106-015 Backgrounds to English Literature

This subject may be included in a major in classics or classical studies and archaeology.

Usually 25 points of first year English, see Prerequisites.

This subject examines a range of Classical and Christian works to establish how and why they have been influential in Western literature and thought. Students who complete this subject successfully will have read a representative range of Classical literature (representing epic, mythology, elegy, pastoral, satire, theology, literary theory); will have studied several books of the Bible and been introduced to various schools of interpretation (from Patristic to modern times); and will have investigated the many ways in which Classical and biblical writings have influenced western thought and literature over the past two millennia.

• have the ability to develop critical self-awareness and the capacity to shape persuasive arguments;

• have the ability to apply research skills (especially in library and online resources) and critical methods to an emerging field of inquiry;

• have the ability to communicate arguments and ideas effectively and articulately, both in writing and in group discussions;

• have made detailed readings of a range of texts in different media;

• have the ability to think critically about the relations between academic and popular forms of knowledge of the past.

An essay of 2000 words 50% (due mid-semester) and a second essay of 2000 words 50% (due at the end of the semester). Students are required to attend a minimum of 80% of classes in order to qualify to have their written work assessed.

A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop.

• Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Confessions. Penguin.
• The Bible. (with Apocrypha) OUP/CUP.
• Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy. Bobbs-Merrill or Penguin.
• Horace and Persius, Satires. Penguin.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses. Penguin.
• Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus. Norton.
• Virgil, Eclogues and Georgics. Oxford.
• Virgil, Aeneid. Oxford.
• Classical Literary Criticism. Penguin.
• Myths from Mesopatamia. Oxford World's Classics.
• Juvenal, Satires. Penguin.