UNIVERSITY OF KENT – CODE OF PRACTICE FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE
MODULE SPECIFICATION TEMPLATE
1
The title of the module
John Milton
2
The Department which will be responsible for management of the module
English
3
The Start Date of the Module
September 2009
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The number of students expected to take the module
16
5
Modules to be withdrawn on the introduction of this proposed module and consultation with
other relevant Departments and Faculties regarding the withdrawal
None
6
The level of the module (eg Certificate [C], Intermediate [I], Honours [H] or Postgraduate
[M])
Level H
7
The number of credits which the module represents
30
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Which term(s) the module is to be taught in (or other teaching pattern)
Autumn or Spring
9
Prerequisite and co-requisite modules
None
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The programmes of study to which the module contributes
English BA
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The intended subject-specific learning outcomes and, as appropriate, their relationship to
programme learning outcomes
Students will:

read and respond to the selected works of John Milton through close study

explore a variety of materials, both literary and non-literary, textual and visual,
alongside Milton’s works and assess the relationships between them

read the set texts within their relevant historical, literary and cultural contexts

gain familiarity with the literary styles and language of the seventeenth century and
with the major historical, political, and religious upheavals of the period

examine recent critical trends in Milton Studies

both apply and interrogate critical and theoretical strategies appropriate to
interdisciplinary study
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The intended generic learning outcomes and, as appropriate, their relationship to programme
learning outcomes
UNIVERSITY OF KENT – CODE OF PRACTICE FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE
Students will:

develop their abilities to analyse texts critically and make comparisons across a
range of reading

develop their command of written and spoken English and their abilities to articulate
coherent critical arguments

understand and interrogate various critical approaches and the theoretical
assumptions that underpin these approaches
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
develop their abilities to carry out independent research

develop their presentational skills
A synopsis of the curriculum
The course allows for in-depth study of the selected works of John Milton in relation to the
political, religious and literary culture of the seventeenth century. In a period of
unprecedented conflict and upheaval in which literature and society were transformed in
previously unimaginable ways, Milton’s writings demonstrate the powerful and inexorable
links between literature and the contexts – cultural, political, social, religious – from which it
emerges and with which it engages. Reading Milton’s major poetry and searing works of
political prose alongside non-literary texts and sources of all kinds (political, historical,
philosophical etc), we will examine the ways in which, as a writer of revolution, Milton both
reflects and shapes his society in a “world turned upside down”.
The course is structured around those ideas and discourses with which Milton engages and
to which he contributes throughout his works, both poetry and prose. Taking a thematic
approach to Milton’s writings and their contexts, we will consider ideas of imitation and
inspiration, education, gender and marriage, authorship and authority, kingship and rule,
terrorism and political activism, reading Milton’s writings alongside a range of textual and
visual material which is intended to represent the diversity of contemporary thought.
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Indicative Reading List
Select Primary Reading
Orgel, Stephen and Jonathan Goldberg (eds), John Milton: The Major Works, (Oxford, 1991)
- including a selection of the prose works (e.g. divorce tracts, Areopagitica, Eikonoklastes,
The Readie and Easie Way), Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes
Extracts from:
The Grand Remonstrance (1641)
Mercurius Politicus (1649-)
Charles I, Eikon Basilike, The Pourtrature of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and
Sufferings (1649)
Edwards, Thomas Gangraena (1646)
UNIVERSITY OF KENT – CODE OF PRACTICE FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE
Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan (1651)
Gouge, William, Of Domesticall Duties (1622)
Hutchinson, Lucy, Order and Disorder (1679)
Parker, Henry, The Case of the Shipmony Briefly Discoursed (1642)
Winstanley, Gerrard, The Law of Freedom on a Platform (1652)
Select Secondary Reading
Achinstein, Sharon, Milton and the Revolutionary Reader (Princeton, 1994)
Armitage, David, Armand Himy and Quentin Skinner (eds), Milton and Republicanism
(Cambridge UP, 1995)
Brown, Cedric, John Milton: A Literary Life (London, 1995)
Cable, Lana, Carnal Rhetoric: Milton’s Iconoclasm and the Poetics of Desire (London, 1995)
Corns, Thomas (ed.), A Companion to Milton (Oxford, 2001)
Danielson, Dennis (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Milton (Cambridge, 1989)
Empson, William, Milton’s God (London, (1961)
Fish, Stanley, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in ‘Paradise Lost', 2nd edn. (Harvard, 1998)
Gimelli Martin, Catherine (ed.), Milton and Gender (Cambridge, 2004)
Haskin, Dayton, Milton's Burden of Interpretation (U of Pennsylvania P, 1994)
Hill, Christopher, Milton and the English Revolution (Faber & Faber, 1977)
---, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution (London,
1972)
Loewenstein, David, Representing Revolution in Milton and his Contemporaries (Cambridge,
2001)
Norbrook, David, Writing the English Republic: Poetry, Rhetoric and Politics, 1627-1660
(Cambridge, 1999)
Raymond, Joad, Pamphlets and Pamphleteering in Early Modern Britain (Cambridge, 2003)
Sharpe, Kevin, Reading Revolutions (Yale, 2000)
Turner, James Grantham, One Flesh: Paradisal Marriage and Sexual Relations in the Age
of Milton (1987)
Worden, Blair, Literature and Revolution in Cromwellian England (Oxford, 2007)
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Learning and Teaching Methods, including the nature and number of contact hours and the
total study hours which will be expected of students, and how these relate to achievement
of the intended learning outcomes
The module will be taught by ten weekly two-hour seminars and up to 5 one-hour lectures.
Students will be expected to study for about 20 hours per week. There will be the
opportunity for individual consultation about essays. Seminars will include opportunities for
small group work, informal presentations and free discussion. Students will be encouraged
to work in small groups (of three or four) to prepare a formal presentation to the seminar
group.
UNIVERSITY OF KENT – CODE OF PRACTICE FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE
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Assessment methods and how these relate to testing achievement of the intended learning
outcomes
The module will be assessed by two essays of 2500-3000 words each (90%) and seminar
performance (10%). Students may choose to write three essays and submit the best two for
examination. These essays will be equally weighted.
Both the learning and teaching and assessment methods relate closely to the intended
learning outcomes. They will encourage student-centred exploration and discussion of
primary and secondary materials in both their essays and their seminar contributions.
Students will develop their presentation skills (written and spoken) and their capacity for
independent research.
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Implications for learning resources, including staff, library, IT and space
The Templeman Library is well supplied with copies of most of the texts required to support
this course; the cost of any additional purchases required is not expected to be onerous. It
is hoped that the rarer or less-accessible texts to be read alongside Milton’s works can be
made available in an inexpensive course booklet or, preferably, via Moodle. The course
would be taught by Dr Rosanna Cox.
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A statement confirming that, as far as can be reasonably anticipated, the curriculum,
learning and teaching methods and forms of assessment do not present any non-justifiable
disadvantage to students with disabilities.
The needs of any students with disabilities will be fully taken into account when planning
off-campus study visits. As far as can reasonably be anticipated, the curriculum, learning
and teaching methods and forms of assessment do not present any non-justifiable
disadvantage to students with disabilities.