Draft – 8th September 2020
THIRD ARTS ENGLISH – SEMINARS 2020-2021
Seminar Leader Teach
ing
Period
Module
Code
Seminar
Code
DAY & TIME VENUE
Prof. Graham Allen 1 EN3006 MOD 3.01 Wednesday 11:00 – 1:00pm
Online
Dr Tom Birkett
2 EN3007 OMR 3.02 Thursday 11:00 – 1:00pm Online
Dr Miranda Corcoran
2 EN3007 MOD 3.03 Tuesday 3:00 – 5:00pm TBC
Prof Alex Davis
2 EN3007 MOD 3.04 Tuesday 3:00 -5:00pm TBC
Dr Anne Etienne 1 EN3006 MOD 3.05
Thursday 10:00 – 12:00 (noon)
C_CPB_LG08
Dr Alan Gibbs
2 EN3007 MOD 3.06 Thursday 2:00 – 4:00pm TBC
Dr Adam Hanna
1 EN3006 MOD 3.07 Thursday 11:00 – 1:00pm C_AL_G18
Prof Lee Jenkins 1 EN3006 MOD 3.08
Tuesday 3:00 – 5:00pm C_CONN_J5
Dr Andrew King 1 EN3006 OMR 3.09
Tuesday 9:00 – 11:00am CONN_S3A
Dr Heather Laird
2 EN3007 MOD 3.10 Wednesday 9:00 – 11:00am TBC
Dr Heather Laird
2 EN3007 MOD 3.11 Thursday 2:00 – 4:00pm TBC
Dr Maureen O’Connor 2 EN3007 MOD 3.12 Thursday 2:00 – 4:00pm TBC
Dr Ken Rooney
1 EN3006 OMR 3.13 Wednesday 4:00 – 5:00pm
Thursday 3:00 – 4:00pm
CONN_J1
AL_G18
Dr Edel Semple
1 EN3006 OMR 3.14 Tuesday 2:00 – 4:00pm BOOLE_5
Venues:
AL – Aras Na Laoi, Boole 5 - Boole Basement; Conn -Connolly Building, Western Road;
C_CPB_LG08 - Cavanagh Pharmacy Bldg, College Road.
Module Code
EN3006 Seminar Code
MOD3.01
Seminar Title Artificial Intelligence
in Literature, Film and
Cinema
Seminar Leader
Professor Graham
Allen
Teaching Period
1 Day
Wednesday Time
11:00 – 1:00pm Venue
Online
Seminar Content This seminar seeks to examine the numerous examples, since the turn of the
century, of representations of artificial intelligence. Introducing students to the theoretical literature
surrounding this phenomenon, the module will focus on a number of recent cinematic and televisual
accounts of A.I. The module will include serious examination of a number of films and television
series, including A.I. Artificial Intelligence (dir Stephen Spielberg, 2001), Ex Machina (dir. Alex
Garland, 2014), Blade Runner (dir. Ridley Scott, 1982), Blade Runner 2049 (dir. Denis Villeneuve,
2017), Humans (crtd, Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent, 2015-18) and Westworld (crtdJonathan
Nolan and Lisa Joy, 2016-present).
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:
Discuss major issues in the theory of artificial intelligence
Make significant links between different media representations of A.I.
Think about the potential problems of A.I. in various cultural and social contexts
Module Code
EN3007
Seminar Code
OMR 3.02
Seminar Title
Poetry of the
Vikings
Seminar Leader
Dr Tom Birkett
Teaching Period 2
Day
Thursday
Time
11:00am – 1:00pm
Venue
TBC
Seminar Content
The popular image of the Vikings is one of bloodthirsty pagan warriors, with the recent series Vikings
depicting a world of blood, sex and sacrifice. But Norse society also gave us the first parliament and
an extraordinary body of saga literature, whilst the peoples we call by the shorthand ‘Vikings’
granted sexual and inheritance rights to women, were the first Europeans to set foot in North
America, served as the bodyguard to the Byzantine Emperor, and founded the city of Cork! The
Norse skalds also composed some of the most extraordinary poetry to survive from the medieval
world, documenting their beliefs, venerating their powerful patrons, and voicing their very human
concerns about love, life and death.
