Module ENGL2901: Reading Milton's Paradise Lost

Department: English Studies

ENGL2901: Reading Milton's Paradise Lost

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To focus in detail on John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost.
• To introduce students to a selection of relevant poetry and prose by Milton which will help to enrich their understanding of the poem.
• To encourage students to read closely and to gain relevant contextual knowledge.
• To foster a critical awareness of diverse critical approaches to Milton’s work from the seventeenth century to the present.

Content

• This module will give students the opportunity to look in detail at:
• Milton's select early poetical works (e.g. Lycidas), as well as one of the major works of his artistic maturity (Paradise Lost).
• Select passages from his prose writings, including the Areopagitica and the Divorce Tracts, which have a direct bearing on the poem.
• The poem’s position at the confluence of the classical and biblical tradition (e.g. Milton’s strategic use of classical genre, allusion and mythology).
• Topics to be discussed in seminars will include Milton’s representation of the role of the poet and poetry, sexual politics, religious, political and educational issues.

Learning Outcomes

• The student will be expected:
• To demonstrate detailed knowledge of a significant work by Milton
• To show an understanding of the cultural and intellectual contexts of Milton’s work
• To engage with the various critical approaches to Milton’s poem.

• 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 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
• 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 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
• competence in the planning and execution of assessed work
• a capacity for independent thought and judgement, 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
• organisation and time-management skills

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

• Seminars: encourage peer-group discussion, enable students to develop critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts, and skills of effective communication and presentation; promote awareness of diversity of interpretation and methodology
• Consultation session: encourages students to reflect critically and independently on their work
• Independent but directed reading in preparation for seminars provides opportunity for students to enrich subject-specific knowledge and enhances their ability to develop appropriate subject-specific skills.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning student(s) 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.
• Coursework: tests the student's ability to argue, respond and interpret, and to demonstrate subject-specific knowledge and skills such as appreciation of the power of imagination in literary creation and the close reading and analysis of texts; they also test the ability to present word-processed work, observing scholarly conventions. In individual Special Topics, the assessment may, where appropriate to the subject, take an alternative form, such as 'creative criticism'.
• Feedback: The written feedback that is provided after the first assessment allows students to reflect on examiners' comments, giving students the opportunity to improve their work for the second assessment.
• Before the first essay, students will have an individual consultation session (15 minutes) 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. This session will not be centrally timetabled, and will be arranged via the seminar leader and student.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

■ 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