EL2512: THE TRAGEDY OF KNOWLEDGE (2014-2015)

How do we know what we know? Are our lives shaped by our own efforts and learning, or are we subject to forces we cannot control? Does the acquisition of knowledge carry tragic consequences? Such questions have reverberated throughout literary history. Looking at a wide range of texts from ancient to modern, and including poems, plays, and novels, this course will introduce students to some of the central ethical and intellectual concerns found in literature, as well as providing a solid cross-period foundation for further study. Besides literary expressions of the Fall such as Milton's Paradise Lost, the course features reworkings of the Faust and Prometheus legends, including texts by authors such as Aeschylus, Marlowe, Mary Shelley and Angela Carter.

This course aims to:

-Introduce students to a wide range of literary texts on the subject of knowledge

-Situate texts in their historical and cultural contexts

-Provide a diachronic account of the way knowledge has been presented in literature

-Formulate key ethical and epistemological questions in the study of literature

-Through an emphasis on tragedy, relate thematic and intellectual ideas to form and genre

 

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

-Distinguish between various types of knowledge presented in the course.

-Reflect on the relationship between literature and knowledge as presented in the prescribed texts, and be able to analyse this relationship using appropriate language

-Judge the extent to which knowledge can be considered tragic

-Articulate the relationship between texts from different periods

-Express their ideas clearly and succinctly in both oral and written forms, with appropriate use of secondary sources

-Asses their own learning process in relation to the prescribed texts

 

Students will also have acquired:

-The practical skills necessary for literary and cultural analysis

-A periodic and formal foundation on which to base their choices of Honours options

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

View EL2512 Timetable

More Information about Week Numbers

1st attempt: 1 two-hour examination (50%); in course assessment: first essay (1,500 words) 15%, second essay (1,800 words) (20%), one reflective exercise (5%); tutorial assessment mark (10%).

Resit:1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Students will keep a weekly course journal which will not be given a CAS mark, but will be taken into consideration as part of tutorial assessment.

Summative assessments will be given CAS marks, and written or verbal feedback will be provided. Additional informal feedback on performance and tutorial participation is also given in tutorials.

None.