In this course we will study a range of poetic genres dealing with legendary characters, heroic battles
and domestic troubles – from the poetic account of Odin’s discovery of runes, to Guðrún’s awesome
revenge on her devious husband – learning about Norse mythology and the stories that inspired
Tolkien’s Middle-earth. We will also consider poetic responses to the Vikings, including the Old
English poems ‘The Battle of Maldon’ and ‘The Battle of Brunanburh’, with a view to interrogating
literary depictions of Norse culture. We will conclude the course with a viewing of selected scenes
from the Vikings series which reconceive Norse poetry for a modern audience.
Texts will be read in translation.
Primary Texts
R. North, J. Allard, P. Gillies (eds), Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic, and Anglo-
Norman Literatures (London: Longman, 2011)
Carolyne Larrington, trans. The Poetic Edda 2nd edn (Oxford: OUP, 2014)
Selected texts will be made available online.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:
• Critically read and analyse a selection of Old Norse and Old English poetry,
recognising different genres, themes and styles.
• Understand the historical, social and political contexts in which these texts were
produced and circulated.
• Discuss the different facets of Old Norse society, customs and codes of behaviour.
• Relate the poetry to the material culture and artwork of medieval Scandinavia.
• Appreciate the literary afterlife of Old Norse poetry.
Module Code
EN3007
Seminar Code
MOD 3.03
Seminar Title
Twentieth- and Twenty-First-
Century American Science
Fiction
Seminar Leader
Dr Miranda Corcoran
Teaching Period:
2
Day:
Tuesday Time: 3:00 – 5:00pm
Venue:
TBC
Seminar Content
In the decades immediately following World War II, the science fiction genre enjoyed an unprecedented
level of popularity amongst the American public. Not only did its highly speculative subject matter appeal
to a culture preoccupied with technological advancement, but its imaginative themes provided a means for
authors and filmmakers to address a broad array of social issues in new and interesting ways.
Incorporating a wide variety of cinematic and literary texts, this module will introduce students to a
diverse range of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American science fiction. Students will be
encouraged to consider the ways in which such texts adapted the tropes and conventions of the sci-fi genre
in order to comment upon and critique many of the major social and cultural concerns of the past century.
These include issues surrounding science and technology, gender, sexuality, race and identity.
Primary texts
Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles. 1950. Harper, 2014.
Butler, Octavia E. “Bloodchild.” 1984 (made available as a photocopy).
Delany, Samuel R. “Aye, and Gomorrah.” 1967 (made available as a photocopy).
Levin, Ira. The Stepford Wives. 1972. Corsair, 2011.
Roanhorse, Rebecca. “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™” 2017 (made available as
a photocopy).
Russ, Joanna. “When It Changed.” 1972 (made available as a photocopy).
Sheldon, Racoona. “The Screwfly Solution.” 1977 (made available as a photocopy).
Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Directed by Don Siegel. 1956.
Alien. Directed by Ridley Scott. 1979.
Get Out. Directed by Jordan Peele. 2017.
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course students should be able to:
Critically read and analyse a selection of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American science
fiction texts.
Compare the manner in which these texts utilise the thematic conventions of the science fiction
genre in order to comment upon a wide variety of social and political issues.
Discuss the cultural and historical context which framed the development of the science fiction
genre as a vehicle for social commentary and criticism.
Define terms and concepts central to relevant aspects of genre theory.
Apply these terms and concepts to the set texts.
Understand the vital role of genre fiction and popular entertainment as a mode of reflecting and
critiquing broader social and cultural concerns.
