SoSe 18: S-Literatures of Medieval Britain: Modernity and Alterity in the Literatures of Medieval Britain II: The Medieval Epic Hero
Regina Scheibe
Comments
Students will be familiarized with the characteristics of the genre of the medieval heroic epic and its relevance to postcolonial studies. The study of the function of the epic values displayed by the heroes will be central to the course. We will read a variety of medieval English works, such as the Old English Beowulf and the Middle English romance Havelok, and contrast them with the Old Irish Táin, passages from Gavin Douglas’s translation of Virgil’s Æneid, Seamus Heaney's Modern English rendering of Beowulf and the Scottish novel Magnus by George Mackay Brown.
Students will be expected to acquire copies of the following editions:
‘Beowulf’: Bilingual Edition, translated by Seamus Heaney (London: Faber & Faber, paperback edition, 2007);
The Táin, translated by Thomas Kinsella (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002); and George Mackay Brown, Magnus (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2008).
Copies of selected passages from Friedrich Klaeber’s edition of Beowulf and from Gavin Douglas’s Æneid, and a copy of the complete Middle English romance Havelok will be made available to the students prior to the relevant sessions.
The language of instruction will be English; level C1-C2 is required.
The final mark will be based on regular attendance and performance in class, on an introductory talk to initiate class discussion and on a term paper related to the talk.
close14 Class schedule
Regular appointments