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EN4319   Green and Pleasant: Landscape and Later Medieval Literature

Academic year(s): 2024-2025

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 1

Availability restrictions: Not automatically available to General Degree students

Planned timetable: TBC

Locations encountered in Middle English literary texts are frequently green and pleasant places where the sun always shines, yet in reality during the fourteenth century the English countryside was affected by extreme weather, famine, plague, and social unrest. This module will explore the depiction of landscape across a wide range of later medieval spiritual and secular narrative genres. Through close analysis of lyric, romance, debate, and dream poetry we will encounter different refractions of the idealized spaces of garden, meadow, forest, and wilderness. Alongside we will consider productive engagement with the landscape, as evidenced through advice about seasonal labours, weather prognostications, and medieval recipes. The aim of the module is to focus on close analysis and in-depth study of the chosen texts to encourage exploration of both literary, critical, and environmental and ecological issues.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must take EN2003 and take EN2004

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 1 x 2 hour seminar (x10 weeks)

Scheduled learning hours: 20

Guided independent study hours: 260

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: Coursework - 100%


Re-assessment: Coursework - 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Professor M Connolly
Module teaching staff: Prof Margaret Connolly
Module coordinator email mc29@st-andrews.ac.uk

Intended learning outcomes

  • read, understand, and comment on a wide range of later medieval texts
  • analyse Middle English verse and prose through advanced close reading skills
  • develop oral and written communication skills through independent learning and in-class work
  • appreciate the pervasive influence of the natural world on medieval English literature
  • bring a more informed historical perspective to contemporary discussions of the environment and climate change