Module Code
EN3007
Seminar Code
MOD 3.04
Seminar Title
The Writings of
W. B. Yeats
Seminar Leader
Professor Alex Davis
Teaching Period
2
Day
Tuesday
Time
3:00 – 5:00pm
Venue
TBC
Seminar Content
This seminar looks at a range of Yeats’s works across the entirety of his career – poems, plays,
essays, autobiographies, and occult writings – tracing the development of his thought in the
context of contemporaneous events in Irish and European history. We will explore Yeats’s
altering political convictions, from his youthful republicanism to his late flirtation with fascism,
and his complex response to the formation of the Irish Free State. Yeats’s lifelong spiritualist
convictions are central to his work: we will thus consider his work in relation to his occult
apprenticeship in the Order of the Golden Dawn, his belief in magic and the supernatural, and
consider the otherworldly inspiration for his major philosophical work, A Vision.
Primary texts
Selected poems from ‘Crossways’ to Last Poems; the plays Cathleen ni Houlihan, At the
Hawk’s Well, and Purgatory; selected fictional, occult, autobiographical, and critical writings,
including complete works and extracts from The Celtic Twilight, The Secret Rose, Per Amica
Silentia Lunae, A Vision, On the Boiler, and Autobiographies.
Required textbook
Yeats’s Poetry, Drama, and Prose, ed., James Pethica (New York: Norton, 2000).
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:
Critically read and analyse a selection of Yeats’s poetry, drama and prose
Discuss the cultural, political and social contexts which shaped Yeats’s oeuvre
Understand a range of critical responses to Yeats’s poetry
Comprehend Yeats’s adoption and adaptation of a wide variety of traditional poetic,
dramatic and prose forms
Module Code
EN3006
Seminar Code
MOD 3.05
Seminar Title
Drama and Controversy
Seminar Leader
Dr. Anne Etienne
Teaching
Period
1
Day
Thursday
Time
10:00 – 12:00 (noon)
Venue
C_CPB_LG08
Seminar Content
Throughout the 20th century, drama has enjoyed the status of a leisure activity for middle-class
audiences. It has also been sufficiently controversial for the State to insist on keeping a tight
control over the topics discussed on the stage. The seminar will focus on close reading of both
playscripts and archival material. Through the study of representative plays, analysed in their
cultural context, we will discover the roots of controversy at different periods of the 20th
century. Greater emphasis will be put on the 1900s and the 1960s, when key dramatists were
engaged in a struggle against Government-sponsored censorship as will be evidenced through
governmental documents and correspondence files. Through the original and oblique aspect of
controversy, students will have the opportunity to consider drama not solely as text but also as a
politically disturbing form of literature.
Primary texts
George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession and The Shewing up of Blanco Posnet
Edward Bond, Saved and Early Morning
Archival and miscellaneous material in COURSE READER (available on Canvas).
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:
- demonstrate in written and/or oral assignments their knowledge and critical
understanding of the evolution of 20th-century British drama and of the practice of
censorship;
- give evidence of their acquired knowledge of the dialectic relationship between the
stage and the Government;
- identify and argue the controversial potential of censored and contemporary plays;
- address problems created by controversial plays;
- develop their analytical skills through textual analysis and adapt them through different
types of critical practice group oral exercises.
Module Code
EN3007
Seminar Code
MOD 3.06
Seminar Title
Experimental Fiction
and Narratology
Seminar Leader
Dr Alan Gibbs
Teaching Period
2 Day
Thursday
Time
2:00 – 4:00pm Venue
TBC
Seminar Content
This module has a two-part aim. Firstly, to explore works of contemporary experimental fiction, in
particular how they operate through innovative forms of narrative. Secondly, to use examples of
contemporary fiction as a means to find out more about narratology (the study of narrative). The
seminar thus aims to reinforce and extend students’ knowledge of ideas to do with narrative and
narratology first broached in lectures on the First Arts Theories module (EN1004). Classes will look
at the way in which contemporary authors experiment with narrative elements such as the treatment
of time, and the perspective of the narrating voice.
Although a number of literary examples are used, the course pays particularly detailed attention to
Anna Burns’ extraordinary 2007 novel, Little Constructions, as a way of exploring different narrative
concepts. This novel conducts numerous diverse experiments with elements of narrative: flashbacks
and flash-forwards, gaps in the narrative, digressions, events later erased, shifts in narrating voice etc.
