The Human Story: Heart, Mind and Body in Early Literature
UndergraduateMAQ-ENGX20102024
Course information for 2024 intake View information for 2025 course intake
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- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Entry requirements
- Prior study needed
- Duration
- 13 weeks
- Loan available
- HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
The Human Story: Heart, Mind and Body in Early Literature
About this subject
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate critical reading habits, interpretive analysis, research, and effective communication, with particular application to the field of English studies
- Understand and be able to describe some of the key features of a range of textual representations of mind, heart, and body from the medieval to the early modern period
- Undertake close reading of the primary medieval and early modern texts, and incorporate close reading as evidence into coherent analytical arguments
- Explain, verbally and in written assignments, the relationship between the primary texts and their historical and cultural contexts
- Engage in appropriate application of relevant theoretical concepts to the primary texts studied
- Engage in informed critical discussion of unit content with peers and teachers, accommodate others’ points of view, and argue a critical position
- Apply understanding of literary techniques to literary study and beyond to other situations
- A week-by-week guide to the topics you will explore in this subject will be provided in your study materials.
This unit explores the rich and ever-changing category of 'the human' as it features in some of the most influential writings in English up to and including those by Shakespeare. It considers how these writings responded to and shaped ideas of 'the human' in their own times, while also examining how earlier literary representations of humanness relate to our modern assumptions about what it is to be human. Students will be exposed to a range of texts that offer insights into how the mind, the emotions, and the body were understood in medieval and early modern literature, and also study later texts that adapt these early ideas for modern use. The unit offers students an approach to early literature that will acquaint them with distant times and world views while also anchoring their studies of later literatures and shedding light on their understanding of the world today. This unit increases their literary-historical knowledge as well as their conceptual and technical vocabulary, to analyse and discuss literature from different periods and contexts with confidence. It also enables them to develop a sophisticated understanding of how cultures across time intersect with one another, and appreciate the vital function played by literature throughout the human story.
- Early feedback quiz (10%)
- Participatory task (20%)
- Analytical essay (30%)
- Research essay (40%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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- QS Ranking 2024:
- 10
- Times Higher Education Ranking 2024:
- 10
Entry requirements
Prior study
You must have successfully completed the following subject(s) before starting this subject:
one of
- MAQ-ENGX1001-Literature: Medieval to Modern
MAQ-ENGX120 (Not currently available)
Others
Pre-requisite: 40cps at 1000 level or above
Additional requirements
- Other requirements - Students who have an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion under Macquarie University's Academic Progression Policy are not permitted to enrol in OUA units offered by Macquarie University. Students with an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion who have enrolled in units through OUA will be withdrawn.
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
What to study next?
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
UndergraduateMAQ-ART-DEG
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