BA English Literature and German / Course details

The old work of giants decays. A dragon guards its hoard of treasure. The wanderer locks his thoughts away in an icy heart. A woman longs for her lost wolf. A wife weeps alone within her earth-grave. These are some of the striking images, stories and characters contained in Old English literature. The remains of this early literature survive in burnt manuscripts and ruined fragments. Anonymous voices still call out to us from these texts, but it is not always clear whether the speaker is a man or woman, pagan or Christian, saint or sinner, or even human or animal. They sing moving songs about themselves but their worldviews may seem strange and challenging to us today. Old English therefore tests your skill as a reader – and as a writer. Modern writers, from Tolkien and Auden to Heaney and Boland, have refused to abandon this vanished literary world. Instead, they have drawn on it as a source of creativity, inspiration and play. In lectures, we will study Old English alongside these Modern English translations and poetic responses. But students on this course will get the chance to go further still. In workshops, you will turn your critical insights into creative energy, making new translations of your own and shaping living songs from fading parchment.

• to engage with Old English texts in both poetic modern translations and the original language
• to examine how early medieval writing might relate to recent ideas about the nonhuman in thing theory and eco-criticism
• to rethink critical and theoretical concepts of voice, body and agency in relation to nonhuman beings
• to develop skills in reading a range of Old English literary genres (riddle, charm, elegy, dream vision)
• to explore the intersections between literature and material culture

By the end of this course students will be able to:

•  identify connections between the themes of Old English literature and the concerns of thing theory
• read a variety of early medieval genres closely and critically: riddle, charm, elegy, dream vision
• identify and analyse different literary techniques used by Old English poets when writing about speaking animals and objects: prosopopoeia, paronomasia, chiasmus, cryptography, punning etc.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

•  present a coherent written argument
• handle critical vocabulary and demonstrate a critical position according to the conventions of the discipline
• demonstrate an awareness of recent theoretical approaches to nonhumans and the environment

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• use textual evidence to formulate convincing critical arguments about course texts
• summarize and engage with the arguments in secondary texts
• generate thoughtful written work on course texts and themes
• speak clearly and articulately on course texts and themes
• introduce and defend ideas in a presentation

By the end of this course students will be able to:

•  analyse and process complex information
• work effectively in groups
• manage deadlines and self-motivated study
• demonstrate appreciation and sensitivity towards a historically distant culture

Essay 50%

Exam 50%

• Oral feedback during seminars
• Written feedback on essays
• Additional one-to-one feedback (during consultation hour or by making an appointment)

Readings may include:

Bird and beast riddles

Husband’s Message

Creation riddles and Old English Genesis

Panther, Whale, Phoenix

Soul and Body

Dream of the Rood