ENGL 10051 Mapping the Medieval

Course Unit Director: Dr David Matthews

Lecturers: Dr Alexander Rumble, Dr Anke Bernau, Dr David Matthews

 Lecture schedule:

Introductory: Time and Space

Week 1. The Medieval World (Reading: Mandeville`s Travels) (DM)

Week 2. Kings, Kingdoms and Kinship in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (Reading: the genealogical preface to the Parker MS; Cynewulf and Cyneheard. (AR)

Religion

Week 3. Medieval Christianity, Judaism, Islam (DM) References for this week here:

Week 4. Saint's Life: The Life of St Swithun (AR)

 Gender

Week 5. Anglo-Saxon women: The Wife's Lament and the Will of Ælfgifu (AR)

Week 6. Reading Week

Week 7. Virgins, Widows, Wives: Gender and The Wife of Bath's Prologue (AB)  References and notes for this session here:

 Identity           

Week 8.  The Landscape of Old English Literature (Reading: The Ruin) (AR)

Week 9.  Humanity and Bestiality: Marie de France, Bisclavret (AB) notes on this lecture here:

Lordship, Nobility and Chivalry

Week 10.  Lordship and Loyalty in The Battle of Maldon and The Wanderer (AR)

Week 11. The End of Chivalry: Malory's King Arthur (DM)

 Post-Medievalisms

Week 12. The Middle Ages after the Middle Ages (AB)

Coursework questions:

Second essay due: 28 November
Length: 1,250 words

In your two essays, you must write on one Anglo-Saxon text, and one later medieval text - which you do first is up to you.  

Your essay should be prepared in accordance with the guidelines in the appendices of the 'English Literature Programme Handbook'. 

NB: Late essays in the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures receive a mark of zero. Marks can only be reinstated after consideration of special circumstances. Click here for more information on Special Circumstances.

1. To what extent does the title of the text ‘The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ accurately reflect its nature, contents and manuscript tradition?

2. Describe the cult of St Swithun in later Anglo-Saxon England and explain its popularity. 

3. Evaluate the poem known as ‘The Wife’s Lament’ both as a literary text and a social document. 

4. Explain the relevance to a student of Old English literature of a knowledge of Anglo-Saxon history.

5. Andrew Fleck suggests that '[t]he readers of the Travels, imagining themselves as occupying the cultural center of the world, require an other at the fringes of their world as a sort of balance to their perception'. Discuss the implications of both cultural centrality and otherness in the Travels, making close reference to the text.

6.Stephen Greenblatt writes that Mandeville's Travels is 'about what it means not to take possession, about circulation or wandering as an alternative to ownership'. Is this a useful way of thinking about the book? Discuss, with close reference to Mandeville's Travels.

7.Discuss the opposition between sentimentality and brutality in Chaucer’s Prioress's Tale, making close reference to the text.

8. What is the relationship between faith and violence in the Prioress's Tale? Discuss with close reference to the text.

9. 'For as the Freynshe book seyth, the kynge [Arthur] was full lothe that such a noyse shulde be uppon sir Launcelot and his quene; for the kynge had a demyng of hit, but he wolde nat here thereoff, for sir Launcelot had done so much for hym and for the quene so many tymes that wyte you well the kynge loved hym passyngly well.' Discuss the importance of this passage in Malory's 'Tale of the Morte Arthur Saunz Guerdon'; what does it tell us about Malory's larger concerns? 

10. The Wife of Bath is doomed to reaffirm 'the antifeminist stereotype of the greedy, insatiable, domineering wife' (Carolyn Dinshaw). Do you agree? Discuss this reading of the Wife of Bath, with close reference to her Prologue. 

11. Bisclavret, in Marie de France's tale, communicates in quite different ways according to whether he is man or beast. What attitudes are taken in Bisclavret to communication and interpretation?  Discuss, with close reference to the text.

15. 'All the Lais are about men and women who suffer in love, but there is no simple lesson in this mosaic of tales. Rather, in diverse ways, each tale inscribes social and sexual transgressions, the fusion of animal and human natures, real and otherworld settings in a way that encourages readers to … interpret, for themselves.' Discuss this assertion in relation to Marie de France’s Bisclavret.

Exam information:

The exam consists of several passages from texts studied on the course, arranged in two sections: Anglo-Saxon and later medieval. Passages in Anglo-Saxon are given in translation; those in Middle English are glossed. 

The rubric on the exam reads as follows:

Answer in relation to THREE passages, choosing at least ONE from each section. DO NOT write on a text you have already written on for your coursework. 

Identify the source of each passage chosen. Discuss the passage in detail, locating it within the larger context of the source text and referring to such aspects as its style, genre, content, its importance in relation to the rest of the text in which it appears, and anything else you think is relevant.