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ENGL20121 Chaucer: Texts, Contexts, Conflicts Lecturer: David Matthews Seminar tutors: Robert Mitchell and Daisy Black Click for coursework questions here:
Lecture schedule: Lectures take place on Tuesdays at 9am in Ellen Wilkinson A2.16 and commence on September 27 Texts must be read before each lecture 1 Chaucer and his time: Introduction. Reading: begin with General Prologue to Canterbury Tales 2 Chaucer and Middle English. Reading: complete General Prologue, begin Miller's Tale 3 Frag I: Miller's Tale 4 Frag. I, cont'd: Miller's and Reeve's Tales 5 Frag. I, concluded: Reeve's and Cook's Tales 6 Reading week 7 Frag. II: Man of Law's Tale 8 Frag. III: Man of Law 9 Frag. III: Wife of Bath 10 Frag. III: Wife of Bath 11 Frag IV: Clerk's Tale 12 Frag V: Franklin's Tale
Essential text: Robert Boenig and Andrew Taylor, eds. The Canterbury Tales. Broadview, 2008. Please do NOT buy Boenig and Taylor's The Canterbury Tales: A Selection (2009). Read: In the General Prologue, at least the portraits of the Miller, Reeve, Cook, Man of Law, Wife of Bath, Clerk, and Franklin; also the Miller's Tale, the Reeve's Tale, the Cook's Tale, the Man of Law's Tale (including introduction and epilogue), the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, the Clerk's Tale; the Franklin’s Tale. The exam consists of two sections. In the first, there are several passages, each taken from one of the texts we have read ('text' here means individual Canterbury Tale, or, where relevant, Prologue to one of the Tales). You will be asked to identify the text from which it comes and to write a close analysis of the passage, considering its individual features, its relevance to the text as a whole, and any other aspects that seem to you important. These might include metrical features, grammatical features, or rhetorical features. You might want to discuss certain key words, or repetitions of words and/or ideas. The second part of the exam consists of essay-style questions. You will answer one of these. Each one of these questions is based on a short quotation from The Canterbury Tales. Each one asks you to discuss the issue raised by the quotation, and to do so 'in relation to ANY TWO OR MORE texts (that is, the tales you have read, the General Prologue, and the head- and endlinks)'. Please note that the format of the second part of the exam is slightly different from that of past years, in that it asks you to consider 'two or more' texts. Remember that you should not present the same material for assessment twice. The easiest way to avoid that is simply not to write on the same text twice.Any quotations from Chaucer should be from the Boenig and Taylor edition; obviously I'm aware that in exam conditions, you might not remember all quotations entirely accurately. I make allowance for that. I never recommend that you learn quotations from the either primary source or secondary criticism by heart. But you should know your primary texts well, and it certainly helps to have a grasp of major strands of thought in criticism, along with some key phrases that critics might have used to describe Chaucer and his work.
Secondary reading: You will find some of the essays in the following useful: Steve Ellis, ed. Chaucer: An Oxford Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. I recommend in particular chs. 8 (to help with reading Chaucer), 2, and 1. The essays in Part III will give you an overview of the trends in criticism. Seminars: these will closely follow the lecture schedule; your tutor will tell you exactly what should be read for each session. It is essential that you read the prescribed work before each seminar. Additional reading: Texts frequently referred to in lectures, and useful introductory texts for the study of Chaucer, are listed below (all are available in the University Library). This is not intended as an exhaustive list. Note that there are numerous journal publications on Chaucer, which you should also consider. There are two specialist journals, Chaucer Review and Studies in the Age of Chaucer. The latter, which is based at the University of Manchester, publishes an annual Chaucer bibliography which you will find useful; for further possibilities see Mark Allen, 'Printed Resources', in Ellis, ed. Chaucer: An Oxford Guide, pp. 595-98. There are numerous websites on Chaucer: however, you should be aware that they are of widely varying quality. See some of the links on my homepage; see further Philippa Semper, 'Electronic Resources' in Ellis's Guide, pp. 607-19. David Aers, Chaucer (London: Harvester, 1986) Gail Ashton, Studying Chaucer: Approaching ‘The Canterbury Tales’ (Plymbridge House, 2000) Piero Boitani and Jill Mann, eds., The Cambridge Chaucer Companion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986) Helen Cooper, The Canterbury Tales, Oxford Guides to Chaucer, 2nd ed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996) Sheila Delany, Medieval Literary Politics (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990). Carolyn Dinshaw, Chaucer’s Sexual Poetics (London, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989) Steve Ellis, ed., Chaucer: An Oxford Guide (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) Elaine Tuttle Hansen, Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender (Oxford, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992) Maurice Keen, England in the Later Middle Ages, 2nd ed (London: Routledge, 2003) V.A. Kolve, Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative (London: Edward Arnold, 1984) Peggy Knapp, Chaucer and the Social Contest (London, New York: Routledge, 1990) Stephen Knight, Geoffrey Chaucer (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986) Barbara Hanawalt, ed. Chaucer's England (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1992) Jill Mann, Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire (London: Cambridge University Press, 1973) Lee Patterson, Chaucer and the Subject of History (London: Routledge, 1991) Derek Pearsall, The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992) Helen Phillips, An Introduction to ‘The Canterbury Tales’ (London: Macmillan, 2000) Paul Strohm, Social Chaucer (London, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1989) David Wallace, 'Chaucer and the Absent City', 59-90 in Hanawalt, ed. (above)
Further help and useful links: One of the best ways to learn to read Chaucer is to practice reading aloud, and to listen to readings of his work. The Chaucer Metapage provides some very useful recordings of various scholars reading Chaucer (you may need to download some software to play the files). The Librarius site is very useful. It offers a text of the Canterbury Tales with an interactive glossary. It also offers a translation - but be warned that much of this is too free and easy with the text for scholarly purposes.Go back to my home page for further links to useful sites on Chaucer, or see the far more comprehensive listing on the links page of the New Chaucer Society site. Chaucer Timeline Early
1340s. Birth of Geoffrey Chaucer 1346.
Battle of Crécy: England, under King Edward III, defeats France
in one of the major
encounters of the Hundred Years War. 1348.
First appearance of plague ("Black Death") in England 1356.
The English crown prince Edward (the "Black Prince") defeats the
French at Poitiers 1357.
Geoffrey Chaucer is a page in the household of the countess of Ulster,
wife of
Lionel, a son of King Edward III 1359.
Chaucer, a soldier, captured in France 1360.
Treaties end the war temporarily, leaving large parts of France in
English
hands 1362.
English becomes the official language of legal proceedings in England
(though
records are still made in Latin) 1366-67.
Chaucer marries Philippa, a woman of the queen's household; he is
mentioned as
a member of the royal household 1368-70.
Chaucer probably visits Italy on king's business. His earliest known
writings.
War resumes in 1370 1373.
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, leads an unsuccessful campaign in
France 1374.
Chaucer appointed controller of the export tax (customs) on wool,
sheepskins
and leather in the port of London, a position he holds for twelve years 1375.
Truce with France; many of English gains of 1360 now lost 1377.
Edward III dies, is succeeded by his grandson, Richard II 1378.
Chaucer visits Italy again. Beginning of the Schism in the Church Early
1380s. Chaucer begins Canterbury Tales (CT). 1381:
Peasant's
Revolt 1386-88.
Richard II sidelined as king by the "Lords Appellant" who include
Henry of Derby, son of the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt. Chaucer's
official
career, too, curtailed; renewed work on CT 1389.
Richard II reasserts himself. Chaucer re-emerges as an official; is in
charge of the king's building works 1392-95.
Much of CT composed 1397-98.
After several peaceful years, Richard exacts revenge, executing or
exiling
enemies; Henry of Derby (now duke of Hereford) exiled for ten years.
Chaucer
engaged on last work on CT 1399.
John of Gaunt dies; Henry of Derby returns to claim inheritance and
deposes Richard II, takes the throne as Henry IV 1400. Chaucer dies and is buried in Westminster Abbey See further: Derek Pearsall, The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992) |