Monsters and Others in Medieval Literature and Culture

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Relevant theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of monstrosity and other forms of otherness in the Middle Ages
• Intersections and distinctions between monstrosity and other forms of otherness in the Middle Ages
• The rhetorical and cultural uses of representations of otherness and monstrosity
• A range of key texts and cultural artefacts from medieval England and the European Middle Ages

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Bring appropriate theoretical and methodological reading into dialogue with literary and cultural texts
• Define and research your own essay topic on a relevant subject
• Analyse representations of monsters, monstrosity and otherness across a range of literary and visual media
• Identify appropriate critical and theoretical reading for a research topic

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Work with feedback to complete a project of your own design
• Design and plan a research essay

The precise syllabus will vary from year to year but will always include a selection of the following texts and themes:

1. Theorizing Otherness and Monstrosity in the Middle Ages: Key thinkers

2. Monstrosity and gender in early medieval Britain: Beowulf and Judith

3. England's monstrous neighbours: otherness and colonization in Gerald of Wales' Topography of Ireland

4. Mapping worldly diversity: the Hereford World Map, the Ebstorf World Map and Mandeville's Travels

5. Chaucer's proximate others: the Man of Law's tale and the Prioress's Tale

6. Monstrous mothers: Melusine

7. Translating the Monstrous: re-imagining Beowulf in the twentieth and twenty-first century

Teaching and learning methods

1 lecture per week

1 discussion-based seminar per week

1 student-led learning support hour per week

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.

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

Digital Mappa - Old English Poetry project.

Different Visions: New Perspectives on Medieval Art, vol. 2: Monstrosity (Special Issue).

Textbooks

Asa Simon Mittman (2006). Maps and Monsters in Medieval England. Taylor and Francis.

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (1996). Monster Theory: Reading Culture. University of Minnesota Press.

(1999). Of Giants: Sex, Monsters, and the Middle Ages. University of Minnesota Press.

Asa Mittman and Peter Drendle (2013). The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous. Routledge.

Bettina Bildhauer and Robert Mills (2003). The Monstrous Middle Ages. University of Wales Press.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

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.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External