Undergraduate - UnitATS2915 - The roots of fantasy

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	English
Offered	Not offered in 2013
Coordinator(s)	Patrick Spedding

Synopsis

The unit is designed to introduce students to the origins of modern high fantasy via a range of major English texts selected to illustrate the range and popularity of fantastic literature from the early-Modern to the late-Modern period. The course will include a selection of texts that develop elaborate mythological (Classical and British) and supernatural machinery texts representing an idealised and imagined past, heroic romance and adventure, folk tale and fairy literature

Outcomes

Students successfully completing this subject will be able to identify:

key characteristics of fantasy;
the historical development, and the range of historical manifestations, of fantasy;
the literary, social and cultural roots, and the impact, of fantasy;
key critical debates concerning a range of fantasy genres;
the relevance of these debates to the course-texts as well as to modern works of high fantasy.

Students successfully completing this subject will also be able to:

argue their interpretations clearly and persuasively in oral and essay form;
communicate fruitfully in discussion;
demonstrate skill in identifying and using a range of original texts, scholarly editions and digital archives.

Assessment

Written work (2250 words): 50%
Test (1 hour, 1800 words): 40%
Tutorial participation (450 words): 10%

Chief examiner(s)

Patrick Spedding

Contact hours

One 1-hour lecture per week
One 1-hour tutorial per week

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Comparative literature and cultural studies
English
Literary studies (Literatures in English and Creative Writing streams)

Prerequisites

A first-year sequence in Literary Studies, English or Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies