Module manager: Dr Catherine Batt
Email: c.j.batt@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
This module is not approved as an Elective
This module invites you to explore the immense range of Arthurian legend, and to reflect on the nature of its appeal, in works of the imagination including chronicle, romance, novels, children’s literature, satire, poetry and film. Through the medieval corpus and its postmedieval legacy, you will appreciate how this literature enriches and informs European and broader cultures aesthetically, politically and ethically. Please note this is an optional module and runs subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose this module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.
On completion of this module, students will have gained an overview of, and be able to determine relations between, some key medieval and modern texts in the Arthurian corpus, engaging with questions of cultural perspectives, medievalism, translation, narrative structure, form and genre, chivalric ethics, violence, masculinities, national identity, gender, sexual politics, the applicability of modern literary theory to medieval and post-medieval texts.
On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of important Arthurian texts and their cultural contexts.
2. Compare and reflect on the range of media and genres by means of which medieval and postmedieval subjects construct the past and their present, and how their choice of medium/ genre shapes that construction.
3. Evaluate and engage productively with critical, theoretical and cultural approaches to the material, including medievalism as a political force.
4. Appreciate the creative importance of translation, linguistic, between cultures and across time.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
1. Conduct independent research, analysing and evaluating primary and secondary sources.
2. Engage in good academic practice in terms of literature searching, referencing, critical thinking and academic writing.
3. Reflect on your own development and practice, and the modern relevance of literary studies.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fieldwork | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Seminar | 10 | 2 | 20 |
| Private study hours | 278 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 22 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 300 | ||
Formative feedback will be provided in weekly seminars; the first assessment will be formative for the second.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Written work | 30 |
| Coursework | Conference paper | 70 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 03/03/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team