Epic and Saga

Topics

• To understand heroic narratives from Greek and Roman antiquity as well as ancient northwestern Europe in their respective cultural contexts, and to study their common themes. To study the differences between epics of oral and literary traditions. To understand the narrative conventions of ancient epic by contrast with those of modern fiction and film; to explore the scholarly vocabulary for describing such conventions. To appreciate the history of reading epics and the importance of their reception-history to Romanticism, Nationalism, and Modernism.

Official catalogue course objectives and student learning outcomes