Studies
in Medieval Literature (English 450)
Graduate School Spring Semester 2003,
Brother Anthony (An Sonjae)
Tuesday 2 - 5
This course will be
a general study of the major works of medieval English literature with
considerable time spent on Chaucer.
Week 1: Introduction to the Middle
Ages and the literature of the period
Week 2: Old English Literature in
translation
Bede on Caedmon's dream, Beowulf, The Wanderer, The
Dream of the Rood
Topic: What are the major characteristics of these works? In what ways
are they "elegaic" and "heroic"?
Week 3: Romance: Chivalry and love
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Malory: Morte D'Arthur
(Norton extracts)
Topic: The link and tension between chivalry and love. Read my article on Romantic Love.
(also in Korean)
Week 4: Lyric Poetry in England and
in Europe
English medieval lyrics; the troubadors, Dante: La Vita Nuova,
Petrarch: Canzoniere, Machaut, Villon, Charles d'Orleans
Topic: Contrast English medieval lyrics with the achievements of the
European lyric.
Week 5: Troilus and
Criseyde Books 1 - 3 (Read this work in the Korean translation)
Topic: How does the story develop? What problems does the Narrator express and
how does he deal with them?
Week 6: Troilus and Criseyde
Topic: Why is this story 'a tragedy'? What is the significance of the
Boethian elements? Why does Troilus laugh near the end?
Week 7: The Canterbury Tales:
The General Prologue
Topic: How should we read the portraits? Are they meant to be realistic?
Satirical? What criteria are to be applied in judging the story- telling
contest?
Week 8: The Knight's Tale
Topic: What is this story about? Compare its view of love and of human
life with that found in Troilus and Criseyde. Read my article
Week 9: The Miller's Tale (and
The Reeve's Tale)
Topic: Are these tales "funny"? If not, what are they? What is
their status as "literature"? What are they doing in the Canterbury
Tales?
Week 10: The Wife of Bath's
Prologue and Tale (this class will be re-scheduled)
Topic: Who is the Wife? A voice? A "character"? A model, or a
monster? Is she a feminist in any sense? What is the relationahip between
medieval antifeminism and her words? What is the relationship between the
Prologue and the Tale?
Week 11: The Pardoner's Prologue
and Tale
Topic: Compare this with Piers Plowman as an exercise in satire
aimed at corruption in the Church and beyond that at human sin in general.
Comment on the way the Tale ends. Reflect on the contrast between the teller
and the tale. Read
my article (also in Korean)
Week 12: The Nun's Priest's Tale
Topic: Think carefully about the way this is a story about people telling
stories and trying to give meaningful messages through the stories they tell.
What is the "moral" of the NPT? Why so much talk about dreams? Read my
article
Week 13: The Clerk's Tale
Topic: Respond to the way the story of Griselde's experiences is told. What is
your view of Walter? What is this story about? Comment on the final portion of
the Tale.
Week 14: The Prioress's Tale
and The Nun's Tale
Compare these two "religious" tales. Why is the first often
considered "anti-Semitic"? Does it have any special theme? What might
explain the inclusion of the story of St. Cecilia in the Canterbury Tales?
Read my article
Week 15: Drama: The Mystery
Play Cycles, moralities and Everyman
Topic: Evaluate these plays as effective drama.
Text Books
1. For most of the
texts: Volume One of the Norton Anthology.
2. For most of the Canterbury
Tales: Brother Anthony and Lee Dong-Chun, Textual Criticism of Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales (SNU Press)
also Lee Dong-Chun and Lee Dong-Il Translation of the Canterbury Tales into
Korean
also Kim Jae-Whan Translation of Troilus and Criseyde into Korean
The Cambridge Chaucer Companion
The Oxford Guides to the Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde
Derek Brewer's Guide to Chaucer.
3. For background
information and an overall survey: Brother Anthony's Literature
in British Society, Volume One (Sogang University Press).
Online Texts and
Study-guides:
Brother Anthony's index page of
Supplementary Texts (especially the Chaucer section)
Brother Anthony's list of Medieval Links
An article outlining the
development of Love in European medieval literature
Extracts from Troilus and Criseyde with summary: Books 1-3, Books 4-5.
(for class use).
A link to the full text of Troilus and Criseyde (modern
spelling, lightly abbreviated)
The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (Introduction)
(Text
with notes) (Hear it being
read)
The Knight's Tale (Full text)
(Shorter text
for class)
The Miller's Tale (Introduction)
(Text)
The Nun's Priest's Tale (Introduction) (Text) (Article)
The Wife of Bath : Prologue
and Tale
The Pardoner's Introduction,
Prologue
and Tale
(Introduction)
The Clerk : Prologue
and Tale
Assignments
Students will write
two well-documented papers, one on Troilus and Criseyde by the tenth
week, one a well-thought comparison of three Canterbury Tales for the end of
semester.
In addition,
students are encouraged to find useful visual material online and in the
library, illustrating the works studied each week, and to collect them in a
scrapbook file during the semester. Scrapbooks will be collected and included
in the final grade.
Evaluation
Active participation
in class (presentations and discussions) (15%)
Scrapbook (15%)
Two reports (35% each)