Introductory description

This module will enable students to learn about European epics alongside epics from other cultures. It will investigate the ways in which the aims of the Epic were transformed as the Novel, often presented as the modern heir of the epic, became the major narrative literary mode. The module will prepare students for work on novels and long poems later in the degree.

Module web page

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.

Indicative syllabus
Autumn term
Weeks 1-3: Introduction and Homer, Iliad
Weeks 4-7: Virgil, Aeneid
Weeks 8-10: Milton, Paradise Lost
Spring term
Weeks 1-2: The Mahabharata (extracts from J.D. Smith's edition)
Weeks 3-5: Fielding, Tom Jones
Weeks 7-8: Eliot, Middlemarch
Weeks 9-10: Ngugi, A Grain of Wheat
Summer term
Weeks 1: Revision (The Epic)
Week 2: Revision (The Novel)
Week 3: Revision (Epic into Novel)

Learning outcomes

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

• By the end of the module students should be able to:· Demonstrate a good working knowledge of two European classical epics, Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid.
• Discuss the nature of the classical epic and trace its influence and transformations in later European literature.
• Show knowledge of the English seventeenth-century epic Paradise Lost and of its relation both to the classical epic and to the culture and events of seventeenth-century England.
• Show knowledge of two classic English novels andunderstanding of the nature of the novel and of the way in which novelists have built on and varied the traditions of the epic.
• Show knowledge of non-Western epic and novel, of the cultural conjunctions in which they are composed and of their similarities with and differences from European epics and novels.
• Show knowledge of the typical structures, motifs and aims of epics and novels and the way in which these are modified to accord with distinct cultural, political and religious circumstances.
• Show some understanding of the nature of literary genres and the ways in which genres change over time and as a result of different cultural circumstances.

Indicative reading list

Homer, The Iliad, trans Lattimore
Virgil, The Aeneid, trans Fitzgerald
Fielding, Tom Jones
G. Eliot, Middlemarch
The Mahabharata, ed. J.D. Smith
Ngugi, A Grain of Wheat
C. Bates ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Epic
J. Griffin, Homer on Life and Death
R. Heinze, Virgil's Epic Technique
E. Auerbach, Mimesis
K. W. Gransden, The Aeneid
C. Burrow, Epic Romance
I. Watt, The Rise of the Novel
M. McKeon, The Origins of the English Novel
H. Power, Epic Into Novel
K. Chase, Middlemarch
R. Finnegan, Oral Literature in Africa
D. A. Miller, The Epic Hero
Richetti ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Eighteenth Century Novel
D. Quint, Epic and Empire
Ogude, Ngugi's Novels and African History
Ngugi, Writers in Politics
A. Sharma, Essays on the Mahabharata
R. Dandekar, The Mahabharata Revisited
J. Brockington, The Sanskrit Epics
A.D. Nuttall, Openings: Narrative beginnings from the Epic to the Novel
F. Moretti, The Novel
F. Moretti, Modern Epic

Subject specific skills

Demonstrate knowledge of two European classical epics, Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid.
Discuss the nature of the classical epic and trace its influence and transformations in later European literature.
Show knowledge of the English seventeenth-century epic Paradise Lost and of its relation both to the classical epic and to the culture and events of seventeenth-century England.
Show knowledge of two classic English novels and understanding of the nature of the novel and of the way in which novelists have built on and varied the traditions of the epic.
Show knowledge of non-Western epic and novel, of the cultural conjunctions in which they are composed and of their similarities with and differences from European epics and novels.

Show knowledge of the typical structures, motifs and aims of epics and novels and the way in which these are modified to accord with distinct cultural, political and religious circumstances.

Show some understanding of the nature of literary genres and the ways in which genres change over time and as a result of different cultural circumstances.

Transferable skills

TBC