Course Catalogue

View Specification Document | Reading List

This course explores the early-modern origins of European science through a literary lens. It will focus on texts that engage with topics such as exorcisms, animal-human interactions, and geographical explorations. In this context, dream narratives in different media are of particular importance, as they provide a space for experimenting allegorically with artistic and scientific views, for instance in Cervantes's Colloquy of the Dogs and Kepler's and Maldonado's Somnium but also in modern and contemporary artistic uses of the oneiric imagination.  

1 hour weekly over Semester 1 and 2.  This is one of the Honours options in SMLC and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into one of the SMLC Honours programmes, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

None

None

The standard assessments for this course are:

■ Individual presentation and class debate (10 minutes, equivalent to 1000 words)

■ Written assignment (3000 words)

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:

■ Recorded presentation (video or audio) or one-to-one presentation with staff as alternative to the Individual presentation and class debate

■ There is no alternative to the Written Assignment, but extensions to the deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (students should follow the usual process for extensions).

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.

This course aims to: 

■ introduce students to allegorical constructions of knowledge  

■ serve as an introduction to the study of the complex literary resources present in early-modern authors who engage with literature and science 

■ facilitate students´ ability to comparatively understand intellectual, cultural and historical content and contexts across related historical and cultural periods  

■ encourage public speaking skills and confidence in oral and written self-expression. 

By the end of this course students will be able to: 

■ compare early-modern European cultures when exploring the historical, political and cultural contexts of literary texts and films 

■ reflect critically about the social, political, historical and cultural contexts of different allegories of knowledge, developing a stronger awareness of the international dimension of early modern science. 

■ Make comparative analysese of allegorical fiction and early science in essays and in class discussions and presentations