Romance was the most popular secular literary genre in the Middle Ages, offering audiences of both women and men exciting narratives of adventure and travel, true love, knightly quests, chivalric combat, courageous princesses and spellbinding sorcery. With a penchant for the fantastical – featuring plenty of magic and monsters, from giants and dragons to unicorns and women with serpents’ tails – medieval romances also investigated pressing real-world issues, asking questions about gender roles, agency, family and race, and probing conflicts of loyalty and identity.

We will explore the thematic possibilities of this imaginative and interrogative genre through a selection of the best verse and prose romances in Middle English, such as Sir Launfal, Emaré, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur, Melusine, The Squire of Low Degree and Sir Isumbras. Our focus will embrace matters of identity – such as chivalry, gender and monstrosity – as well as magic and the supernatural, friendship, love, emotions, ethics, parody and heroism. The texts will also be illuminated in relation to their literary, social and historical contexts.

This module is suitable both for students who have never studied medieval literature and for those who already have some familiarity with Middle English. Guidance will be given on reading texts in the original Middle English.

• demonstrate an ability to analyse the set texts closely and in terms of their contemporary contexts.
• assess the texts in relation to key ideas such as gender, emotions, chivalry, monstrosity and the supernatural
• evaluate chosen set texts in relation to medieval narrative practices and the expectations of the romance genre in particular
• produce an informed critical argument in clear writing

This module will be delivered through a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous activities, as part of this programme’s blended provision, which will include on-campus and online teaching and support.

The precise mode of delivery and details – subject to Welsh Government and Public Health Wales guidance – of the teaching and support activities will be made available at the start of the semester via Learning Central.

Academic skills: whilst studying this module, you will practise and develop a number of skills, including the cultivation of scholarly and contextualist research, the use of a range of critical methodologies, the ability to read Middle English confidently, and the ability to consider a range of texts when producing a critical argument. This requires careful scholarship, sensitivity to language through close reading and a broader historical awareness of social change.  

Employability skills: these include the ability to synthesise information, participate in group-based discussion, to negotiate different and conflicting standpoints, to communicate ideas and to produce clear, informed arguments in a professional manner. Student-led research will encourage skills of information collation, selection and synthesis. 

The methods of summative assessment for this module are detailed in the table below.

Formative work to be submitted before each summative assessment: you can choose between submitting, as appropriate, an essay plan/structure, synopses of essay topic options (if undecided) or sample paragraph/s; for creative assignments, you can submit working drafts of parts of your composition, as arranged with the workshop convenor.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:
As with School policy, failed or unsubmitted assessments can be retaken during the August resit period.

Indicative Syllabus:

• Sir Launfal
• Emaré
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur (selections such as: ‘The Tale of Sir Gareth’, ‘The Roman War’, ‘Lancelot and Guinevere’, and/or ‘The Death of Arthur’)
• Melusine
• The Squire of Low Degree
• Sir Isumbras