Module overview
Why have some stories gripped the imagination of writers, musicians, and artists across cultures and centuries? And what does the emergence and constant re-emergence of such stories tell us about ourselves and others, past and present? What do readers and audiences continually find compelling about these translations, adaptations and transformations? How do writers reshape the stories they retell to meet the needs of their own times. In this module, you will trace, analyse, theorise and compare the inventions and reinventions of a classic narrative across history and through genres, from poetry to novels, and from song to paintings and film.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- analyse and explain the artifice of texts and visual images
- analyse and relate to each other complex written texts and associated visual images
- evaluate, and criticise tendentious claims for the naturalness or authority of cultural traditions
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- the “constructedness” of the past
- the reasons for which different stories are told and retold
- the dissemination and circulation of cultural items through different media
- appropriation, imitation, and invention, and how these differ from plagiarism
- the continuities and discontinuities between traditions of literature across centuries
- the connections between high and popular culture, the notions of cultural authority, appropriation, imitation, and invention, and how these differ from plagiarism
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- compare and contrast apparently similar material from different periods
- acquire, select, structure, and present materials in relation to a particular critical argument
Syllabus
This module will focus on the imitations and re-inventions of a story that has gained the status of an ‘origin’. You will read poetic texts from the classical (Graeco-Roman) world in translation and will examine a selection of works inspired by these, including poetic, prose, and visual forms from the first to the twenty-first centuries. We will ask you to both value and question what it means for a story to gather classic status. We will investigate the implications and effects of the transfer of narrative elements from one form or genre to another, and between periods and cultures. While the story-tradition under investigation may change from year to year, the long stretch of history and cultural reach that defines this module will always draw you into discussions about the formation of power, and about the relationship between past, present and future: between intimate moments and public structures; between humans, animals and the supernatural; between life and death.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- lectures
- seminars
- private consultation
- feedback on written work
Learning activities include
- reading books and engaging with other cultural productions
- seminar discussion
- visual and textual analysis
- creation of a commonplace book
- writing essays
This module includes a Learning Support Hour. This is a flexible contact hour, 5 in total, designed to support and respond to the particular cohort taking the module from year to year. This hour will include (but not be limited to) activities such as language, theory and research skills classes; group work supervisions; assignment preparation and essay writing guidance; assignment consultations; feedback and feed-forward sessions.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Wider reading or practice | 18 |
| Completion of assessment task | 49 |
| Seminar | 11 |
| Teaching | 5 |
| Follow-up work | 9 |
| Preparation for scheduled sessions | 47 |
| Lecture | 11 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
General Resources
Module readings will vary from year to year.. Authors studied will range from Homer, Virgil, Spenser and Milton, to Alexander Pope, Alfred Tennyson, James Joyce, Ndebele and Madeleine Miller. Students will be given a complete bibliography of primary and secondary material for their year.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Critical Analysis | 30% |
| Essay | 70% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Resubmit assessments | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Critical Analysis | 30% |
| Essay | 70% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External