ENGLISH 4260: CHAUCER
F. GRADY SPRING
2013
455 LUCAS T-TH
11:00-12:15
516-5592 JC
PENNEY 64
T-Th 2:00-4:30 & by appointment [#14285]
Three hundred years after
Chaucer's death, John Dryden called him "the father of English
poetry"; now, three hundred years after that, his
work is more closely and widely
studied than ever before. His best-known
poem, The Canterbury Tales, is justly celebrated for its richness and
variety, both literary--the Tales
include fabliaux, romances, sermons, hagiographies, fantasies, satires,
treatises, fables and exempla--and thematic,
with its explorations of courtly
love and scatology, piety and impiety, chivalry and pacifism, fidelity and
adultery. At the same time, The
Canterbury
Tales has also routinely been the
target of censorship--it happened as recently as 1995 in Eureka, Illinois (about 175 miles from St.
Louis).
This semester we'll study those Tales
in as much depth as we can manage, to try to figure out what might make them so
compelling, or,
alternately, so disturbing. We’ll also explore the ways in which
Chaucer’s work has proven amenable—or susceptible—to contemporary critical
approaches attentive to issues
of gender, class, and language.
The literature of the middle ages has the sometimes
baffling quality of seeming simultaneously foreign and familiar, since in this
historically
remote
period the basic structures (and basic problems) of contemporary Western
culture were in the making; appreciating and understanding medieval
texts
thus requires (and can help foster) some intellectual agility and an open
mind. All Chaucer reading will be in Middle
English; previous experience
with the language will be an asset, but is not
required—plenty of experience will be provided.
Course
Requirements: Two five- to six-page essays (±1500 words), 15 and 20%; two Chaucerian
imitations, 15% each; 3-4 wiki
entries, 10%;
final exam, 20%; class grade (attendance,
participation, quizzes), 5%. You will have multiple opportunities to hand in
the essays and imitations,
though everyone must submit the portrait
assignment due 2/8 and the first essay due 2/20; I will distribute a
non-exhaustive list of topics about ten
days in advance of each due date, with copies
also posted on the web. Faithful (i.e.,
perfect) attendance is expected; quizzes may not be made up, and
five or more absences from class will
certainly have an adverse affect on your grade.
(Further details on the English Department’s goals for 4000-level
courses can be found here.) Plagiarism on papers, electronic or
the old-fashioned kind, will mean an instant F for the assignment, my undying
disapprobation,
and possible disciplinary action by the
university; please refer to this site for further details, and
please please please ask me
if you
have any questions.
Basic course
materials (including class powerpoints) will be
posted on MyGateway, while the syllabus website
linked to my own homepage (http://www.umsl.edu/~gradyf)
will be the main one for the course, with links to supplementary materials and other Chaucer-related sites on the web.
Required Texts:
The Canterbury Tales, 2nd ed., ed.
Robert
Boenig & Andrew Taylor (Broadview, 2012; ISBN: 9781554811069 /
1554811066). Hence BCT. Really
any
complete Canterbury Tales in Middle
English will do, but this is the edition I’ve ordered.
A selection of critical
articles, available as pdfs on MyGateway
(indicated by *).
TENTATIVE SYLLABUS:
T JAN 22
Introduction: Thinking About the Middle Ages; Reading
Middle English
The Manciple’s Tale (BCT 391-96)
T JAN 29
England in the Fourteenth Century; The
Canterbury Tales
General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (I.1-444/BCT 47-55)
*Strohm, “The social and
literary scene in England” (MyGateway)
TH
JAN 31 The Canterbury Tales: Pilgrimage, Estates Satire, Sentence and Solaas
General Prologue to the Canterbury
Tales (I.445-858/BCT 55-61)
Prologue
and excerpts from Piers Plowman (MyGateway and BCT 480-82)
T FEB 5 General Prologue: Governaunce and the structure of
the Tales
*Donaldson,”Chaucer the
Pilgrim” (MyGateway)
Portrait development workshop
TH FEB 7
The Knight’s Tale:
Philosophical romance?
Knight’s Tale
I (I.859-1354/BCT 63-69)
F
FEB 8 Portrait imitation due
T
FEB 12
The Knight’s Tale: The story of Theseus; the interrupted triumph
Knight’s Tale II-IV (I.1355-3108/BCT 70-95)
Muscatine, “Form,
Texture, and Meaning in Chaucer's Knight's Tale” (MyGateway)
TH
FEB 21 No Class--Snowmageddon
T
FEB 26 The
Miller’s Tale: fabliau justice
Miller's Tale (I 3187-3854/BCT 98-108)
TH FEB 28 The Reeve’s Tale: the quiting game
Reeve’s
Prologue and Tale (I 3855-4324/BCT 109-16)
*Patterson, “Chaucer” (MyGateway)
T MAR 5 The
Man of Law’s Tale: Hagiography
and romance
Man of Law's Prologue and Tale I & II (II 1-875/BCT 121-37)
TH MAR 7 The Man of Law’s Tale: Hagiography and romance and feminism?
Man of Law's
Tale III (II 876-1190/BCT 137-42)
T MAR 12 The Wife of Bath's Prologue:Wives versus
clerks, round 1
Wife of
Bath's Prologue (III 1-856/BCT 147-61)
TH MAR 14 The
Wife of Bath's Tale: Romance revisited
Wife of Bath's Tale (III 857-1264/BCT
163-68)
T MAR 19 The Wife of Bath's Tale: Romance revisited,
revisited; Friar’s Prologue and Tale
*John Gower, The Tale of Florent (MyGateway); Friar's Prologue and Tale (III 1265-1664/BCT 169-175)
W MAR 20 Second
Essay Due Date
Summoner's Prologue and Tale (III
1665-2294/ BCT 176-86)
T MAR 26
& TH MAR 28
SPRING BREAK
Clerk's Tale (IV 1-1212/BCT
189-208)
T APR 9 The
Merchant’s Tale: “wo that is in mariage”
Merchant’s
Prologue and Tale (IV 1213-2418/BCT 209-228)
W APR 10 Clerk’s Tale imitation due
Franklin's
Prologue and Tale (V 673-1624/BCT
243-58)
*Lipton, “Beyond Kittredge: Teaching Marriage in The Canterbury Tales”
Pardoner's
Prologue and Tale (VI 329-968/BCT 267-76)
T APR 23 Shipman and Prioresse:
Piety and impiety continued; medieval antisemitism
Shipman's
Tale (VII 1-452/BCT 279-85)
“Chaucer’s Life and Times” (BCT 9-14)
T
APR 30 The Monk’s Tale: De casibus tragedy & its discontents
Monk's Prologue and Tale
(VII 1889-2766/BCT 329-45)
TH
MAY 2 The Nun’s Priest’s Tale: Aesop meets
Aquinas
Nun's
Priest's Prologue and Tale (VII 2767-3446/BCT 347-59)
M May 6 Monk’s
Tale / Melibee imitations
due
T
MAY 7 The Parson’s Tale: No more fables
Parson's
Prologue and Tale (excerpts) (X 1-175/BCT
399-406, plus your favorite sin!)
Retractions (BCT -461)
F MAY 10 Fourth Essay Due
Date
F May 10 Parson’s Tale imitation due
T
MAY 14 Final
Exam, 10:00-12:00