Students will consider the effect of these experiments in narrative, and speculate in class as to why
the author chose to write the novel in this way. Here, discussion will pay particular attention to the
interrelationship between this experimental form and the novel’s challenging content, focusing as it
does on traumatic events, including gender-based violence. As such, Burns’ novel forms a case study
for students to learn about advanced concepts in narratology, and to become more confident
discussing particular components of narrative and their effect on us as readers.
Primary Texts
Anna Burns, Little Constructions (Graywolf Press, 2019 [2007])
Selected excerpts from experimental fictions (made available via Canvas)
Selected theoretical/critical readings (made available via Canvas)
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:
Critically read and analyse a selection of contemporary experimental fiction
Comment critically and knowledgeably on the novel Little Constructions by Anna Burns
Relate the set texts to one another and to other experimental narratives
Define terms and concepts central to narratology, and discuss them with confidence
Discuss the interrelationship of experimental narrative form and particular subject matter
Apply these terms and concepts to the set texts
Participate in class and group discussions
Write clearly structured essays in correct Standard English that adhere to the Department of
English style sheet
Module Code
EN3006
Seminar Code
MOD 3.07
Seminar Title
Irish Poetry Since
Yeats
Seminar Leader
Dr Adam Hanna
Teaching Period
1
Day
Thursday
Time
11:00am – 1:00pm
Venue
C_AL_G18
Seminar Content
This course starts in 1939, the year of the death of Ireland’s first Nobel laureate, W. B. Yeats. It
begins with an examination of how mid-century poets responded to and, at times, turned their backs
on their forebears who were associated with the Irish Literary Revival. As well as looking at
renowned poets like Samuel Beckett, Patrick Kavanagh and Louis MacNeice, we will also read less-
celebrated work, including mid-century women’s poetry, volumes produced by small presses and
poetry published in literary magazines. There will be sessions on the work of the cohort of Northern
Irish poets that gained worldwide attention at the outset of the Troubles (like Derek Mahon and
Michael Longley), and on the female poets who have come to prominence since the 1970s
(particularly Nuala Ní Dhomhnail and Paula Meehan). We will end the course with poets writing
around 2013 (the year of the death of Ireland’s second Nobel Prize-winning poet, Seamus Heaney),
such as Sinéad Morrissey. In these final sessions, we will look at how contemporary Irish poetry
responds to international experimental and postmodern currents.
Primary Text
Students are strongly encouraged to acquire:
An Anthology of Modern Irish Poetry, ed. by Wes Davis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 2013)
Other primary material will be distributed via pdfs throughout the term.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the course, students should be able to:
critically read and analyse poems by a range of Irish poets who wrote between the late
1930s and 2013;
demonstrate an awareness of the historical, political, linguistic and cultural contexts out of
which modern Irish poetry arose;
make linguistic, thematic and formal connections between the works of a range of modern
Irish poets; and
deliver fluent responses to the set texts both in class and in writing.
Module Code
EN3006
Seminar Code
MOD 3.08
Seminar Title
The Lost Generation
and the Jazz Age
Seminar Leader
Professor Lee Jenkins
Teaching Period
1 Day
Tuesday
Time
3:00 – 5:00pm
Venue
C_CONN_J5
Seminar Content
This seminar explores the cultures of the ‘Jazz Age’ of the 1920s with reference to the writing of members
of the ‘Lost Generation’ (F.Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein); Anita Loos; and D.H.
Lawrence. We will also explore the reconstruction of the Twenties and the theme of nostalgia in Woody
Allen’s film Midnight in Paris (2011). Issues explored include: the relationship between modernism and
modernity; gender, sexuality and race; the ‘Modern Girl’; the avant garde; the Twenties in its historical
context and in retrospect.
Primary texts/Required textbooks
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris.
Texts on Canvas:
F.Scott Fitzgerald, ‘Echoes of the Jazz Age’ (essay); ‘Babylon Revisited’ (short story).
Anita Loos, Americans Prefer Blondes.
Ernest Hemingway, ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro.’
