EN5308 Learned Culture: Rhetoric, Politics and Identity

Academic year

2025 to 2026 Semester 1

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 11

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Planned timetable

To be arranged

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr M C Augustine

Dr M C Augustine
This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Team taught

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

This module investigates the learned culture of Renaissance England, with a particular focus on the teaching of rhetoric in the grammar school classroom and its relevance to the literary production of the period. Topics covered may include: figures of speech; rhetoric and gender; the controversial plot; counsel and polemic; and the politics of Renaissance humanism.

Assessment pattern

100% coursework

Re-assessment

100% coursework

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

2 hour seminar

Scheduled learning hours

20

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

280

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

EN5308 The Forms of Renaissance Literature

Academic year

2026 to 2027 Semester 1

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 11

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Planned timetable

To be arranged

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr M C Augustine

Dr M C Augustine
This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Team taught

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

This module explores key works of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature in relation to the cultural forms that shaped early modern writing. Here the term ‘forms’ includes literary forms (tragedy and comedy, the sonnet and the Spenserian stanza, the essay and other kinds of prose discourse) but also the forms and institutions of literary culture (including the court, the grammar school and university, the theatre, and a range of popular or demotic conventions). The module considers how literary forms signify differently across our period of study and in conversation with their circumstances of production, transmission, and reception. Texts studied may include the plays, poems, and other writings of Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Wroth, and Lanyer; of Shakespeare, Jonson, Spenser, and Milton; of Donne, Herbert, Marvell, and Philips; and of other anonymous or lesser-known writers.

Assessment pattern

100% coursework

Re-assessment

100% coursework

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

2 hour seminar

Scheduled learning hours

18

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

280

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.