HENA01142U Engelsk - Valgfag 4: Epic: Heroic and Moch-Heroic

Kursusbeskrivelsen dækker både Valgfag 4, emne og Valgfag 4, sprogfærdighed, idet begge er integreret i et undervisningsforløb. Den studerende vælger ét blandt de udbudte kurser inden for de tre geografisk bestemte områder amerikanske studier, postkoloniale studier, britisk litteratur, historie og samfundsforhold eller sprogvidenskab.

Heroic and Mock-Heroic

In this course we will study the features of the epic tradition with their transformations in line with cultural and social change. This will include such topics as the primary oral epic and the secondary written epic, the forms of writing and the influence of translations of classical epics, the nature of the hero and heroism, and the community of the epic with its values and types of knowledge. The study of these rather abstract topics will be pinned to specific passages from Beowulf, The Faery Queene, Paradise Lost, The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad and Derek Walcott’s post-colonial Omeros; the passages will mainly present monsters, either monstrous figures of evil such as Grendel in Beowulf and Sin in Paradise Lost or else the monstrous and absurd mock heroes or deities in the later satirical tradition. All texts studied, except that from Omeros, are in the Norton Anthology Volume 1. A high level of student participation is presupposed. Students will be expected to work together in researching and presenting different aspects of and approaches to the various texts.