Gertrude Stein: short prose pieces.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion, students should be able to:
Critically read and analyse a selection of texts, in various genres, representing the 1920s
Relate the set texts to one another, and to their wider historical and cultural contexts
Discuss the cultural and historical backgrounds which framed and informed these texts
Define terms and concepts central to the topic
Apply these terms and contexts to the set texts
Deliver fluent written and oral responses to the set texts
Module Code
EN3006
Seminar Code
OMR3.09
Seminar Title
Edmund Spenser:
Elizabethan Poet in
England and
Ireland
Seminar Leader
Dr Andrew King
Teaching Period
1
Day
Tuesday
Time
9:00 – 11:00am
Venue
CONN_S3A
Seminar Content
Edmund Spenser (c.1552-1599) was the major non-dramatic poet of the Elizabethan period. From
1580 onwards he lived mostly in Co. Cork, and the ambivalent nature of his Irish experience forms
one of more fascinating aspects of his work. The seminar will trace some of Spenser’s major works
chronologically, since he constantly interwove his literary endeavours with the trajectory of his
political and personal career.
It is a unique privilege to study and discuss the works of this poet in Cork, however much
that closeness may add a layer of complexity to the task. The group will try to visit the remains of
Spenser’s Kilcolman Castle (near Doneraile) and undertake a walking tour of Cork, reconstructing
its (very different) layout in the late sixteenth century.
Primary Texts
Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender (selections)
Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Books I, V, and The Mutabilitie Cantos
Spenser, Colin Clouts Come Home Againe
Spenser, A View of the Present State of Ireland (selections)
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of ‘Edmund Spenser: Elizabethan Poet in England and Ireland’, students
should be able to:
- Critically read and analyse a selection of range of Spenser’s writings in a variety of
different genres.
- Discuss the cultural and historical background which framed the emergence and
development of Spenser’s writings – in particular, imaginative responses to the figure of
Elizabeth, the Reformation, and Elizabethan Ireland.
- Develop a skilled understanding of the interpretative implications of studying Spenser’s
works (in facsimile) in their original format (especially in the case of The Shepheardes
Calender).
- Develop an advanced understanding of the cultural and political associations of key early
modern literary traditions, as embodied in Spenser’s writings, such as pastoral, epic, and
satire.
Module Code
EN3007
Seminar Code
MOD 3.10
Seminar Title
Reading Ulysses
Seminar Leader
Dr Heather Laird
Teaching
Period
2
Day
Wednesday
Time
9:00 – 11:00am
Venue
TBC
Seminar Content
“Come on, you winefizzling ginsizzling booseguzzling existences!”
If any novel deserves to have a whole seminar course devoted to it, it is James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Ulysses is considered by many to be the greatest novel ever written. It may also be the funniest –
and the most difficult. This seminar offers students the opportunity to acquire a detailed and
intimate reading knowledge of a selection of episodes from Ulysses. In closely reading these
episodes, the seminar will provide an in-depth analysis of Joyce’s formal and stylistic innovations.
Additionally, as each week will focus on a particular theoretical or historical debate surrounding
Joyce’s text, students are introduced to a variety of critical readings that have emerged in Joyce
studies over the years.
Primary texts
James Joyce, Ulysses. Ed. Jeri Johnson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of ‘Reading Ulysses’, students should be able to:
- Critically read and analyse a selection of episodes taken from Ulysses
- Discuss the cultural and historical background which framed the writing of Ulysses
- Define terms and concepts central to a reading of Ulysses
- Apply these terms and concepts to the text
- Participate in class and group discussions
- Prepare and present an oral paper
- Write clearly structured essays in correct Standard English that adhere to the School of
English style sheet.
Module Code
EN3007
Seminar Code
MOD 3.11
Seminar Title
Reading Ulysses
Seminar Leader
Dr Heather Laird
Teaching
Period
2
Day
Thursday
Time
2:00 – 4:00pm
Venue
TBC
Seminar Content
“Come on, you winefizzling ginsizzling booseguzzling existences!”
