University of Essex

LT171-4-AU-CO:
Introduction to European Literature

PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.

The details

Year: 2023/24

Department: Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies

Campus: Colchester Campus

Term: Autumn

Level: Undergraduate: Level 4

Status: Inactive

Start date: Thursday 05 October 2023

End date: Friday 15 December 2023

Credits: 15

Last updated: 22 March 2022

Requisites for this module

Pre-requisites: (none)

Co-requisites: (none)

Pre and / or co-requisites: (none)

Prohibited modules: (none)

Key module (requisite for): (none)

Key module for

(none)

Module description

This module introduces students to major European writers. The works selected are novels, novellas, short stories and plays, all of which are significant on a European scale because they sparked particular movements, or were representative of crucial moments in literary innovation.

Works are studied in a chronological order to convey the development of literary genres, forms, styles, contents and ideas. Ranging across German, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian literatures, the module explores how authors from different nations contributed to a larger sense of European literature.

Although the texts are studied in translation, students wishing to read them in the original language are welcome to do so. Students are also encouraged to compare different translations of the same work.

Module aims

The aims of this module are:

1. to provide students with an introduction and overview of a selection of major European writers

2. to enable students to develop a critical understanding of the role of key European works in sparking or representing particular movements or crucial moments in literary innovation.

3. to provide students with an understanding of the development of European literary genres, forms, styles, contents and ideas.

Module learning outcomes

After successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. identify major European writers and works which had a significant impact on the development of European literature

2. critically appraise and evaluate the role of the selected European works in contributing towards literary innovation.

3. have a chronological understanding of the development of key European literary genres, forms, styles, contents and ideas

4. investigate, compare and critically evaluate the ways in which different European authors have contributed to a larger sense of European literature.

Module information

General Reading:

1. Dante’s Vita Nuova trans. By Mark Musa Oxford University
Press, 2008.
2. Jean Racine, Phèdre, Dual Language Edition, trans. Margaret Rawlings (London: Penguin, 1992)..
4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther, trans. David Constantine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)

6. Emile Zola, Thérèse Raquin (1867), translated by Adam Thorpe (Vintage Classics, 2014)
7. Nikolai Gogol, 'The Nose' (1835-36), 'The Overcoat' (1842), in The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (London: Granta Books, 2003 and later editions)
9. Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis (1915), trans. and ed. Stanley Corngold (Norton Critical Edition) (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996 and later editions)
10. Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) a selection from
https://www.poetsofmodernity.xyz/POMBR/Russian/Akhmatova.php
11. Federico Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba (1936) trans. By Gwynne Edwards Methuen Drama Modern Plays, 2007.
Poetry from Lorca: ‘Dance of Death’ from Poet in New York
12. Simone de Beauvoir, The Woman Destroyed (1967) trans. by Patrick O’Brian Harper Perennial, 2009.

Learning and teaching methods

Anticipated teaching delivery: Weekly 2-hour class

Bibliography

Dante Alighieri and Musa, M. (2008) Vita nuova. First published as a World’s Classics paperback 1992. Reissued as an Oxford World's Classics paperback 1999. Reissued 2008. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1909140.
Petrarca, F. and Nichols, J.G. (2000) Canzoniere. Manchester: Carcanet. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1059238.
Picone, M. (1998) ‘Theories Of Love And The Lyric Tradition From Dante’s “Vita Nuova” To Petrarch’s "Canzoniere’, Romance Notes, 39(1). Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43802930?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
Racine, J. (2001) ‘Phedra’, in Phedra. Nick Hern Books. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781784603397.10000016.
Lépine, J.-J. (1994) ‘Phaedra’s Labyrinth as the Paradigm of Passion: Racine's Aesthetic Formulation of Mimetic Desire’, Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, 1(1), pp. 47–62. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/392421/pdf.
Goethe, J.W. von and Constantine, D. (2012) The sorrows of young Werther. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2245681&site=ehost-live.
Swales, M. (2012) ‘Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832): The German Bildungsroman’, in M. Bell (ed.) The Cambridge companion to European novelists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 124–139. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521515047.009.
Zola, É. and Thorpe, A. (2014) Thérèse Raquin. London: Vintage Classic. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=358947.
Bell, D.F. (1995) ‘Thérèse Raquin: Scientific Realism in Zola’s Laboratory’, Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 24(1/2), pp. 122–132. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23536931.
Beitchman, P. (no date) The theatre of naturalism: disappearing act. New York: Peter Lang. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3029760.
Gogolo, N.V. (1995) The overcoat and the nose. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?docID=4499602.
Kafka, F. and Corngold, S. (1996) The metamorphosis: translation, backgrounds and contexts, criticism. New York: W.W. Norton. Available at: https://app.kortext.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp0.essex.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https://app.kortext.com/borrow/160910.
Kafka, F. and Hofmann, M. (2017) The burrow: posthumously published short fiction. [London], UK: Penguin Classics. Available at: https://app.kortext.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp0.essex.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https://app.kortext.com/borrow/606566.
Cornwell, N. (2006) ‘Franz Kafka: Otherness in the labyrynth of the absurdity’, in Absurd in Literature. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 184–198. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=515050&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_184.
Akhmatova, Anna (1889–1966) - Selected Poems in translation (no date). Available at: https://www.poetsofmodernity.xyz/POMBR/Russian/Akhmatova.php.
Alexandra K. Harrington (2013) ‘Melodrama, Feeling, And Emotion In The Early Poetry Of Anna Akhmatova’, The Modern Language Review, Vol. 108, No. 1 (January 2013), pp. 241-273 (33 pages) [Preprint]. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/modelangrevi.108.1.0241?sid=primo.
García Lorca, F. et al. (2002) Collected poems. Revised bilingual edition. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Garcia Lorca, F. et al. (2007) House of Bernarda Alba. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. Available at: https://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/playtext-overview?docid=do-9781784602222&tocid=do-9781784602222-div-00000005.
Greenfield, S.M. (1955) ‘Poetry and Stagecraft in La casa de Bernarda Alba’, Hispania, 38(4). Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/335325.
Beauvoir, S. de (2006) The woman destroyed. London: Harper Perennial. Available at: https://app.kortext.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp0.essex.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https://app.kortext.com/borrow/2032154.
Dolske, G. (2014) ‘Existential Destruction: de Beauvoir’s Fictional Portrayal of Woman's Situation’, Women’s Studies, 43(2), pp. 155–169. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.2014.863104.
Le Doeuff, M. (2010) ‘Beauvoir the Mythoclast’, Paragraph, 33(1), pp. 90–104. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43151797.

The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam	Description	Deadline	Coursework weighting

Exam format definitions

Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework	Exam
100%	0%

Reassessment

Coursework	Exam
100%	0%

Module supervisor and teaching staff

Supervisor: Dr Mary Mazzilli, email: m.mazzilli@essex.ac.uk.

Teaching staff: Dr Mary Mazzilli

Contact details: LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk. Telephone 01206 872626

Availability

Available to incoming Essex Abroad / Exchange students: Yes

Available to Outside Option: Yes

Available to Audit: Yes

External examiner

Name: Dr Doug Haynes

Institution: University of Sussex

Academic role: Reader in American Literature and Visual Culture

Resources

Teaching materials: Available via Moodle

Lecture recording: No lecture recording information available for this module.

Further information

Department website: Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies

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Module Directory

LT171-4-AU-CO:Introduction to European Literature