Department of English and Irish Literature, and Literary Linguistics

🌍 wersja w języku polskim (version in Polish) — link

In the era of cable TV and mass production of DVD’s The Department of English Literature and Literary Linguistics carries out its “mission impossible” of teaching the students how to read and analyze literary texts.

In the light of national stereotypes the Germans know how to write classical music, the French how to cook and the English how to write literature. Hence, the study of the literary heritage of the English speaking countries is an important task each student at the Faculty of English AMU has to undertake.

During three semester course on the History of English literature the students have to read a number of books which afford background to the discussion of the chronological development of literary forms. Alongside classes, the lectures provide basic contextual knowledge of politics, philosophy and art.

The main areas of research interests in the Department include: medieval and medievalist literature and film, Renaissance poetry, theatre and drama, the history of the novel and eighteenth century literature, Victorian literature and culture, women’s studies, post-colonial studies, South African, Irish, and Australian literature as well as literary theory and film studies. The department offers various seminars in the above mentioned subjects.

Studying literature is not only a question of reading a summary of Shakespearean plays on the internet, it is a question of reading, an activity by far superseded by that of watching. We take that fact into consideration by including film studies in our curricula so that when our students go to see the latest Neil Jordan movie Breakfast on Pluto, they will know that the film is an art form in itself and putting Liam Neeson the role of the otherwise unfriendly priest drastically changes the meaning of the original Patrick McCabe’s novel. Thus, studying literature should not only equip the students with critical tools which facilitate the interpretation of texts but also with the knowledge of the world, and thus we can safely assert “mission accomplished”.

prof. dr hab. Liliana Sikorska