Course Description
Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, and minor poems.
Athena Title
Chaucer
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ENGL 4240, ENGL 6240
Non-Traditional Format
This course is writing intensive, which means that the course will include substantial and ongoing writing assignments that a) relate clearly to course learning; b) teach the communication values of a discipline—for example, its practices of argument, evidence, credibility, and format; and c) prepare students for further writing in their academic work, in graduate school, and in professional life. The written assignments will result in a significant and diverse body of written work (the equivalent of 6000 words or 25 pages) and the instructor (and/or the teaching assistant assigned to the course) will be closely involved in student writing, providing opportunities for feedback and substantive revision.
Prerequisite
Two 2000-level ENGL courses or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 3000-level ENGL course) or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 2000-level CMLT course)
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the work of one of the most important writers of the Middle English period and to enable them to read, pronounce, and understand late fourteenth-century London Middle English with facility. At the end of the course, students, having read a representative selection of texts chosen from Chaucer's principal works (and occasionally other authors too), will be able to discuss these works (orally and in writing) with a considerable degree of sophistication. Students will further have acquainted themselves with a variety of medieval narrative forms and structures, and the function of traditional genres, particularly, romance, fabliau, and sermon writing, and how Chaucer exploits these in his poetry, and they should be able to evaluate him within the socio-historical context of the late- fourteenth century. They should also be aware of major scholarly debates in the field of Chaucer criticism.
Topical Outline
The choice and sequence of topics will vary every semester depending on the instructor. The topics will consist of selected primary and secondary texts to be read outside of class and discussed in class, examined individually and comparatively in the context of the times and the circumstances of their production as well as in the light of recent scholarly opinion. Periodically during the semester, students will perform a number of graded tasks that may include, but is not restricted to, tests, out-of-class papers, and class examinations. A possible series of topics and assignments might resemble this: Chaucer and English inheritance: Derek Pearsall, The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer Essays in Idea of the Vernacular, ed., Jocelyn Wogan-Browne et al. Christopher Cannon, The Making of Chaucer's English Laura Hibbard Loomis, "Chaucer and the Breton Lays of the Auchinleck MS" "Chaucer and the Auchinleck Manuscript: Thopas and Guy of Warwick" Chaucer and Continental inheritance: Piero Boitani, Chaucer and Boccaccio Chaucer's Imaginary World of Fame Chaucer and the Italian Trecento Nicholas Haveley, Chaucer's Boccaccio Charles Muscatine, Chaucer and the French Tradition David Wallace, Chaucer and the Early Writings of Boccaccio James Wimsatt, Chaucer and his French Contemporaries Chaucerian Polity: Barbara A. Hanawalt (ed.), Chaucer's England; David Wallace, Chaucerian Polity David Aers, Chaucer, Langland, and the Creative; Lee Patterson, Chaucer and the Subject of History Paul Strohm, Social Chaucer Boethius, Neo-Platonism: Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy Seth Lerer, Boethius and Dialogue; A.J. Minnis, Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism Medieval Boethius Chaucer's Boece and the medieval tradition of Boethius Winthrop (Pete) Whetherbee, Chaucer and the Poets Chaucer's Sources: Larry Benson and T.M. Andersson, Literary Context of Chaucer's Fabliaux Germaine Dempster, W.F. Bryan et al, Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales Barry Windeatt, Chaucer's Dream Poetry: Sources and Analogues Chaucer's Readers: Seth Lerer, Chaucer's Readers Ruth Morse and Barry Windeatt (ed.), Chaucer Traditions