval Literary Culture argues that mapping the literary Middle Ages is central to literary study more generally. It introduces students to concepts, ideas and approaches that can be studied in greater detail in the second and third years. Some of the ideas crucial to the texts studied on this module include those of nationhood and identity, authorship and originality, gender and sexuality, religion and belief, translation, travel and temporalities.
Assessment details
2 x 1000 word commentary (50% each)
Teaching pattern
One hour lecture and one hour seminar weekly
Suggested reading list
- Seamus Heaney, trans., Beowulf: A Verse Translation, ed Daniel Donoghue (New York: Norton, 2002)
- John Mandeville, The Book of Marvels and Travels, ed and trans Anthony Bale (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)