LT171-4-SP-CO:
Introduction to European Literature
2024/25
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 4
Current
Monday 13 January 2025
Friday 21 March 2025
15
22 March 2022
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
This module introduces students to major European writers. The works selected are novels, novellas, short stories and plays, all of which are significant on a European scale because they sparked particular movements, or were representative of crucial moments in literary innovation.
Works are studied in a chronological order to convey the development of literary genres, forms, styles, contents and ideas. Ranging across German, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian literatures, the module explores how authors from different nations contributed to a larger sense of European literature.
Although the texts are studied in translation, students wishing to read them in the original language are welcome to do so. Students are also encouraged to compare different translations of the same work.
The aims of this module are:
1. to provide students with an introduction and overview of a selection of major European writers
2. to enable students to develop a critical understanding of the role of key European works in sparking or representing particular movements or crucial moments in literary innovation.
3. to provide students with an understanding of the development of European literary genres, forms, styles, contents and ideas.
After successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. identify major European writers and works which had a significant impact on the development of European literature
2. critically appraise and evaluate the role of the selected European works in contributing towards literary innovation.
3. have a chronological understanding of the development of key European literary genres, forms, styles, contents and ideas
4. investigate, compare and critically evaluate the ways in which different European authors have contributed to a larger sense of European literature.
General Reading:
1. Dante’s Vita Nuova trans. By Mark Musa Oxford University
Press, 2008.
2. Jean Racine, Phèdre, Dual Language Edition, trans. Margaret Rawlings (London: Penguin, 1992)..
4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther, trans. David Constantine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)
6. Emile Zola, Thérèse Raquin (1867), translated by Adam Thorpe (Vintage Classics, 2014)
7. Nikolai Gogol, 'The Nose' (1835-36), 'The Overcoat' (1842), in The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (London: Granta Books, 2003 and later editions)
9. Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis (1915), trans. and ed. Stanley Corngold (Norton Critical Edition) (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996 and later editions)
10. Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) a selection from
https://www.poetsofmodernity.xyz/POMBR/Russian/Akhmatova.php
11. Federico Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba (1936) trans. By Gwynne Edwards Methuen Drama Modern Plays, 2007.
Poetry from Lorca: ‘Dance of Death’ from Poet in New York
12. Simone de Beauvoir, The Woman Destroyed (1967) trans. by Patrick O’Brian Harper Perennial, 2009.
Anticipated teaching delivery: Weekly 2-hour class
- Gogol, Nikolai Vasil'evich. (1995) Overcoat and the Nose: Penguin Books.
- Cohn, J. (no date) ''Don't Trust Anybody, Not Even Us': Kafka's Realism as Anarchist Modernism', in Studies In Twentieth And Twenty-First Century Literature. vol. 35 (2) , pp.295-315
- David F. Bell. (no date) '"Thérèse Raquin": Scientific Realism in Zola's Laboratory', in Nineteenth-Century French Studies: University of Nebraska Press.
- Greenfield, Sumner M. (1955-12) 'Poetry and Stagecraft in La casa de Bernarda Alba', in Hispania. vol. 38 (4) , pp.456-
- (2008) Vita Nuova, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Garcia Lorca, Federico; Edwards, Gwynne. (2007) House of Bernarda Alba, London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
- Kafka. (2010) Metamorphosis, Beijing: People's Literature Publishing House.
- Lépine, Jacques-Jude. (1994) 'Phaedra's Labyrinth as the Paradigm of Passion: Racine's Aesthetic Formulation of Mimetic Desire', in Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture. vol. 1 (1) , pp.47-62
- Zola, Émile; Thorpe, Adam. (2014) Thérèse Raquin, London: Vintage Classic.
- Petrarch. (2006) Canzoniere: Carcanet Press.
- Alexandra K. Harrington. (2013) 'MELODRAMA, FEELING, AND EMOTION IN THE EARLY POETRY OF ANNA AKHMATOVA', in The Modern Language Review. vol. 108 (1) , pp.241-
- Le Doeuff, Michèle. (2010-03) 'Beauvoir the Mythoclast', in Paragraph. vol. 33 (1) , pp.90-104
- Beitchman, Philip. (©2011) The theatre of naturalism: disappearing act, New York: Peter Lang. vol. v. 185
- De Beauvoir, Simone. (2009) The Woman Destroyed: Harper Perennial.
- Hattingh, Herselmann. (1995) 'Being and the dialectics of irony: A reading of some of Milan Kundera's novels', in Literator. vol. 16 (2) , pp.95-121
- Racine, Jean; Rawlings, Margaret. (1991) Phèdre, New York: Penguin Books. vol. Penguin classics
- Dolske, Gwendolyn. (2014-02-17) 'Existential Destruction: de Beauvoir's Fictional Portrayal of Woman's Situation', in Women's Studies. vol. 43 (2) , pp.155-169
- Picone, Michelangelo. (1998) 'Theories Of Love And The Lyric Tradition From Dante's "Vita Nuova" To Petrarch's "Canzoniere', in Romance Notes. vol. 39 (1) , pp.83-93
- García Lorca, Federico; Maurer, Christopher; Brown, Catherine. (2002) Collected poems, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Mann, Thomas. (2009) Tonio Krger: Echo Library.
- Kafka, Franz; Hofmann, Michael. (©2017) The burrow: posthumously published short fiction, [London], UK: Penguin Classics.
- Akhmatova, Anna Andreevna; Thomas, D. M. (2009) Selected poems, London: Vintage Classic.
- Gillespie, Gerald. (1992) 'Mann and the Modernist Tradition', in Approaches to teaching Mann's Death in Venice and other short fiction, New York: Modern Language Association of America. vol. Approaches to teaching world literature
- (2012) 'Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832): The German Bildungsroman', in The Cambridge companion to European novelists, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Cornwell, Neil. (2006) 'Chapter 7 'Kafka: Otherness in the labyrynth of the absurdity'', in Absurd in Literature, Manchester: Manchester University Press., pp.184-198
- Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von; Constantine, David. (2012) The sorrows of young Werther, New York: Oxford University Press. vol. Oxford world's classics
- Shephard, R. (1989) 'Tonio Kröger and Der Tod in Venedig: From Bourgeois Realism to Visionary Modernism'', in Oxford German Studies. (18-19) , pp.92-108
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students. Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Formative: Essay Plan and Introduction |
|
0% |
| Coursework |
Academic Portfolio (2x 500 word text analysis plus 2,000 word Essay) |
|
95% |
| Practical |
Participation |
|
5% |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Mary Mazzilli, email: m.mazzilli@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Mary Mazzilli
LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk.
Telephone 01206 872626
Yes
Yes
Yes
Dr Doug Haynes
University of Sussex
Reader in American Literature and Visual Culture
Available via Moodle
Of 22 hours, 22 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.
Disclaimer: The University makes every effort to ensure that this information on its Module Directory is accurate and up-to-date. Exceptionally it can
be necessary to make changes, for example to programmes, modules, facilities or fees. Examples of such reasons might include a change of law or regulatory requirements,
industrial action, lack of demand, departure of key personnel, change in government policy, or withdrawal/reduction of funding. Changes to modules may for example consist
of variations to the content and method of delivery or assessment of modules and other services, to discontinue modules and other services and to merge or combine modules.
The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will also keep students informed appropriately by updating our programme specifications and module directory.
The full Procedures, Rules and Regulations of the University governing how it operates are set out in the Charter, Statutes and Ordinances and in the University Regulations, Policy and Procedures.