Module overview
The figures of King Arthur, Guinevere, his knights and court have exercised a powerful hold over the minds of readers for many centuries. But have you ever wondered about where this legend came from, how it developed, and about the enduring nature of its appeal? On this module, we will examine a range of Arthurian stories from medieval, renaissance and later periods. Our focus will be on the physical and social worlds created by these texts, and their relationship to the worlds in which these stories were enjoyed. We will consider how writers in different periods and genres used Arthurian stories, environments, motifs, and a mythologised past world to explore and critique the political, social and gender relations of their own societies; to forge and contest identities; and to figure new relationships between past and present worlds.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Cognitive Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Consider the importants of the generic, social, historical and linguistic contexts in which Arthurian worlds are remade
- Analytically compare the uses made of the past and the ways in which it was contested in a range of different historical periods
- Critically compare and analyse different deployments of Arthurian motifs
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Articulate the results of your research and analyses orally and in writing
- Carry out research and analysis on a range of source types from different periods
- Plan and carry out different assessment tasks to deadlines
Syllabus
The texts we will examine on this module will take us from the rise of Arthurian stories in England and Wales, through fourteenth-sixteenth century vernacularisations, critiques, and reimaginings of the legend, to attempts to on the one hand remould the legend and, on the other, establish its historicity, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Specific texts for study will vary from year to year but will normally include a selection from the following:
- Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain
- Chretien de Troyes, Perceval
- Marie de France, Lais
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- Geoffrey Chaucer, the Wife of Bath’s Tale
- Thomas Malory, Morte DArthur
- Edmund Spenser, Faerie Queene
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King
- Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court
- Roger Lancelyn Green, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
- T. H. White, The Once and Future King
- John Morris, The Age of Arthur
- Graham Anderson, King Arthur in Antiquity
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
1 x 45 min lecture and 1 x 45 min seminar per week
Group work
Informal individual and group presentations
Individual study
This module includes a Learning Support Hour. This is a flexible weekly contact hour, 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 |
|---|---|
| Preparation for scheduled sessions | 50 |
| Lecture | 10 |
| Wider reading or practice | 10 |
| Seminar | 10 |
| Completion of assessment task | 50 |
| Follow-up work | 8 |
| Teaching | 12 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Internet Resources
Sources for the Study of the Arthurian Legends.
Journal Articles
Arthuriana.
Textbooks
Daniel P. Nastali and Phillip C. Boardman (2004). The Arthurian Annals : The Tradition in English from 1250 to 2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
William W. Kibler and R. Barton Palmer (2014). Medieval Arthurian Epic and Romance : Eight New Translations. Jefferson NC: McFarland.
Michelle R. Warren (2000). History on the edge : Excalibur and the borders of Britain, 1100-1300. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Derek Pearsall (2003). Arthurian Romance: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
Roger Sherman Loomis (1959). Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages : A Collaborative History. Oxford: Clarendon.
O.J. Padel (2013). Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Patricia Clare Ingham (2001). Sovereign Fantasies: Arthurian Romance and the Making of Britain. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Dixon, Jeffrey John (2014). The Glory of Arthur: The Legendary King in Epic Poems of Layamon, Spenser and Blake. Jefferson NC: McFarland.
Elizabeth Archibald and Ad Putter (2009). The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rhiannon Purdie and Nicola Royan (2005). The Scots and Medieval Arthurian Legend. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.
Rachel Bromwich, A.O.H. Jarman, Brynley F. Roberts (1991). The Arthur of the Welsh : The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Alan Lupack (2005). The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Michael A. Faletra (2014). Wales and the Medieval Colonial Imagination. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Assessment
Summative
Summative assessment description
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 70% |
| Critical Analysis | 30% |
Referral
Referral assessment description
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External