Module ENGL3641: From Romance to Romanticism: An Introduction to English Ballads

Department: English Studies

ENGL3641: From Romance to Romanticism: An Introduction to English Ballads

Prerequisites

• At least one of the following modules: Introduction to Drama (ENGL 1011), Introduction to the Novel (ENGL 1061), Introduction to Poetry (ENGL 1071). English: Language, Use, Theory (ENGL1021), Classical and Biblical Backgrounds of English Literature (ENGL1031), Myth and Epic of the North (ENGL1041), Romance and the Literature of Chivalry (ENGL1051).

Corequisites

• Any other 20 credit lecture module in English.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To study the evolution of popular story-telling from the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the nineteenth century, focusing in particular on the ballads (short narratives in lyrical form)
• To address the history of the imagination that such texts imply; their origins; the circumstances of their transmission; and their influence
• To examine in detail a selection of romance- and ballad-material, focusing in particular on the collections made by Thomas Percy in the eighteenth century and by Francis J. Child in the nineteenth, and also on the ‘Percy Folio’ (the extraordinary manuscript collection of ‘popular’ texts and tales that Percy dramatically rescued from destruction, and which became the basis for his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, published in 1765)
• To research and discuss the specific histories of some of the texts collected by Percy and Child o To consider how this material might contribute to an understanding of the ongoing influence of ‘medievalism’ in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; of the role of orality and popular tradition; and of the emergence of such cultural phenomena as the ‘Gothic’ and ‘Romantic’ movements
• To investigate the social contexts in which such material was compiled and read, and also the role of the people who performed and collected it – including well-known figures such as Sir Walter Scott and Thomas Percy, and also some who are less familiar, such as the mysterious Anna Gordon (Mrs Brown of Falkland) and the mercurial Joseph Ritson
• To provide illustrations of some of the ways in which this material continues to have a presence even in the popular culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
• To introduce students to the particular historical conditions that shaped ballad/romance traditions and explain some of the themes/preoccupations characteristic of ballads and popular romance from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries
• To define the stylistic and aesthetic expectations of writers, readers and collectors of ballads
• To discuss the history of some of the other types of popular literature related to the ballad/romance tradition (including fairy-tales, nursery-rhymes and the chapbook-romances that were the ‘pulp fiction’ of their day)
• To encourage students to consider the significance of romance- and ballad-material to the history of English literature as a whole

Content

• o There are few books that have had a greater impact on the history of English culture than Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765). Perhaps more than any other book it provided the raw material for the shift in sensibility that led to what we now call Romanticism. Percy’s Reliques was also decisively influential on modern imaginings of the medieval world: his interpretation of the ballad/romance-tradition inspired his generation to take a serious academic interest in ‘ancient’ English texts (in this way initiating the development of ‘English Literature’ as a distinct discipline). In this module we focus particularly on ‘ballads’, a term which in this context refers to short narrative texts in lyrical (i.e. ‘singable’ form). At one level, this term suggests a distinct kind of stylistics: the highly economical, evocative and melodramatic forms of expression characteristic of ‘ballad’ as a form of narration. At another, it suggests a particular set of thematic/aesthetic emphases, including stories of the supernatural, violence, murder and frustrated love. At yet another, it evokes a particular landscape, the northern Pennines and the vast, wild border country on either side of the Anglo-Scottish border. Many of the traditional ballads that survive are explicitly connected with this region, and they often reflect its longstanding political and social instability, its very specific local feuds and rivalries, and also a strong sense of a ‘Borders’ identity outweighing any sense of Englishness or Scottishness. (From this perspective, the module has a strongly local dimension – many of the places we talk about are relatively near Durham.) Ballads can perhaps be seen as romances-in-miniature; and they demonstrably inherited many of their themes and motifs from late medieval and early modern ‘popular’ romance. A case in point is the Robin Hood tradition, which (until the nineteenth century) was represented primarily by ballads. This tradition is generally located further south than the Border ballads, but it shares their interest in outlawry and feud. One of the major themes for commentators on such texts has been the tension between the historical authenticity of ballads/romances and the editing, invention or ‘polishing’ of ‘traditional material’: this is brought particularly into focus by the involvement of individuals like Anna Gordon (Mrs Brown of Falkland), Thomas Percy and Sir Walter Scott in the ‘rediscovery’ of ‘ancient’ texts. This module addresses all of these issues, as well as the wider intellectual and cultural contexts in which such material was disseminated and recorded in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will be expected to demonstrate a close knowledge of the ballad/romance tradition as represented by the Percy and Child corpora, to show an understanding of the cultural and intellectual contexts of this material, and to engage with various critical approaches to it.

• Students studying this module will develop:
• critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts
• an ability to demonstrate knowledge of a range of texts, authors, literary periods and critical approaches
• informed awareness of formal and aesthetic dimensions of literature and ability to offer cogent analysis of their workings in specific texts
• sensitivity to generic conventions and to the shaping effects on communication of historical circumstances, and to the affective power of language
• an ability to articulate and substantiate an imaginative response to literature
• an ability to articulate knowledge and understanding of concepts and theories relating to literary studies
• appreciation of the cultural differences created by time, and of the mechanisms by which cultural assumptions change over time
• skills of effective communication and argument
• awareness of conventions of scholarly presentation, and bibliographic skills including accurate citation of sources and consistent use of scholarly conventions of presentation
• command of a broad range of vocabulary and an appropriate critical terminology
• awareness of literature as a medium through which values are affirmed and debated

• Students studying this module will develop:
• a capacity to analyse literary texts and other cultural artefacts critically
• an ability to acquire complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way involving the use of distinctive interpretative skills derived from the subject
• an informed awareness of formal, aesthetic and socio-cultural dimensions of literature and also an ability to offer cogent analysis of their workings in relation to particular evidence
• competence in the planning and execution of essays
• a capacity for independent thought and judgment, and ability to assess the critical ideas of others
• skills in critical reasoning
• an ability to handle information and argument in a critical manner
• information-technology skills such as word-processing and electronic data access information
• organization and time-management skills

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Seminars will encourage peer-group discussion and a collective, interactive responsiveness to the texts under discussion. They will also enable students to think critically and to read the primary evidence with a close attention to its formal, aesthetic and historical dimensions
• Seminars will encourage effective oral communication skills.
• The consultation session with one of the seminar leaders prior to the first essay will facilitate an informed exploration of specific interests, ideas and arguments, enabling students to develop their subject-specific knowledge.
• Coursework: assessed essays will allow an opportunity for detailed, independent study and reflection, demonstrating an awareness of the ongoing critical commentary surrounding the texts under consideration, thereby enriching their subject-specific knowledge.
• Written feedback provided after the first assessed essay will allow students to reflect upon the comments of examiners, stimulating reflection on how to improve the rhetorical persuasiveness and subject-specific knowledge exhibited in their second essay.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning students an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor. This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers and tutor in the context of a seminar.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Before the first essay, students will have an individual consultation session in which they are entitled to show their seminar leader a list of points relevant to the essay and receive oral comment on these points. Students may also, if they wish, discuss their ideas for the second essay at this meeting.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University