- Autumn 2021
Syllabus Description:
ENGL 320A Au 21: English Literature: The Middle Ages
The course offers an advanced (300-level) treatment of the literature of the Middle Ages (now generally referred to as the Premodern period), the level of treatment falling between the introductory courses ENGL 210 and ENGL 211 (expansively addressing English Literature 400-1700) and ENGL 422 (treating the legends of King Arthur). The Autumn 2021 offering of this class meets on-campus, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 11:30 until 1:20 PM, in Room 003 of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Building. In addition, full accommodations will be made for students who are registered with any special registration status, and full accommodations will also be made for any situations arising out of considerations relating to quarantine. Specifically, substantial video resources will be made available via the Canvas site for the course, backing up the in-classroom instruction. In this offering, an emphasis will be placed on the fictional "universe" of the court, on and the literary medium of the dream-vision. The selections here are notable for the inclusion of Old English prose as well as poetry. In the discussion of early English, we will read and discuss important works from the Old and Middle English periods, including a range of compositions by Old English poets, the early medieval English Life of King Alfred, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and a selection of non-canonical items. There will be a mid-term, final and a major term paper.
Course Texts:
Hamer, Richard, A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse, 2nd ed. (Faber, 2015)
Heaney, Seamus, trans., Beowulf: A New Verse Trans. (dual-lang. ed.) (Norton, 2001)
Old English prose and the Life of King Alfred (handouts)
Winny, James trans., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Broadview, 1882)
Beidler, Peter, Chaucer: Canterbury Tales, rev. ed. (Bantam, 2006)