MDVL 411

Spring 2014

Part of Term 1
Jan 21-May 7
Chaucer
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Credit: 3 OR 4 hours.

Same as ENGL 411. See ENGL 411.

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CRN Type Section Time Day Location Instructor Section Details
32135
Lecture-Discussion
1G
9:30AM -10:45AM
TR
English Building
Wright, C
Part of Term:
1
Date Range:
01/21/14-05/07/14
Credit:
4 hours
Section Info:
This course will focus on Chaucer?s literary career before The Canterbury Tales, when he wrote his delightful dream visions as well as his masterpiece, the great romance Troilus and Crisyede. Chaucer?s earliest poems all recount vivid dreams that instruct the dreamer and the reader about life, death, and the deep blue sea, but mostly about love: The Book of the Duchess, a meditation on the psychology of grief and consolation in the form of a dialogue between the dreamer and a disconsolate knight who can bear to speak of his loss only in metaphors; The House of Fame, a guided tour of earthly fame and literary history, conducted by a talkative eagle; The Parliament of Fowls, a comic allegory of spiritual and carnal love staged as a Valentine?s Day gathering of birds, presided over by the goddess Nature; and The Legend of Good Women, an object lesson about women for the benefit of Chaucer himself, ostensibly to make amends for his portrayal of the unfaithful lover Crisyede in Troilus and Crisyede. One of the glories of medieval literature, Troilus and Criseyde tells the tragic story of two lovers?a prince and a widow?trapped by the shifting fortunes of the Trojan War and by their own fateful choices. Troilus gets right to the core of how we make moral judgments: not just how we make them for and about ourselves, but how we make them for and about others. Ye knowe ek that in forme of speche is chaunge / Withinne a thousand yeer (?You know also that in form of speech is change / Within a thousand years?). To read this line in Chaucer?s Middle English, you only need to get used to some old spellings and learn that Ye is Modern English ?You? (as in ?God Rest Ye Merry Gentelmen?) and that ek means ?also.? We?ll be using editions that give the Modern English for every word you might not immediately recognize in the margin, right next to each line. Just imagine what you?d lose if you read Shakespeare in Modern English translation, and what you gain from reading it in the original. Same goes for Chaucer, except that Chaucer?s lines are often easier to read than Shakespeare?s. TEXTS: Geoffrey Chaucer: Dream Visions and Other Poems, A Norton Critical Edition, ed. Karthryn L. Lynch; Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde, A Norton Critical Edition, ed. Stephen A. Barney
Restriction(s):
Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
32133
Lecture-Discussion
1U
9:30AM -10:45AM
TR
English Building
Wright, C
Part of Term:
1
Date Range:
01/21/14-05/07/14
Credit:
3 hours
Section Info:
This course will focus on Chaucer?s literary career before The Canterbury Tales, when he wrote his delightful dream visions as well as his masterpiece, the great romance Troilus and Crisyede. Chaucer?s earliest poems all recount vivid dreams that instruct the dreamer and the reader about life, death, and the deep blue sea, but mostly about love: The Book of the Duchess, a meditation on the psychology of grief and consolation in the form of a dialogue between the dreamer and a disconsolate knight who can bear to speak of his loss only in metaphors; The House of Fame, a guided tour of earthly fame and literary history, conducted by a talkative eagle; The Parliament of Fowls, a comic allegory of spiritual and carnal love staged as a Valentine?s Day gathering of birds, presided over by the goddess Nature; and The Legend of Good Women, an object lesson about women for the benefit of Chaucer himself, ostensibly to make amends for his portrayal of the unfaithful lover Crisyede in Troilus and Crisyede. One of the glories of medieval literature, Troilus and Criseyde tells the tragic story of two lovers?a prince and a widow?trapped by the shifting fortunes of the Trojan War and by their own fateful choices. Troilus gets right to the core of how we make moral judgments: not just how we make them for and about ourselves, but how we make them for and about others. Ye knowe ek that in forme of speche is chaunge / Withinne a thousand yeer (?You know also that in form of speech is change / Within a thousand years?). To read this line in Chaucer?s Middle English, you only need to get used to some old spellings and learn that Ye is Modern English ?You? (as in ?God Rest Ye Merry Gentelmen?) and that ek means ?also.? We?ll be using editions that give the Modern English for every word you might not immediately recognize in the margin, right next to each line. Just imagine what you?d lose if you read Shakespeare in Modern English translation, and what you gain from reading it in the original. Same goes for Chaucer, except that Chaucer?s lines are often easier to read than Shakespeare?s. TEXTS: Geoffrey Chaucer: Dream Visions and Other Poems, A Norton Critical Edition, ed. Karthryn L. Lynch; Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde, A Norton Critical Edition, ed. Stephen A. Barney
Restriction(s):
Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
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