ENGLISH 214 : Early Texts: Modern Inventions

Arts

2020 Semester Two (1205) (15 POINTS)

Course Prescription

A study of key works and contexts of selected medieval and early modern writers, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Behn. Offers a compact history of literary engagements with important social issues that arose in a period notable for revolution and reform; also develops knowledge of literary forms and trends that are historically important, but, in this period, relatively new.

Course Overview

This introduction to medieval and early modern literature involves detailed study of a range of works by major authors like Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne and England’s first woman author, writing professionally, Aphra Behn. In encountering these works, we pay close attention to the language in which they were written, and how it may be translated, observing major shifts from Middle English verse to Elizabethan and seventeenth poetry and prose. The otherness of this writing, viewed from our historical and cultural distance, requires us to bring our historical imagination into play. The tutorial exercises are designed to give you practice in the variety of critical approaches and responsive reading that you will put to work in the two essays and the final exam.

Course Requirements

Prerequisite: 15 points at Stage I in English Restriction: ENGLISH 210

Capabilities Developed in this Course

Capability 1: Disciplinary Knowledge and Practice
Capability 2: Critical Thinking
Capability 4: Communication and Engagement
Graduate Profile: Bachelor of Arts

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
  1. Apply close-reading skills to a range of socially engaged texts spanning the period 1400 to 1700. (Capability 1.2)
  2. Devise discussion questions that open up literary texts to interpretation. (Capability 2.2)
  3. Develop and demonstrate an awareness of how key themes of modernity such as quest and discovery, love and marriage, and identity and self-fashioning have been treated in early texts from the Middle Ages to the end of the seventeenth century. (Capability 1.1)
  4. Articulate and discuss ideas in group work and in essay writing. (Capability 4.1 and 4.2)

Assessments

Assessment Type Percentage Classification
Tutorials 10% Individual Coursework
Test 10% Individual Coursework
Essays 40% Individual Coursework
Final Exam 40% Individual Examination

Next offered

2021

Workload Expectations

This course is a standard [15] point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in each 15 point course that they are enrolled in.

For this course, you can expect [2] hours of lectures, a [1] hour tutorial, [5] hours of reading and thinking about the content and [2] hours of work on assignments and/or test preparation.

Digital Resources

Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).

Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against online source material using computerised detection mechanisms.

Inclusive Learning

All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website at http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

Well-being always comes first
We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there - for more information, look at this Canvas page (https://canvas.auckland.ac.nz/courses/33894), which has links to various support services in the University and the wider community.

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.

If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

Student Feedback

At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.

Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.

Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter (https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html).

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.

Published on 07/07/2020 06:11 p.m.