Dutch Literature I: (early) modern period

Teacher(s)

Latre Guido (compensates Vanasten Stéphanie); Vanasten Stéphanie;

Language

Dutch

Prerequisites

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The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Main themes

- Reflection on the concept of "history of literature": analysis of its methodological and disciplinary foundations (especially Dutch literature);
- Presentation of the history of Dutch literature and contextualization bearing in mind the main cultural, philosophical and political European productions;
- Description of its periodization from the Middle Ages to the 19th century ;
- Synthesis of the major literary productions and confrontation with the analysis of individual movements.
Compulsory readings of literary texts illustrate the course.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	At the end of the course, students should be able to : - read and understand texts in Dutch, from the Middle Ages to the 19th century ; - explain the main developments of Dutch literature from the Middle Ages to the 18th century and relate them to different contexts (linguistic, cultural, philosophical, aesthetic, ideological, social, political) as well as the European literary context; - situate the major authors and literary texts on a timeline (periods, movements, generations) and show the distinctive features of the literary facts by means of the history of literary criticism (aesthetics, genres, themes, poetics, genetics, media, reception, institution, etc.) ; - critically discuss the legitimacy and the validity of the periodization used and write (from a historical and cultural perspective) some brief personal comments (essay, dissertation) on a literary text.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

This course is devoted to the study of major Dutch literary movements from the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century. It explores some movements and genres, major authors, main figures and founding texts in Dutch literature and situates them in their historical contexts (linguistic, political, philosophical, social, cultural).
Representative texts (or excerpts) illustrate the course.

Teaching methods

The course includes lectures with multimedia elements, commented readings in Dutch chosen in function of the themes, registers, genres, periods. These (or other representative) texts are read at home and prepared during tutorials. The tutorials (10 hours) help the students to carry out text analyses.
The course also contains interactive learning activities and specific reading tasks (individual or collective).

Evaluation methods

Assessment of the learning process : active participation of the student in the activities organised in the course of the semester, including presence at the workshops and special activities, and the performance of specific individual or group tasks aimed at reading and analysing texts (10%).
Final assessment : the written exam (65%) will be based on the historical survey that is offered in the formal lectures, and on the text syllabus (anthology of required reading).There will be an assessment of the students’ in-depth reading of the texts or extracts.
The oral exam (25%) is based on a short paper written by each student. This paper will have a link with the guided tour of the Plantin Moretus museum in Antwerp. Its aim is to enable the lecturer(s) to assess the student’s ability to do research on a topic using scholarly methods. A preparatory document will be submitted that includes a mentioning of the sources that will be used. The final version will consist of a brief comment on the chosen text. It will be based on a sustained argument, and include a critical reflection on the origins of the text, its historical context and its effect.
Correct use of the Dutch language in the short paper is essential. The quality of the language will be taken into account for the assessment, and an excessive number of errors may lead to the student failing this part of the exam.
In case of a resit, the assessment of the separate parts will be as follows: a written exam (70%) plus an oral exam (30%). For the oral exam, the student is at liberty to decide, after consulting the lecturer(s), to improve the short paper whilst keeping the topic submitted in the previous exam session.

Other information

Teaching material : texts, hand-outs, documents on Moodle, audio and video sources

Bibliography

• Portefeuille de lectures, hand-outs, documents sur Moodle, enregistrements sonores et vidéos

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Teaching materials

• Portefeuille de lectures, hand-outs, documents sur Moodle, enregistrements sonores et vidéos

Faculty or entity

LMOD