Image taken from The Harp and the Helmet: Caedmon's World
ENGL 4830: Advanced Studies: The Making of the Middle Ages
The Making of the Middle Ages is designed to introduce students
to contextual issues important for an understanding of medieval English
literature, both historical and philosophical. The course will present
a selection of major medieval works necessary for understanding the literature.
It will also introduce a number of major contemporary interpretative studies,
exemplifying them by a reading of works of literature, not necessarily
those considered canonical. The book edited by Elaine Treharne has facing-page
modern English translations of Old English and some difficult Middle English
texts. When editing texts, she uses three characters in the manuscripts
but not used in Present Day English: Þ/þ (a voiceless th
as in "thorn"); Ð/ð (a voiced th as in "either"); Æ/æ
(a ligature of a and e); and 3 (y).
The required books are Old and Middle English: An Anthology, ed. Elaine Treharne; The Discarded Image, C. S. Lewis; The Portable Medieval Reader, ed. James Bruce Ross and Mary Martin McLaughlin; and a coursepack.
Students will be asked to do two oral reports, approximately 10 minutes each, accompanied by a handout. During the first half of the term, reports will be on medieval chroniclers and during the second half of the term, reports will be on medieval philosophers. The main assignment will be one 15-20 page paper (topic to be chosen by student), due Monday, March15. Each student will present a 10-minute synopsis of his or her paper in class on Tuesday, March 9. In addition, there will be an in-class final examination covering general points about the Middle Ages and medieval thought and literature.
Students may also wish to know about Labyrinth on the World-Wide Web, which is the main server for medieval studies. There is a link to it on the links page of my home page.
SCHEDULE OF READINGS
Tuesday, January 6 INTRODUCTION
Introduction to Middle English (Chaucer's General Prologue -
Reader)
Thursday, January 8 The Vision of the Universe
Lewis The Discarded Image (read at least "The Medieval Situation,"
"Reservations," "Statius, Claudian, and the Lady Natura," "Macrobius,"
"Pseudo-Dionysius," "Boethius," "The Heavens," and "Earth and Her Inhabitants")
Alfred's translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy
(Treharne 14)
Tuesday, January 13 The Vision of History
Articles by Fred Robinson, Charles Jones, and Stephen Fanning (reader)
Bede (Treharne 1)
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Treharne 20)
Thursday, January 15
* Otto of Freisburg "A Philosophy of History" (Ross 562)
Peterborough Chronicle (Treharne 254)
La3amon's Brut (Treharne 369)
* Cursor Mundi (Teharne 436)
Christianity and the Church
Tuesday, January 20
Dream of the Rood (Treharne 108)
Advent Lyrics VII and VIII (Treharne 36)
Thursday, January 22
Vercelli Homily X (Treharne 98)
* Ælfric's Passion of St. Edmund (Treharne 132)
"The Hymns of St. Godric" (Treharne 272)
Tuesday, January 27
Boniface VII (Ross 233)
Thomas Becket (Ross 248)
* Election and Coronation of a Pope (Ross 236)
* Creation of Cardinals (Ross 239)
* Fourth Lateran Council (Ross 241)
Lyrics (Teharne 416-420)
Thursday, January 29
* Richard Rolle "Ego Dormio" (Treharne 530)
Margery Kempe (Ross 679)
Julian of Norwich, chapters 2-6 and 58-60 (Reader)
"Handlynge Synne" (Teharne 441)
Government and Society
Tuesday, February 3
* Old English laws (Reader)
Asser's Life of Alfred (Reader)
* Giraldus Cambrensis, Henry II (Ross 356)
* John of Salisbury, Nature of the True Prince (Ross 251)
* Suger, Louis VI of France (Ross 267)
"King Robert of Sicily" (Reader)
Thursday, February 5
Duties of Manorial Officers (Ross 130)
* Making of a Merchant (Ross 138)
Advice to a Norwegian Merchant (Ross 144)
Chaucer's Portraits of Merchant, Wife of Bath, and Reeve, General
Prologue 270-284, 445-476 and 587-622 (Reader)
Chaucer's "Shipman's Tale" (Reader)
The Body Social
Tuesday, February 10: Oratores
* Peter Damian "The Monastic Ideal" (Ross 49)
Chaucer - Parson's Portrait (Reader)
John Gower "A Parson" from Vox clamantis (Miller 215)
Thursday, February 12 : Bellatores
John of Salisbury "The Function of Knighthood" (Ross 90)
* Díaz de Gámez "The Chivalric Ideal" (Ross 91)
Chaucer - Portrait of Knight, General Prologue 43-78 (Reader)
Tuesday, February 17 : Bellatores
Ywain and Gawain (Treharne 569)
Thursday, February 19: Labores
John of Salisbury "The Feet of the Commonwealth" (Ross 129)
"The Good Wife" (Ross 154)
"Of the Churl Who Won Paradise" (Ross 512)
Chaucer - Portrait of Plowman, General Prologue 529-541 (Reader)
Langland, from Piers Plowman, VIII 304-324 and 70-96 (Reader
and Ross 136)
The Wakefield Second Shepherd's Pageant (Reader)
Heroic and Chivalric Ideal
Tuesday, February 24
Articles by Albert Lord, D. H. Green, and Susan Gallick and Pages on
Oral Tradition in Romance (Reader)
"The Wanderer" (Treharne 42)
"The Wife's Lament" (Treharne 76)
"The Battle of Maldon" (Treharne 141)
Thursday, February 26
Beowulf (Treharne 157)
Article by J. R. R. Tolkien (Reader)
Tuesday, March 2
Sir Orfeo (Treharne 465)
Lyrics (Treharne 481-495)
King Horn (Treharne 495)
Education
Thursday, March 4
From The Letters of St. Boniface (Reader)
Alfred's Preface to Pastoral Care (Treharne 10)
The Proverbs of Alfred (Treharne 358)
* The Owl and the Nightingale (Treharne 380)
Tuesday, March 9
Articles by Prudence Allen and Collin Morris, pp. 1-10 (Reader)
* Hali Meiðhad (Treharne 292)
* Hugh of St. Victor "On Study and Teaching" (Ross 573)
* Abelard "The Place of Logic" (Ross 650)
"The Battle of the Arts" (Ross 590)
"Rules of the University of Paris" (Ross 594)
* Roger Bacon - "A Plea for the Studying of Languages (Ross 604)
Chaucer's Portrait of the Clerk (Reader)
"Let's Away with Study" (Ross 502)
Charles Haskins "Medieval Student Letters" (Reader)
* Christine de Pisan from The City of Ladies, ch 1-12 and 36
(handout)
ORAL REPORTS ON PAPERS
MONDAY, MARCH 15; PAPER DUE
Last revised: October 27, 2003