Chaucer and his Contemporaries, c.1380-c.1420
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| ENGL2011 | English | 2 | 20 | Autumn UK |
- Code
- ENGL2011
- School
- English
- Level
- 2
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Autumn UK
Summary
This module will introduce students to the exceptionally rich period of writing in English at the end of the fourteenth century and turn of the fifteenth. It will focus on the so-called Ricardian poets, Chaucer (selected Canterbury Tales, Parliament of Fowls, Legend of Good Women), Langland (excerpts from Piers Plowman), Gower (excerpts from Confessio Amantis) and the Gawain-poet (Patience). It will include discussion of Thomas Hoccleve’s early poems, and the prose works of the female mystics Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. Students will explore the literary, political and religious preoccupations of Ricardian and early Lancastrian writers, their sources and influences. A range of genres (dream vision, romance, allegory, tale collection, exemplary narrative, life writing / spiritual biography) and forms including the relationship between rhymed and alliterative traditions of poetic composition, and Middle English prose. Fourteenth and Fifteenth-century reading practices and the transmission and circulation of texts in manuscript culture.The dialectal variety of Middle English, from a synchronic perspective.
Target Students
Only available to second-year students on SH and JH English programmes, including 2+2 programmes; students participating in exchanges from the School partner institutions; and second or third-year students on the Liberal Arts programme.
Classes
- One 1-hour seminar each week for 11 weeks
- One 2-hour lecture each week for 11 weeks
Assessment
- 25% Coursework 1: 750-word commentary
- 75% Coursework 2: 2250-word essay
Assessed by end of autumn semester
Educational Aims
In common with all Level 2 medieval provision, this module aims to provide students with:The opportunity to develop particular expertise in an area of medieval studiesPractice in reading literatures against different contexts, including political, cultural and theoreticalConfidence in developing their own interpretations through attention to the detail of the texts under considerationPeriod Specific aims:Experience and fluency in reading varieties of late Middle EnglishA knowledge of a range of literary forms, devices, and stylesAn understanding of generic variation during a focused period of time and in a single national context, but acknowledging the significance of regional /metropolitan literary cultureThe ability to engage with a variety of historicised and theoretical readings, and to construct their ownLearning Outcomes
Knowledge and understanding
- The methods of transmission and circulation of medieval texts and the particular challenges of interpretation associated with that evidence (A1)
- Theoretical and historical approaches to the study of medieval languages and literatures (A2)
- A range of topics and themes explored in late fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century writing (A5)
- The variety of styles and forms exploited by late medieval poets and prose writers (A5)
Intellectual skills
- The ability to argue a case using detailed evidence from a variety of material (B3)
- The ability to apply contextual information in interpretation, while recognising the limits and challenges of that task (B2)
- The ability to read a range of Middle English dialects and note important linguistic characteristics and their significance (B4)
- The ability to recognise different genres and literary forms (B1)
- The ability to research historical and literary contexts (B1)
Professional practical skills
- The ability to draw together a variety of sources (e.g. glossaries) appropriately to illuminate a question (C1)
- The ability to carry out independent and class-based research, evidenced in summative assessment (C5)
Transferable (key) skills common to all medieval modules
- The ability to identify a question and work out the information necessary to address it (D5)
- the ability to conduct self-directed study and present written findings clearly (D2)
Conveners
- Dr Dana Key
- Dr Michael Jones