From shipwrecks to pirates, from the discovery of unknown lands to reunions with long-lost lovers, the state of being lost has long vexed protagonists and inspired authors. In this module, we’ll explore loss and being lost as fundamental conditions of both the production, and interpretation, of narrative in the Renaissance. Focusing especially on romance, that nebulous and unwieldy form, we’ll consider what the fictional representation of ‘wrong turns’ (literal and metaphorical) tells us about early modern story-telling, ethics, and New World exploration.
We’ll therefore contextualize our examination of early modern literary texts with readings from historical accounts of voyages and cross-cultural encounters and explore how being lost would have been both a familiar literary convention inherited from the ancient and medieval worlds and a condition made newly meaningful in light of expansive global discoveries. We’ll be attentive too to our own position as readers lost – in good ways and bad – in such texts, and how being lost might structure, or hinder, learning and the acquisition of knowledge.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
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A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
This module aims to introduce students to the centrality of ‘being lost’ as a literary and intellectual phenomenon in the Renaissance and to familiarize students with the genre of romance and its indebtedness to epic and travel narrative. We’ll do that by exploring the value of reading across literary and non-literary texts and to reading with an eye to historical context. Finally, the module aims to cultivate an attentiveness to our own habits and practices of reading narrative - to our experiences of being lost in books.
On successful completion of this module students should be able to
Task | % of module mark |
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Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
Throughout the module, you will have the opportunity to pitch, road-test, and develop essay ideas. Feedback will be integrated into your seminars or the ‘third hour’ (i.e. the lecture or workshop).
You will submit your summative essay via the VLE during the revision and assessment weeks at the end of the teaching semester (weeks 13-15). Feedback on your summative essay will be uploaded to e:Vision to meet the University’s marking deadlines
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
You will receive feedback on all assessed work within the University deadline, and will often receive it more quickly. The purpose of feedback is to inform your future work; it is designed to help you to improve your work, and the Department also offers you help in learning from your feedback. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further you can discuss it with your tutor or your supervisor, during their Open Office Hours
For more information about the feedback you will receive for your work, see the department's Guide to Assessment