Module: Great Books: How Canonicity Works

Module Specifications.

Current Academic Year 2024 - 2025

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Date posted: September 2024

Module Title	Great Books: How Canonicity Works
Module Code	EL211 (ITS) / LIT1031 (Banner)
Faculty	Humanities & Social Sciences	School	English
Module Co-ordinator	Michael Hinds
Module Teachers	-
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5
Pre-requisite	Not Available
Co-requisite	Not Available
Compatibles	Not Available
Incompatibles	Not Available

None

Description

This module offers an examination of how literary value is generated and disseminated throughout the history of Western culture, and will show how the idea of a literary canon has become problematized over the last half-century.

Learning Outcomes

1. Discuss knowledgeably the phenomenon of the western canon.
2. Express an aptly complicated sense of the perceived “greatness” of a writer of work
3. Perform readings of classic texts that open them up to a range of interpretative approaches
4. Argue whether or not canonicity is an ideologically neutral idea

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full-time hours per semester
Lecture	2	Two per week
Tutorial	1	Every Second Week
Independent Study	6	Reading and reflection
Total Workload: 9

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

The Pagan Bible: Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Paradise Lost and Moby-Dick: Great Books Nobody Reads?

The Madwoman in the Attic: The Canonical Peripheralization of Women

Defining The Classic English Novel

Modern Classics.

What makes a contemporary classic?

Sappho
Origins of Canonicity and Mystique

Alice Walker
Diversity and Canon Wars

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	100%	Examination Weight	0%

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Course Work Breakdown
Portfolio	Students will submit a short piece at mid -term where they define aspects of canonicity, then an opinion piece on key issues, then two final essays.	100%	Sem 2 End

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories: Resit category 1: A resit is available for both* components of the module. Resit category 2: No resit is available for a 100% continuous assessment module. Resit category 3: No resit is available for the continuous assessment component where there is a continuous assessment and examination element.
* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a Continuous Assessment/Examination split; where the module is 100% continuous assessment, there will also be a resit of the assessment
This module is category 1

Indicative Reading List

Donoghue, Denis: 2003, American Classics, OUP, Oxford,
Eliot, TS: 0, Selected Essays, Faber, London,
Bloom, Harold: 1994, The Western Canon, Harper Collins, New York,
Kermode, Frank: 1989, History and Value, OUP, Oxford,
Showalter, Elaine: 1987, A Literature of Their Own, Virago, London,
Gilbert, Sandra & Gubar, Susan: 2000, The Madwoman in the Attic, Yale, New Haven,

Other Resources

None