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Semester 2

Death and Dying in Late Medieval Literature (ENLI10387)

Subject

English Literature

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 4 English Literature courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses, and we do not consider civilisation & other interdisciplinary courses, freshman seminars, writing/composition courses or film/cinema/media courses; visiting students who have taken multiple courses in literature in other languages, should have passed at least two courses in English Literature as well. **Please note that this course may incur additional costs to purchase core texts** **Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

What is death? Who am I when I am dead? Death is an experience of central importance both to individuals and the cultures in which they live. This course examines some of the key ways in which late medieval writing depicted and explored the nature of dying

Course Description

Fear of death and what would come afterwards haunted writers throughout the Middle Ages. The idea of perpetual torment in hell was a real fear during the period, confirmed through artwork and literature. But death was not only experienced and vocalised in theological terms. Death was also an intensely human experience of pain, loss and consolation, which raised questions about being remembered, forgotten, or misremembered as much as it probed the nature of the relationship between earthly and the divine. In negotiating this relationship between life and death, late medieval literature and culture appropriated death and dying as a means to affirm artistic, social, and political identities. Throughout the course we will consider the ways in which literary depictions of death, dying and the dead are used to ask questions about identity, gender, illness, faith, emotion and, not least, the place of the dead in the culture of the living.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on an English Literature exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in one 3rd year English Literature course each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a second course from this group will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the January Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed, and students will not be permitted to enrol in three 3rd year English Literature courses in the same semester at any time. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

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