Introductory description

This module is centred upon the experience of occidental cultures (specifically: classical and Biblical antiquity), and aims to encourage an understanding that both the making and the reception of literary texts (and other artworks) are inseparable from deep cultural currents and trans-national responses to religion, myth and history. It hopes to deepen and intensify students' familiarity, critically but especially through practice, with one of the key aspects of all literary work: intertextual writing. Cultural and in particular literary production will be examined in relation to human strategies of mythmaking. Students will become literate in the means by which mythologies are constructed here, those of classical and Biblical antiquity), and will find ways of deploying their analytical skills in the making of new texts. The module is also a writing module and aims primarily at generating and enhancing skills in the construction of texts. Inseparably that, it aims also to reinforce skills in close reading, deconstruction of rhetorical strategies, and awareness of cultural and historical contexts and cross-national comparative dimensions. Students will be required to create intertextually-conceived writings in poetry and to make manifest the thinking behind their work. At Honours level, students will devise an essay subject and title themselves on the basis of their own research.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Every week there will be both reading and writing assignments. The first hour of each class will be spent in discussion of that week’s core myth. The second hour will be a workshop in which student texts produced in response to the texts and artworks studied are discussed.

Week 1: Introductory

Week 2: For discussion: Homer, Iliad Book XVIII and W H Auden, ‘The Shield of Achilles’. Followed by workshop.

Week 3: For discussion: Ovid, from Metamorphoses, Book X, Rilke, ‘Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes’ and Ovid, from Metamorphoses, Book VIII, Swift, ‘Baucis and Philemon’. Followed by workshop.

Week 4: For discussion: Ovid, from Metamorphoses, Book X, Hughes, ‘Pygmalion’ (Shaw et al), related films (e.g. Pretty Woman). Followed by workshop.

Week 5: For discussion: Herodotus, extracts on Polycrates, poem by Schiller; Herodotus, extract on Candaules and Gyges, poem by C H Sisson. Followed by workshop.

Week 7 For discussion: Prometheus, paintings by Rubens and Ribera, poems by Goethe, Byron and Gautier. Followed by workshop.

Week 8 For discussion: Daniel ch. 4-5, Byron ‘To Belshazzar’, Heine ‘Belsazar’. Followed by workshop.

Week 9 For discussion: Luke 15, 11-32, poem and prose extract by Rilke, painting by Rembrandt, sculpture by Rodin. Followed by workshop.

Week 10: For discussion: Matthew ch. 26-28 (Mark 14-16, Luke 22-24, John 17-21), paintings by Brueghel, van der Weyden, Mantegna, sculpture by Michelangelo. Followed by workshop.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an ability to analyse the means by which religious, heroic and historical mythologies are created;
• Develop an independent responsibility for identifying texts that can usefully serve as source material for inter-textual exploration
• Effectively communicate information, critical arguments and analysis in a variety of forms
• Show fluency in the writing of poetry conceived in interplay with existing primary texts
• Acquire skills in sustaining scholarly engagement with the current state of research in the field
• Demonstrate an awareness of the complex inter-textual relations of ancient religious, historical and mythological writing to later canonical literature from the Renaissance to the present
• Use independent and self-reflective critical judgement
• Use with critical understanding the wider application of the term “myth” and distinguish different meanings of the term
• Develop a professional awareness of key scholarly strategies in research and presentation
• Develop skills in initiating and devising research pathways and creative strategies
• Demonstrate an ability to manage his/her own learning and to communicate complex findings

Indicative reading list

Key secondary texts Roland Barthes, Mythologies Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God Northrop Frye, The Great Code E. H. Gombrich, The Story of Art Robert Graves, The Greek Myths Background bibliography W H Auden, The Dyer’s Hand Nicholas Boyle, Sacred and Secular Scriptures Terry Eagleton, The Idea of Culture Mircea Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation James Fenton, The Strength of Poetry Sigmund Freud, ‘Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming’ (1908), Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood’ (1910), ‘The Moses of Michelangelo’ (1914) Helen Gardner, Religion and Literature Brewster Ghiselin (ed.), The Creative Process Dana Gioia, Can Poetry Matter? Michael Hamburger, The Truth of Poetry Anthony Hecht, On the Laws of the Poetic Art (especially chapter one) W N Herbert/Matthew Hollis (eds.), Strong Words Vladimir Mayakovsky, How are Verses made? J D McClatchy (ed.), The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry Czeslaw Milosz, The Witness of Poetry Ezra Pound, The ABC of Reading Michael Schmidt, Reading Modern Poetry Paul Valéry, The Art of Poetry Edgar Wind, Art and Anarchy

Subject specific skills

Demonstrate an ability to analyse the means by which religious, heroic and historical mythologies are created
Develop an independent responsibility for identifying texts that can usefully serve as source material for intertextual exploration;
Effectively communicate information, critical arguments and analysis in a variety of forms;
Show fluency in the writing of poetry conceived in interplay with existing primary texts;
Demonstrate an awareness of the complex intertextual relations of ancient religious, historical and mythological writing to later canonical literature from the Renaissance to the present;
Use independent and self-reflective critical judgment
Use with a critical understanding of the wider application of the term “myth”

Transferable skills

The module is a writing module and aims primarily at generating and enhancing skills in the construction of texts. Inseparably from that, it aims also to reinforce skills in close reading, deconstruction of rhetorical strategies, and awareness of cultural and historical contexts and cross-national comparative dimensions. Students will be required to create intertextually-conceived writings in poetry and to make manifest the thinking behind their work.