ENGLISH 2310 FIRST ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

GRADY FALL 2011

Essays should be typed, double-spaced with one-inch margins, and four to five pages/1500-2000 words long on one of the topics below. Be sure to refer as helpfully and specifically as possible to the texts upon which you're basing your argument--and be sure to have an argument or thesis. Your essay should have an original title, and it should definitely not confuse "it's" and "its", even once. Essays are due on Friday, SEPTEMBER 30. Submission by email is preferred; check with me if you do not receive confirmation of receipt within a day.

1. Design your own topic, of suitable specificity and sophistication, about something that interests you in Lanval, Chaucer, Gower, or the Old English poetry we've read. Consultation with the instructor is required for those of you intending to use this option; talking with one another is highly recommended, too. I must have a paragraph describing your topic by Monday, September 26 (email would be best--fgrady@umsl.edu).

2. The 1960 musical Camelot claims that "in short, there's simply not / A more congenial spot / For happily-ever-aftering" than King Arthur's court, but the Arthurian tales we've read are not quite so full of praise. Discuss the way the Arthurian court is treated in Lanval and The Wife of Bath’s Tale.

3.Reread John Gower's "Tale of Florent" from his Confessio Amantis. Then write an essay comparing the ways that Chaucer and his friend and fellow poet Gower treat the "loathly lady" tale. Some potential areas of interest would be the role and definition of gentility in each tale or the role and representation of women. Remember that compare-and-contrast topics need a strong and specific thesis too; an essay that describes how Chaucer does one thing while Gower does another is unlikely to be successful.

4. Discuss (compare, contrast, make an argument about, develop a thesis concerning) the role that magic plays in romance: Lanval, the Wife of Bath’s Tale, the Tale of Florent.

5. “When you would like to talk to me… / I shall attend you at your will / All your wishes to fulfill,” says the fairy maiden to Lanval, suggesting that in their relationship, he’s the boss—his desires come first. But of course, at the end of the tale, it’s the maiden who rides to the rescue, reversing the usual conventions of romance. Discuss the way that Marie’s lai experiments with some of our expectations about male and female roles, what it is about the lai makes it possible for her to do so, and what effects she achieves.

6. The Wife of Bath pays lot of attention to bodies, both women's and men's, in her Prologue and Tale. Why is that? Discuss the importance of the body--its various functions, the natural and unnatural changes it can undergo, the threats it must face--as a theme in her performance.

7. Where, if anywhere, should a reader come to rest with regard to the Wife of Bath’s Tale? Is it, to borrow from a recent critical survey, an “escape from the realities of the Prologue, or a fantasy fulfillment of the wish for youth and beauty, or a feminist's capitulation” to masculine desires, or something else again? What sort of conclusion, if any, does the Wife of Bath’s Tale encourage us to come to?

8. Translate a portion of the Anglo-Saxon poetry in your anthology back into the aa/ax alliterative form in which it was originally composed. Choose one of these two passages to turn into Modern English alliterative verse: The Wanderer, paragraph seven (“Therefore I cannot think why….thoughts of his heart may turn”), or The Dream of the Rood, from the final paragraph (from “Then I prayed to the tree…” to “where bliss is eternal.”). Sixteen to twenty lines would be a good target length. Include a paragraph describing how your verse is a good example of the form.