Research seminar in English literature [ LGERM2872 ]

To have successfully followed the courses on the history of English literature in the Bachelor programme, and to show a strong interest in this area of research. Writing a master’s dissertation on a topic of the seminar is not a condition for registering.

The content of the seminar depends on the research carried out in the unit and the master dissertations undertaken by the students; it thus changes every year.

To give the students a chance to participate in a collective research project and pursue their own research project within this methodological framework, possibly in connection with the writing of their master’s dissertation and other research activities.

Continuous assessment of each student's participation in the seminar. Oral exam. The writing of a paper is optional.

 

This year, the seminar will have as its overall topic "The Shock of the Modern: Biblical Themes and Images in English Literature." Two major transitions from a more traditional society based on religion to a more secular society will be considered: (1) The Age of the Renaissance (Thomas More, William Tyndale, The King James Bible, John Donne), and (2) The Age of Modernism (Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, 1945). Waugh's famous novel will be compared with a 1981 adaptation for the television screen (starring Jeremy Irons). The subject of the seminar is related to what is currently a major issue in the relationship between western societies and the muslim world: to what extent is religion expected to have an impact on our political and social ideas and behaviour ?

One-day visit to the Plantin Moretus Museum, Antwerp.