England in Europe: Literary Culture from Alfred the Great to Ælfric - MST00021M
Module will run
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Autumn Term 2022-23 |
Module aims
This module looks at the literary culture (especially poetry and
history-writing) of England from King Alfred the Great (d. 899) to the
courtly bishop Wulfstan (d. 1023): the period when the West Saxon
dynasty forged a single English kingdom, from previously separate
English kingdoms, and from areas of Britain which had been controlled
by Scandinavian and Hiberno Norse settlers (Vikings) and the British
(Welsh). This kingdom then falls to the Danes (1016) and the Normans
(1066).
The module situates the writing of the vernacular
within the context of the dynamic exchange between monastic, clerical
and lay elites, all of whom moved in social networks that were
distinctly multilingual with strong ties to Francia, the wider Insular
world and Scandinavia and a keen interest in Europe, Asia and North
Africa.
Focusing equally on literary form (poetics,
history-writing, manuscript layout, codicology) and historical
context, we look at both the theory and practice of vernacular and
Latin writing. Throughout, texts from England are studied in their
European context – this includes an emphasis on the Latin matrix of
vernacular writing, on the distinctive insular (English, Irish and
Welsh) experience of using the vernacular, and on England’s engagement
with the wide-ranging and diverse literary cultures of Afro-Eurasia (a
space extending from Ireland to India and from Scandinavia to North
Africa).
The module is organized in 4 clusters, each with
two seminars: 1) King Alfred: The Power of the Written Word; 2) The
Exeter Book: Building in Time and Space; 3) Beowulf; 4)
Monks and Bishops in an Age of Reform.
Works to be read include: Alfred’s Preface to the Pastoral Care, Asser’s Life of Alfred, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, poetry of the Exeter Book, Beowulf, The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, Ælfric’s prefaces and saints lives, Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi and Apollonius of Tyre.
Module learning outcomes
Subject content
- A good knowledge of the literature of England from the 9th-11th centuries.
- an awareness of the cultural contexts of literary production in in 9-11th-century England
- an understanding of the politics of the major trends in the literary criticism of the period
Academic and graduate skills
- Research skills in the areas of 9th-11th century English literature, in the vernacular and Latin
- Masters level writing skills
- Masters level seminar skills - presentations and discussion participation
Indicative assessment
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Module feedback
We aim to distribute an agreed mark and written comments on summative assessment to students 25 working days following submission.
Indicative reading
Please make sure that you do this reading before the start of term.
Please contact elizabeth.tyler
Julia Smith, Europe after Rome: A New Cultural History,
500-1000. Oxford University Press, 2005. At a minimum, make sure
that you have read chapter 1, but you will benefit from reading the
whole book. [Chapter 1]
Robin Fleming, Britain after
Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400-1070. The book is fascinating, you
need only to read the introduction which makes the crucial point that
writing in the early Middle Ages was the preserve of the super elite
and reminds us that we must theorize it as such. [Introduction]
Linda Georgianna, ‘Coming to Terms with the Norman Conquest: Nationalism and English Literary History’, REAL: Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature 14 (1998), 33-53.
John Blair’s The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction (2000). This is a good introduction to the period and useful through the term.