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Regular version of the site
Master 2023/2024

Medievalism in English Literature

Type: Elective course (Russian and Comparative Literature)
Area of studies: Philology
When: 1 year, 2 module
Mode of studies: offline
Open to: students of all HSE University campuses
Master’s programme: Русская литература и компаративистика
Language: English
ECTS credits: 3
Contact hours: 24

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course is dedicated to representations of medieval themes and imagery in Modern English literary corpus (19-21 c.). Students will read several key texts from the medieval and modern period and learn how to analyse the usage of medieval elements in modern texts as well as cinematography. Pre-requisites: to fulfill the requirements of the course students need to have a good command of written and spoken English (required CEFR language proficiency level is from upper-intermediate (B2) to advanced (C1)).
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • To introduce students to the key concepts of medievalism studies as well as to the basic principles of comparative analysis of English literary texts from different time periods.
  • To increase students’ proficiency in critically reading, reflecting, analyzing, and interpreting a range of assigned primary and secondary sources from a historical and contextual perspective, both orally and in writing.
  • To help students structure their own research arguments about the usage of medieval elements in literature and cinema.
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • To know key events and cultural developments related to Old and Middle English literature; to read critically, comprehend, and produce clear, informed, independent opinions and judgements on the assigned key text and its modern reception; to formulate (both orally and in writing) arguable claims about them and react to others’ ideas
  • To know key events and cultural developments related to medieval elements in 16th-century English literature; to read critically, comprehend, and produce clear, informed, independent opinions and judgements on the assigned key text and its modern reception; to formulate (both orally and in writing) arguable claims about them and react to others’ ideas.
  • To know key events and cultural developments related to medieval elements in British Pre-Romanticism and Romanticism; to read critically, comprehend, and produce clear, informed, independent opinions and judgements on the assigned key text and its reception; to formulate (both orally and in writing) arguable claims about them and react to others’ ideas
  • To know key events and cultural developments related to medieval elements in British modernism; to read critically, comprehend, and produce clear, informed, independent opinions and judgements on the assigned key text and its reception; to formulate (both orally and in writing) arguable claims about them and react to others’ ideas
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Course introduction
  • The Elizabethan Age
  • Romanticism
  • British literature at the turn of the 20th century
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Seminar Participation
  • non-blocking Lecture Participation
  • non-blocking Projects and Reports
    During the seminars students will conduct and present their own analysis of a text/film with medieval imagery (from the suggested list) as well as present a research article. Both activities allow students to prepare for the final essay.
  • non-blocking Essay
    The written examination consists of a literary analysis essay (at least 5 typed A4 pages (1500 words or more) in MLA style PLUS a Works Cited page), the purpose of which is to carefully examine any theme discussed over the course (or connected to the course) and to present an argument / claim about it. The list of suggestions and guidelines will be given in advance. The essay topic should be approved by the course instructors beforehand.
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • 2023/2024 2nd module
    0.4 * Essay + 0.15 * Lecture Participation + 0.2 * Projects and Reports + 0.25 * Seminar Participation
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Medieval Shakespeare : pasts and presents, , 2013
  • Rethinking historicism from Shakespeare to Milton, , 2012
  • Shakespearean tragedy : Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Bradley, A. C., 1992
  • The Cambridge companion to British Romanticism, , 2005
  • The Cambridge companion to Old English literature, Godden, M., 2013
  • The Cambridge companion to T. S. Eliot, , 2005
  • The Cambridge history of twentieth-century English literature, , 2012

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • A companion to Shakespeare and performance, , 2008
  • A grammar of Old English. Vol.1: Phonology, Hogg, R. M., 2011
  • A grammar of Old English. Vol.2: Morphology, Hogg, R. M., 2011
  • Shakespeare's foreign worlds : national and transnational identities in the Elizabethan age, Levin, C., 2009
  • T.S. Eliot : a guide for the perplexed, Ellis, S., 2009
  • The Cambridge guide to the worlds of Shakespeare. Vol.1: Shakespeare's world, 1500-1660, , 2017
  • The Cambridge guide to the worlds of Shakespeare. Vol.2: The world's Shakespeare, 1660- present, , 2017
  • The Cambridge history of English literature, 1660-1780, , 2005
  • The history of English. Vol. 2: Old English, , 2017
  • The Oxford companion to English literature, , 2000
  • The Oxford handbook of Shakespeare, , 2012
  • Voltaire, Goethe, Schlegel, Coleridge, , 2010

Authors

  • Volkonskaia Mariia ANDREEVNA
  • GLEBOVA DARIA SERGEEVNA