If any novel deserves to have a whole seminar course devoted to it, it is James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Ulysses is considered by many to be the greatest novel ever written. It may also be the funniest –
and the most difficult. This seminar offers students the opportunity to acquire a detailed and
intimate reading knowledge of a selection of episodes from Ulysses. In closely reading these
episodes, the seminar will provide an in-depth analysis of Joyce’s formal and stylistic innovations.
Additionally, as each week will focus on a particular theoretical or historical debate surrounding
Joyce’s text, students are introduced to a variety of critical readings that have emerged in Joyce
studies over the years.
Primary texts
James Joyce, Ulysses. Ed. Jeri Johnson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of ‘Reading Ulysses’, students should be able to:
- Critically read and analyse a selection of episodes taken from Ulysses
- Discuss the cultural and historical background which framed the writing of Ulysses
- Define terms and concepts central to a reading of Ulysses
- Apply these terms and concepts to the text
- Participate in class and group discussions
- Prepare and present an oral paper
- Write clearly structured essays in correct Standard English that adhere to the School of
English style sheet.
Module Code
EN3007
Seminar Code
MOD 3.12 Seminar Title
The Natural World in
Irish Women’s Writing
Seminar Leader
Dr Maureen O’Connor
Teaching Period
2 Day
Thursday Time
2:00 – 4:00pm Venue
TBC
Seminar Content
This module will be reading Irish women’s literature using theories of ecocriticism, which considers
the place of nature in human thought and the consequences of the relative position and valuation of
the ‘natural’ vis-à-vis the ‘cultural’ Both women and the Irish have traditionally been associated with
the natural, as opposed to the cultural, and seen as closer to the childlike, the primitive, and the
irrational in comparison with the normative, white, middle-class male. In this course we will be
focusing an ecocritical lens on contemporary Irish women’s poetry, prose, and drama, with some
readings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Irish feminists first articulated
the connections between the oppression of women and exploitation of nature
Primary Texts
Sara Baume, Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither
Anne Haverty, One Day as a Tiger
Marina Carr, By the Bog of Cats
Short fiction by George Egerton, Emma Donoghue, Claire Keegan, and Éilís Ní Dhuibhne
Poetry by Eva Gore-Booth Katherine Tynan, Paula Meehan, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Katie Donovan,
Sinéad Morrissey, Mary O’Malley, and Moya Cannon
This short fiction and poetry, as well as theoretical material, will be provided in the module booklet.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:
Identify and discuss the terms and concepts central to ecocritial and ecofeminist theory
Read and analyse a selection of Irish women’s writing from an ecocritical perspective
Identify and discuss the specific political and social implications of natural imagery in
contemporary Irish women’s writing
Deploy ecocritical theory in order to make connections between contemporary Irish women’s
writing and first-wave Irish feminists’ literary production.
Module Code
EN3006
Seminar Code
OMR 3.13
Seminar Title
Tolkien’s Middle English: Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight,
Pearl and Sir Orfeo
Seminar Leader
Dr Ken Rooney
Teaching Period
1
Day
Wednesday
Thursday
Time
4.00 – 5.00pm
3.00 – 4.00pm
Venue
CONN_J1
AL_G18
Seminar Content
This is not a course about The Lord of the Rings. However, the texts taught in this seminar are some of the
most fascinating examples of medieval writing that have come down to us, narrating quests by fragile heroes
to worlds inhabited by strange immortals, ‘there and back again’. It is no surprise then that J. R. R. Tolkien
worked with these three fourteenth-century narratives throughout his scholarly life as teacher, critic, editor,
translator, and novelist. One of them, Sir Orfeo, has been described by Tom Shippey as the ‘master text’ for
Tolkien’s representation of the elves.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo are the three Middle English poems taught in this
seminar. They were all, as translated by Tolkien, published in a single volume in 1975 (now out of print).
This course will use Tolkien’s Sir Orfeo from this collection, together with Bernard O’ Donoghue’s 2007
translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Simon Armitage’s 2016 translation of Pearl. Students
who wish to work with some or all of these texts in the original Middle English will be able to do so too, but
familiarity with Middle English language is not a prerequisite.
