English 240 - Winter, 2012

Medieval Literature

Class Information

Instructor: Chaganti, Seeta
CRN: 53872
Time: T 3:10-6:00
Location: 120 Voorhies
Breadth: Earlier British
Focus: Method

Description

Constructing the Middle Ages


In this course we will read an assortment of medieval texts that were edited and brought to scholarly notice and popular readership between the early modern period and the nineteenth century. Our purpose in focusing on these texts, and the critical apparatuses that their early editors created for them, will be to consider the extent to which the literary and cultural era we call the Middle Ages is a construction passed down to us by scholarly traditions subsequent to the medieval period. The course will be divided into units on romance, anthology, and Chaucer studies.

Grading

Weekly response papers; final paper.

Texts

Complete Works of the Pearl-Poet, Finch (ed.)
Arthurian Romances, de Troyes
In an Antique Land, Ghosh
Canterbury Tales Complete, Chaucer
Sir Tristrem, Scott
King Arthur and His Knights, Malory