Modiwl QXE-3094:
Realms of Magic
Realms of Magic 2024-25
QXE-3094
2024-25
School Of Arts, Culture And Language
Module - Semester 1
20 credits
Module Organiser:
Raluca Radulescu
Overview
This module covers a selective history of fantasy, with an emphasis on its early origins drawing on both epic and romance, and ranging from medieval to modern reinventions of the genre. Critical and theoretical modern theory such as gender, postcolonial, race and ideology, and other approaches will be employed to explore a flexible range of texts that will include English, French, German, Icelandic medieval romances and epic (studied in translation as appropriate), early modern adaptations and inventions of fantasy, followed by the birth of modern fantasy in the late nineteenth century and its rebirth in the twentieth and twenty-first. Topics such as spiritual instruction, love, political governance, war, sexual fulfilment and magic will be investigated, while the versatility of the genre and its enduring appeal will be judged with reference to modern transformations of the genre in the work of C. S. Lewis, J. R.R. Tolkien and R.R.Martin, as well as film adaptations.
Learning Outcomes
- display an informed sense of the overall development of the genre of fantasy from
the twelfth century to the twenty-first.
- have the ability to evaluate the literary quality of these works.
- have the ability to situate these works in their various socio-historical contexts.
- possess detailed knowledge of a number of major works relating to the genre.
- possess informed knowledge of a range of differing interpretations of the fantasy genre
- show understanding of the presentation and referencing skills required in an academic essay at level 6 (year 3).