The course will read the three medieval poems with Tolkien’s responses to them as just one of our critical
perspectives. Overall, the course will explore the significance of Sir Gawain, Pearl and Sir Orfeo as some of
the most powerful literary works of the Middle Ages, consider the conditions and literary conventions that
shaped them, and explore their legacies in modern reception.
This course will consist of two one-hour sessions per week.
Primary Texts
J. R. R. Tolkien, trans., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo. Ed. by Christopher
Tolkien. London: Unwin, 1977. (Out of print; extracts, including Sir Orfeo, will be provided)
Students should acquire:
Bernard O’ Donoghue, trans., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2007, and
Simon Armitage, trans., Pearl. London: Faber, 2016.
Original-language edition (for students who wish to read in the original Middle English):
J.J. Anderson, ed., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience. London: Dent, 2006
Suggested preliminary secondary reading (available in the library and inexpensively on amazon)
Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle Earth. London: Unwin, 1982. 2nd ed., 2005.
John M. Bowers, Tolkien’s Lost Chaucer. Oxford: OUP, 2019.
Stuart Lee, ed. A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien. Oxford: 2014; rpr. 2020. Learning outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to
Critically read and analyse a range of medieval narratives in translation
Relate the set texts to one another
Discuss the cultural and intellectual background which framed the emergence of this writing
Define terms and concepts central to this literature and its critical reception
Apply these terms and concepts to the set texts.
Module Code
EN3006
Seminar Code
OMR 3.14
Seminar Title
Women in Renaissance
Drama
Seminar Leader
Dr Edel Semple
Teaching
Period
1
Day
Tuesday
Time
2:00 – 4:00pm
Venue
Boole_5
Seminar Content
Famously, there were no women on the Renaissance English stage. However, while women did
not act, the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries also offer us many fascinating and
memorable female characters. This seminar examines the depiction and understanding of
women, their lives and deaths, as staged in Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies and comedies. In
the early modern period, as now, women occupied a multitude of roles, and were labelled and
categorised according to sexual status, class, occupation, wealth, religion, and race. The seminar
focuses on plays where women take centre-stage as title characters and which pay particular
attention to women’s positions as virgin, wife, daughter, sister, mother, transvestite, widow,
rebel, superior, idol, lover, worker, whore, aggressor, and victim. The plays’ female figures will
be considered in relation to a selection of theatrical, historical, social, and cultural contexts.
Analyses of these characters will also be informed by critical readings, in gender studies and
feminist approaches for example, on early modern drama.
Primary texts/Required textbooks
Primary texts
Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (1593)
Webster, The Duchess of Malfi (c.1612)
Lyly, Galatea (c.1584)
Middleton and Dekker, The Roaring Girl (1611)
Recommended textbooks – hardcopy and online
Shakespeare, Shrew in The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt et al. 3rd ed. Norton and
Co, 2015. Online: different edition via Internet Shakespeare Editions.
Webster, John. The Duchess of Malfi, edited by Leah Marcus. Arden, 2009. Online: different edition via
the Library database Ebook Central.
Lyly, John. Galatea, edited by Leah Scragg. Manchester UP, 2012. Online: different edition via Internet
Shakespeare Editions (search on website).
Middleton, Thomas, and Thomas Dekker. The Roaring Girl, edited by Elizabeth Cook. (New Mermaids)
Methuen, 2003. Online: See play in Thomas Middleton: The Collected Works, edited by Gary Taylor and
John Lavagnino. Oxford UP, 2007, via the Library database Ebook Central.
Hardcopy: both Malfi and Roaring Girl can also be found in English Renaissance Drama: A Norton
Anthology, edited by David Bevington. Norton and Co, 2002.
Learning outcomes
On completion of this module students will be able to:
critically assess the representation of women in a range of early modern plays
analyse the plays’ theatrical, historical, social, and cultural contexts
formulate close readings of early modern drama
apply literary terms and critical theory to the study of these texts
produce critically-informed written work
demonstrate skills in communication and collaboration
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