Module Provider: |
English |
Number of credits: |
20 [10 ECTS credits] |
Level: |
H (Honours) |
Terms in which taught: |
Spring |
Module Convenor: |
Dr
E
Heale |
Pre-requisites: |
|
Co-requisites: |
|
Modules excluded: |
|
Current from: |
2005/6 |
Aims:
This module is designed to provide students with a knowledge of some of the wealth of travel writing in English in the sixteenth century, together with an appreciation of some of the key issues in the geographical expansion of the period, and the ways in which that expansion was recorded in writing. Students will acquire the ability to analyse a selection of texts, and to appraise the roles of these texts within the larger enterprise of English overseas expansion. |
Assessable learning outcomes:
By the end of the module students will be expected to:
demonstrate a knowledge of a selection of travel writing from the period
identify some of the ways in which the texts interrelate with the enterprise and ideologies of overseas expansion
analyse and discuss the various rhetorical strategies used in the texts
organize and articulate a coherent written argument |
Additional outcomes:
|
Outline content:
Students are introduced to some of the extraordinarily rich travel writing from the Elizabethan period. Texts are largely drawn from the Penguin selection from Hakluyt, augmented by additional xeroxed prose and poetry. Attention will particularly focus on such topics as the role writing played in promoting and justifying particular expeditions; the construction of Englishness and the idea of the foreign in the texts studied; the role of gender in such constructions; the significance of rivalry with Spain and Portugal in overseas expansion; and the importance of style, from epic to 'log-book' prose, in shaping written accounts. |
Brief description of teaching
and learning methods:
Teaching is conducted through weekly two-hour seminars, requiring preparatory reading and sometimes research. Most seminars will be introduced by short discussion papers, usually given by students, and individual tutorial feedback is provided on the coursework essay. |
Contact hours:
| |
Autumn |
Spring |
Summer |
| Lectures |
|
|
|
| Tutorials/seminars |
|
16.5 |
|
| Practicals |
|
|
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| Other contact (eg study visits) |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
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| Total hours |
|
16.5 |
|
| |
|
|
|
| Number of essays or assignments |
|
1
|
1
|
| Other (eg major seminar paper) |
|
|
|
|
Assessment:
Coursework:
Students write one non-assessed piece of work (up to 1500 words), and submit a single Assessed Essay or other equivalent project (maximum 5000 words) for formal assessment in place of an examination.
Relative percentage of coursework: Assessed Essay/Project 100%
Examinations
None
Requirements for a pass
An average mark of 40%
Reassessment arrangements
Awaiting Faculty policy |
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