EL2512: THE TRAGEDY OF KNOWLEDGE
Course Guide:: Handbook:: Good Writing Guide:: Reading List :: MyAberdeen
CREDIT POINTS 30
Course Co-ordinator: Dr T C Baker
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in Programme Year 2 or above who have passed 30 credit points in Level 1 English courses.
How do we know what we know? Are our lives shaped by our own efforts and learning, or are we subject to forces we cannot control? Does the acquisition of knowledge carry tragic consequences? Such questions have reverberated throughout literary history. Looking at a wide range of texts from ancient to modern, and including poems, plays, and novels, this course will introduce students to some of the central ethical and intellectual concerns found in literature, as well as providing a solid cross-period foundation for further study. Besides literary expressions of the Fall such as Milton's Paradise Lost, the course features reworkings of the Faust and Prometheus legends, including texts by authors such as Aeschylus, Marlowe, Mary Shelley and Angela Carter.
2 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week
1st attempt: 1 two-hour examination (50%); in course assessment: first essay (1,500 words) 15%, second essay (1,800 words) (20%), one reflective exercise (5%); tutorial assessment mark (10%).
Resit:1 two-hour written examination (100%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Students will keep a weekly course journal which will not be given a CAS mark, but will be taken into consideration as part of tutorial assessment.
Summative assessments will be given CAS marks, and written or verbal feedback will be provided. Additional informal feedback on performance and tutorial participation is also given in tutorials.