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Literature and the Past

Module description

This team-taught, interdisciplinary module covers a range of different literary periods and invites interdisciplinary approaches to the issue of commemoration and the representation of history. You will be invited to participate in a series of masterclasses by different members of staff from across the department who will introduce you to examples of literature’s engagement with different aspects of the past and its effect on subsequent heritage culture. You will also take part in a field trip to a site of literary importance in Cornwall, for which there will be a small cost, to cover travel and entry to historic sites.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module invites you to consider the relationship between literary and cultural works that depict the past through remembrance, commemoration, or representation. It will introduce you to a range of literary texts and genres that are involved in a broad attempt to represent prior historical moments and will encourage you to relate these to developing understandings and varying uses of the past.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Explain the role literary texts play in how we understand prior historical moments
• 2. Describe how literary and cultural practices can affect issues in historical commemoration and heritage management

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Analyse the literature of an earlier era and relate its concerns and its modes of expression to its historical context
• 4. Interrelate texts and discourses with issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Through seminar work, demonstrate communication skills, and work both individually and in groups
• 6. Through essay-writing, demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills, construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and write clear and correct prose

Syllabus plan

This is an indicative syllabus. More information is available via the ELE and College intranet.

Texts studied might include:

• Clara Reeve, The Old English Baron
• Alfred Tennyson, ‘The Epic’, ‘The Coming of Arthur’, ‘The Passing of Arthur’; William Morris, ‘The Defense of Guenevere’, John Boorman, Excalibur
• Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes
• Geoffrey Hill, Mercian Hymns,Seamus Heaney, North
• Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook’s Hill, Alan Garner, Red Shift

There will also be a one-day field-trip to a heritage site in Cornwall, such as Tintagel (small cost to each student to cover travel and entry).

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to redo the assessment(s) as described above. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• The Haunted Past: Clara Reeve, The Old English Baron, ed. James Trainer (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008).
• The Return of King Arthur: Alfred Tennyson, ‘The Epic’, ‘The Coming of Arthur’, ‘Lancelot and Elaine’, ‘Guinevere’,‘The Passing of Arthur’ (from Idylls of the King - some in the Norton Anthology, the rest on Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org); William Morris, ‘The Defence of Guenevere’ (in the Norton Anthology); Letitia Elizabeth Landon, ‘A Legend of Tintagel Castle’ (find on Poem Hunter, https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-legend-of-tintagel-castle/comments); John Boorman, Excalibur (Orion, 1981 – screening arranged, or view in your own time).
• The Past in Cornwall: Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes (Oxford World’s Classics, 2009)
• Children’s Literature and the Past: Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook’s Hill (Macmillan, 2016); Alan Garner, Red Shift (Harper Collins, 2014)
• Muddying the Past: Geoffrey Hill, Mercian Hymns, in Selected Poems (Penguin, 2006); Seamus Heaney, North (Faber and Faber, 2001).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE page: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=7682

Key words search

History, heritage, English, literature, memory