Medieval and Renaissance English Literature Modules

Modules in Medieval and Renaissance English Literature offer students the opportunity to begin learning new languages (Old and Middle English and Old Norse), to read some unusual and stimulating texts, to understand those texts in the light of the evolving history of the English language, and to explore their intersection with wider issues in medieval and early modern culture. While there is no separate degree scheme in Medieval and Renaissance English, it is possible to specialise in medieval courses or to combine medieval and modern courses. The choice of medieval modules is considerable and provides a full introduction to this important area of study which often leads on to postgraduate research. The place to start such study is with Medieval and Renaissance English Literature in Year One.
Year One

This is a course designed to introduce students to literature of the medieval and early modern periods. A knowledge of early English literature can enhance understanding and appreciation of later literature, but medieval and renaissance literature is also a stimulating and enjoyable area of study in its own right. This course covers a wide range of texts written between the seventh and the eighteenth centuries, exemplifying genres as diverse as epic poetry, drama, religious lyrics, elegy, satire, and Arthurian romance. The course consists of four ten-credit modules, two taken in the autumn semester and two in the spring semester.

The medieval part of the course introduces students to both Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) literature (c.700-c.1100) and Middle English literature (c.1100-c.1500), with a special emphasis on Chaucer's poetry. Students will read Old English literature in translation, but there are opportunities to learn Old English in the second and third years. The Renaissance part of the course covers a range of literary texts from the early modern period which exemplify the main genres of epic, lyric and pastoral poetry and drama. Follow the links below to the module descriptions which provide further information:

* SE2124 Geoffrey Chaucer
* SE2121 Introduction to Renaissance Literature: Between Reformation and Revolution
* SE2125 Beowulf in Context
* SE2120 Late Medieval Literature: Epic and Romance

Years Two and Three

While there is no separate degree in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, we do offer a full range of modules in these fields. The English Literature degree scheme allows you to specialise in the modules below or to combine medieval and modern module choices. Thus within the degree scheme it is possible to follow a traditional degree pattern of English Literature courses, going from Medieval and Old English Literature through to Postmodernism. Such a pattern might well include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Eighteenth-Century Literature, Romantic Literature, Victorian novels and Twentieth-Century Literature.

Medieval and Renaissance texts exhibit a range of surprisingly modern preoccupations: with issues of class, gender, sexuality, subjectivity, society and the individual, and with questions of reading and interpretation that lie at the heart of the study of literature. Yet some of the most productive thinking about early literature comes from the creative encounter between modern ways of reading and texts that partially resist those ways of reading.

* SE2202 Introduction to Old English
* SE2279 Myth and Saga
* SE2204 Shakespeare's Comedies
* SE2245 Spenser's Faerie Queene
* SE2269 Introduction to Medieval Drama
* SE2280 Old English Literature
* SE2508 Introduction to Old Norse
* SE2217 Shakespeare's Tragedies
* SE2219 Love & Death in the 17th Century
* SE2201 The Canterbury Tales I
* SE2268 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
* SE2327 Beowulf
* SE2378 Old Icelandic Sagas
* SE2306 Shakespeare's Histories
* SE2307 Renaissance Drama I
* SE2387 Heroic Poetry and Society
* SE2367 The Robin Hood Tradition
* SE2329 Renaissance Drama II: Politics & Domestic Tragedy
* SE2359 Shakespeare's Late Plays
* SE2285 Literary English: History and Theory
* SE2295 Medieval Arthurian Literature
* SE2294 John Donne