ENGLISH 114
INTRODUCTION TO MEDIEVAL
LITERATURE
F. GRADY SPRING 2015
LAIRD 204A MW
9:50-11:00,
222-4318 F
9:40-10:40
MW
11:15-12:15, T 11:00-12:30 LIBRARY 344
& by
appointment
This course surveys the poetry and prose
of later medieval England, from about 1350-1475--an era of great accomplishment
and considerable variety in English writing and great changes and considerable
upheaval in English society, a period of plague, heresy, rebellion, and civil
war. Readings (in modern translation) will include travel literature and
autobiography, dream visions and Arthurian romances, sermons, saints' lives,
and allegories.
The literature of
the middle ages has the often annoying quality of seeming simultaneously
foreign and familiar, since in the period the basic structures (and basic
problems) of contemporary Western culture were in the making. Appreciating and understanding medieval texts
thus requires some intellectual agility and an open mind, as our assumptions
will interact in various and sometimes unpredictable ways with the expectations
of the texts we study. Take some time to
think about the reading as you prepare to discuss it: what happens in it (and
to whom), what it assumes that you know (about the world, about how people
ought to behave, and about how they actually do), what it thinks is important
and interesting and why. If it has been
a while, or if you’ve never had the opportunity, I would recommend a reading or
rereading of the Hebrew Testament Book of Genesis and one or two of the New
Testament Gospels--Matthew or Luke, and John--as background to some of the
religious texts we’ll be studying throughout the term.
Requirements: two four- to six-page essays (±1400 words, 20% each), final (20%), three very
brief oral presentations (two summaries and a hagiography--20%),
class grade (quizzes, participation, attendance, 20%). Perfect attendance and
timely submission of assignments are of course expected; missed quizzes may not
be made up and more than four absences will certainly have an adverse effect on
your grade. Try to keep in touch when unexpected circumstances arise (email is
best).
You will have three opportunities to submit the two
papers. I will make available a
(non-exhaustive) list of possible topics several days in advance of each due
date (note: you must submit an essay for the first due date, 4/16). Extensions will be granted, but only if they
are requested more than 24 hours in advance of a deadline. Be advised that I take the issue of academic
dishonesty very seriously; plagiarism on papers will generally mean an instant
F for the assignment, possible disciplinary action by the College, and my
undying disapprobation. Please refer to this site for further details, and
please please please ask me
if you have any questions.
Course documents and assignments will be posted on Moodle,
but the main course page will be located at www.umsl.edu/~gradyf/eng114sp2015.htm.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
·
Mandeville, Sir John. The Book of Marvels and Travels. Trans.
Anthony Bale. Oxford World’s Classics, 2012.
ISBN 978-0-19-960060-1
·
The
Gawain Poet: Complete Works: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Patience,
Cleanness, Pearl, Saint Erkenwald.
Trans. Marie Borroff. Paperback. W. W. Norton & Company, 2011.
ISBN 978-0393912357
[hence CW]
·
Langland, William. Piers Plowman: An
Alliterative Verse Translation.
Trans. E. Talbot Donaldson. W.W. Norton, 1990. ISBN 978-0-393-96011-2
·
Kempe, Margery. The Book of Margery Kempe.
Trans. Lynne Staley. Norton Critical Edition. W.W. Norton, 2000. ISBN 978-0-393-97639-7
·
Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte D'Arthur:
The Winchester Manuscript. Ed. Helen Cooper. Oxford World's Classics, 1998.
Paperback. ISBN 978-0192824202
RECOMMENDED:
·
Leiman and Balaam, The Carleton Student’s Guide to Writing for
English Courses
TentaTive
SYLLABUS:
M MAR 30 Introduction; thinking about the middle ages
W APR 1 The Travels
of Sir John Mandeville: Pilgrimage
(chs. 1-8, pp. 5-57)
F APR 3 Mandeville’s Travels: Here
Be Monsters; Circumnavigation
(chs. 6-15, pp. 57-87)
M APR 6 Mandeville’s Travels: Geotheologicopolitics
(chs. 16-24, pp. 87-124)
W APR 8 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: “in their first age…still” (parts 1-2; CW 201-27)
F APR 10
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Green Christmas (parts 2- 4; CW 227-60)
M APR 13 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: “polished as a pearl?”
W APR 15 Pearl: Flawless (CW 125-160)
**TH APR 16 First
essay due date**
F APR 17 Saint Erkenwald: Recuperating the Past (CW
175-83)
M APR 20 Piers Plowman: “Son, are you asleep?” (Prologue and Passus 1, pp. 1-22)
W APR 22 Piers Plowman: Money Makes the World Go ‘Round (Passus 2-4, pp. 22-39)
F APR 24 Piers Plowman:
The Seven Deadly Sins—Live! (Passus 5, pp. 39-60)
M APR 27
Piers Plowman: Strivings against the Statute / (Passus
6, pp. 60-70)
1351 Statute of Laborers & associated
petitions (Moodle)
W APR 29 Piers Plowman: The Tearing of the Pardon / The Inner Journey Begins
(Passus 7-8, pp.70-80)
F MAY 1 Piers Plowman: Thought/Wit/Study; The Harrowing of Hell (Passus 9 & 10.1-226, pp. 81-95; Passus
18, 200-14)
M MAY 4 NO CLASS --
MID-TERM BREAK
W MAY 6 Piers Plowman:
Antichrist (Passus 19-20, pp. 214-41)
F MAY 8 NO CLASS -- FG
CONFERENCE TRAVEL
**Please watch Macaulay, Cathedral (58m)**
M MAY 11 The Book of Margery Kempe: “A man
most seemly, most beautiful” (Prologue and chs. 1-37
[pp. 3-67])
W MAY 13
The Book of
Margery Kempe:
Margery Kempe, Heretic? (chs.
38-55 [pp. 67-101], 58-63 [105-15],
75-81 [130-44], 85 [151-52])
F MAY 15
Geoffrey
Chaucer, The Parliament of Fowls
(Moodle)
**Sa May 16 Second essay due
date**
M MAY 18 Chaucer, The Franklin’s
Tale (Moodle)
W MAY 20
Malory, Le Morte D’Arthur:
Foundations ( “How Uther Pendragon…,” 3-32; “The
Wedding of King Arthur,” 50-57; Caxton’s Preface,
528-30)
F MAY 22 Malory: IOKIYAKOTRT (“The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney,”
120-68)
M MAY 25 Malory: The Grail Quest (“The Noble Tale of the Sangrail,” 311-402)
W MAY 27 Malory: Lancelot and Guenevere--Lusty
Deeds & Tears
(“The Tale of Sir Lancelot…,” 403-67)
F MAY
29 Malory: The Beginning of the End (“The Death of King
Arthur,” 468-505)
M JUN 1 Malory: Everybody Dies, Maybe (“The Death of King Arthur,”
506-27)
W JUN 3 TBA
** Th
Jun 4 Third essay
due date**
Final
Exam: MON JUN 8, 8:30-11:00
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providing reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities. Students
seeking accommodations should contact the Coordinator of Disability Services,
Andy Christensen, at 222-4464 or anchrist@carleton.edu, to begin the process.