Module Identifier EN31120  
Module Title ARTHURIAN LITERATURE; MEDIEVAL TO RENAISSANCE  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Dr Claire E Jowitt  
Semester Semester 2  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   20 Hours 10 x 2 hrs  
Assessment Semester Assessment   Essay: 2 essays (2,500 words each).   100%  
  Supplementary Assessment   Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements.    

Brief description

Examines a series of Medieval and Renaissance texts which chart the development of the Arthurian cycle, from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Edmund Spenser. The course will not deal with the historical or archaeological evidence, but the use of myth, modes of interpretation and ways of reading material which is both historical and literary.

Content

We are all acquainted with the Arthurian legends but perhaps do not realise their complexity and the variety of uses to which they were put. This module will examine the development of the legends from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance. We shall be less concerned with the question of the historical authenticity of Arthur and his court than with the ways in which a cycle of particularly British myths developed and were used. We shall also look at a wide variety of material and types of writing: poetry, chronicles, painting, film, romance, etc. so that the question of genre as well as historical period has to be considered when interpretation of each work is attempted.

The module will be taught in 10 seminars of 2 hours. Supplementary bibliographies will be issued in due course.

Course schedule