English 5250   Studies in Middle English Literature

 

F. GRADY                                                                                                                                                                                                     Spring 2011

455 LUCAS                                                                                                                                                                                                    450 Lucas Hall

fgrady@umsl.edu/516-5592                                                                                                                                                                           W 4:00-6:30

MW 12:00-2:00                                                                                                                                                                                               (#14223)

     and by appointment

Seigneurial Poetics

                                                                                                                                 

            Chaucer’s General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales begins with a portrait of a “verray, parfit, gentle Knight,” but the knights who populate the Tales themselves include rapists, abusive husbands, homicidal lovers, victims of Fortune, vainglorious cuckolds, fathers who kill their children, and the ridiculous Sir Thopas, who swears “on ale and breed” to kill his sworn enemy, the three-headed giant “Sir Elephant.”  Evidently stories about knights were not all jousts and banquets; chivalric romance, for example, like its debased modern avatar the western, turns out to be a genre in which masculinity is always in crisis.

 

            In this course we will examine the ways in which aristocratic and gentry readers were addressed by, and knightly characters shaped by, a variety of discourses--amatory, penitential, economic, military, and philosophical--that often operated at cross purposes.  We will also look closely at the formal dimensions of this seigneurial literature, and the conflicts of genre, tone and rhetoric that arise when romance meets fabliaux, sermon meets dialogue, and ritual celebration grapples with philosophical reflection.  Readings will include some of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (probably Knight, Miller, Wife, Franklin, and Monk), alliterative poetry (Winner and Waster, The Parlement of the Three Ages, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), lesser-known tail-rhyme romance (Octavian), portions of Malory’s Morte D’Arthur, and a collection of other materials aimed at explaining (or explaining away) the knightly condition (Geoffrey de Charny’s Book of Chivalry, Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy).

 

            Much of the primary reading will be in various dialects Middle English.  No experience is necessary, but a willingness to work at it for the first few weeks of the semester is essential.

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

            Two short (4-6pp.) papers, 20% each; one longer (10-15pp.) research essay, 40%; class participation, 20%.  Class participation includes regular attendance, consistent and thoughtful contribution to discussions, timely discussion board postings, and one brief in-class presentation. The presentation schedule can be found here; the discussion board schedule here.

            Be advised that I take the issue of academic dishonesty very seriously; plagiarism on papers will generally mean an instant F for the assignment and likely disciplinary action by the university. Please refer to this site for further details, and please please please ask me if you have any questions.

            This syllabus and other valuable course information is available at MyGateway and on the course webpage, which can be reached through the link on my homepage, http://www.umsl.edu/~gradyf/; the course page will also provide links to supplementary materials (like power-point presentations) and other medieval studies sites on the web.

 

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Geoffroi de Charny, A Knight’s Own Book of Chivalry. Trans. Elspeth Kennedy. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 0-8122-1909-0.

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue. Ed. V.A. Kolve and Glending Olson.  Norton Critical Edition. Second Edition. W.W.Norton & Co, 2005. 978-0-393-95287-6

Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur. Ed. Stephen H.A.Shepherd. Norton Critical Edition. W.W. Norton & Co., 2004. 0-393-97464-2

John Gower, Confessio Amantis, Volume 1. 2nd edition.  Edited by Russell A. Peck, with Latin translations by Andrew Galloway. TEAMS Middle English Texts Series. Medieval Institute Publications, 2006. ISBN 978-1-58044-102-5

Wynnere and Wastoure and The Parlement of the Thre Ages. Edited by Warren Ginsberg. TEAMS Middle English Texts Series. Medieval Institute Publications, 1992. 1-879288-26-5

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Ed. Marie Borroff  and Laura Howes. Norton Critical Edition.  W.W. Norton & Co., 2009. ISBN 978-0-393-93025-2.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. Simon Armitage.  W.W. Norton & Co., 2008. 978-0393334159 [optional text]

Boethius. The Consolation of Philosophy. Trans. Victor Watts. Rev. ed.  Penguin, 2000.  ISBN 9780140447804

 

 

Tentative SYLLABUS (MyGateway- and web-accessible items marked with *):

W JAN 19  Introduction; “Seigneurial Poetics” in the later middle ages;; De Charny, A Knight’s Own Book of Chivalry; *Froissart, excerpts from the Chronicles; Reading Middle English

 

W JAN 26  *Octavian (text and introduction); Wynnere and Wastoure; *Trigg, “The Rhetoric of Excess in Winner and Waster”

                                                         

W FEB 2  Snowpocalypse—no class

 

W FEB 9  Chaucer, General Prologue; *Langland, Prologue to Piers Plowman; *Strohm, “The Social and Literary Scene in England”; *Leicester, “Structure as Deconstruction”; Chaucer, Knight’s Tale; *Muscatine, “Form, Texture and Meaning in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale”

 

W FEB 16  Chaucer, Miller’s Prologue and Tale; Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale

 

W FEB 23  Chaucer, Clerk’s Prologue and Tale; Franklin’s Prologue and Tale

                                                                                                   

W MAR 2  Gower, Confessio Amantis, Prologue (selections), Book I (1235-1875 [Florent], 3053-3446 [3 Questions]), Book VIII (1-2008 [Apollonius])

                        TH MAR 3 **First essay due date A**

 

W MAR 9  Chaucer, *Monk’s Prologue and Tale; Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy; The Parlement of the Three Ages; *Grady, “Seigneurial Poetics, or The Poacher, the Prikasour, the Hunt and Its Oeuvre”

                        TH MAR 10 **First essay due date B**

 

W MAR 16  Chaucer criticism (articles TBA); Chaucer, Tale of Sir Thopas

                                                                

W MAR 23    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Heng, “Feminine Knots and the Other Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”(plus two other essays tba)

 

W MAR 30    NO CLASS (SPRING BREAK)

                                                

W APR 6  Malory, Le Morte Darthur (“How Uther Pendragon Gate the Noble Conqueror Kyng Arthur,” pp. 3- 14, 35-40; “The Weddyng of King Arthur,” pp. 62-77; “A Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot Du Lake,” “The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkeney,” pp. 151-228)

                        **TH APR 7  Second essay due date **

 

W APR 13  No Class (Conference trip)

 

W APR 20  Malory, Le Morte Darthur (“The Noble Tale of the Sankgreal,” pp. 496-587)

 

W APR 27  Malory, Le Morte Darthur (“The Tale of Sir Lancelot and Quene Gwenyvere,” “The Deth of Arthur,” pp. 588-698)

 

W MAY 4  Malory criticism (articles TBA)

 

 

TH MAY 12  Final Essays due

 

 

 

 

Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability Access Services Office in 144 Millennium Student Center at 516-6554 as soon as possible to ensure that such accommodations are arranged in a timely fashion.