THE FIRST-YEAR MODULE
The First-Year English module is designed with the following aims in mind:
 to introduce students to a range of texts, periods and topics in literature and film;
 to prepare them for the study of English literature, language and film to degree level;
 to provide a coherent course in English which is of interest to all First Arts students.
The module offers a varied and stimulating introduction to literature and culture in the English
language. There is a focus on genre: fiction, poetry, drama, and film form and technique. We
also introduce medieval literature and, in translation, Old English literature. An important
module aim is to help you improve your skills in communication while you read and study
literary texts: the tutorial work especially focuses on this, via essay writing throughout the year.
During the course you will be introduced to the following:
 the study of selected poems from the Renaissance and the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries;
 the interpretation of fiction by Bronte, Wilde, Joyce and McCullers;
 the interpretation of plays from the Renaissance and the modern periods;
 the study of medieval literature and society;
 the study of film.
SECTIONS OF THE FIRST-YEAR MODULE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Essay Writing and Discussion of Text and Film
Foundations of Critical Practice
Poetry
Drama
Fiction
Medieval Literature and Society
1.
Essay Writing and Discussion of Text and Film (VC, OM and tutors)
Students are assigned to small tutorial groups, meeting weekly, where a tutor directs them in
discussing literature and film, and in writing critical essays on the set texts. These essays count
for 20% of your final marks. Some are about Foundations of Critical Practice (see No.2
below), and others on selected texts and topics from other parts of the First-Year module.
Required Textbook for Essay Writing
Peck, John, and Martin Coyle. The Student's Guide to Writing: Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling.
Houndmills: Palgrave, 1999.
Required for First-Year students, this book provides helpful and clear advice on how to write
accurately and effectively. Your tutor may refer you to specific sections to help you improve your
writing.
2.
Foundations of Critical Practice (AD, BM, JG, AG)
Lectures in this part of the module look at the basic elements of four genres: film, poetry,
fiction and drama. We introduce the main critical techniques required for successful analysis
of these fundamental genres. All the text booklets and explanatory guides for this section may
be bought from the School of English office.
3.
Poetry (PC, LJ)
This part of the module introduces the study of poetry and the skills necessary to understand and
discuss it, focusing on language, forms, and traditions. We read in detail a selection of poems,
discussing their themes, forms and role in the surrounding culture of the relevant periods.
Required texts:
A booklet containing these is available to buy from the School of English office.
4.
Drama (AE, JG)
This part of the module explores drama as a genre, from the Renaissance to the modern theatre
experience. It looks at the creative vitality expressed in the Elizabethan eras, in Shakespeare’s
plays and the theatre of the 1950-60s. The texts will allow us to explore the Shakespearean and
modern notions of both tragedy and comedy.
Required texts:




Ionesco, Eugene. The Bald Prima Donna.
Osborne, John. Look Back in Anger.
Pinter, Harold. The Caretaker.
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet.
5.
Fiction (EW, MO’C)
This part of the module aims to introduce the study of fiction from both formal and thematic
perspectives. It discusses in detail two narrative texts by Irish writers, one from the late
nineteenth and one from the early twentieth century, and two texts by women writers, one a
British novel from the nineteenth century, and one a twentieth-century American novel.
Required texts:
 Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Norton Critical Edition. Ed. M. Gillespie.
(New York: Norton, 2006).
 Joyce, James. Dubliners. Ed. T. Brown. (Penguin 1992).
 Bronte, Charlotte. Vilette. (Oxford paperback, 2008)
 McCullers, Carson. The Member of the Wedding. (Penguin Modern Classics, 2001)
Other material will be available to purchase from the School office.
6.
Medieval Literature and Society (a) and (b)
This part of the module acts as an introduction to the variety of medieval literature, studied in its
social setting and with reference to the visual arts of the period.
(a)
Old English (TB): the literature written in English between 700 and 1200 A.D.
This course introduces students to the study of Old English poetry (in translation) and to the
culture that produced it. We examine the major themes of Old English literature – heroes, the
monstrous, women, exile, power and glory – and apply critical skills to a selected body of texts.
Image, symbol, language and theme are all included in analysis of these works. The texts are also
placed within their broader cultural context and related to the art, history and material culture of
Anglo-Saxon and early Norman England.
Required texts:
Treharne, E. M., ed., Old and Middle English c.890-c.1450: An Anthology. Third Edition (Oxford:
Blackwell, 2010)
Donoghue, D., ed., and S. Heaney, tr., Beowulf: A Verse Translation (London: Norton, 2002)
These editions will provide the basis for any Old English courses in the School (First to
Third Year).
Recommended Reading:
Allard, J. & R. North, Beowulf and Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English (London:
Longman, 2007).
Orchard, Andy. A Companion to Beowulf (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2003).
(b)
Middle English (KR): the literature written in English between 1200 and about
1500
Later medieval English writing is marked by a profusion of texts, audiences and concerns. It is
also marked, crucially, by linguistic change – so much so that we can easily read Middle English
texts in their original language with only light glossing of unfamiliar words. In this part of the
course we concentrate on fourteenth- and fifteenth-century writing, and encounter the literature
of entertainment and instruction in a range of genres and modes: romance, lyric, satire, vision,
and biography. In addition to anonymous writing, we will encounter the first known authors in
English (both female and male) and the earliest surviving music set to English words. Extracts
are selected to show the exciting variety of later medieval writing, and how it can respond
provocatively and entertainingly to the social and intellectual concerns of its day.
Required text:
Treharne, E. M., ed., Old and Middle English c.890-c.1450: An Anthology. Third edition
(Oxford: Blackwell, 2010).