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