Louise M. Bishop, voicemail
346-0733, 308 Chapman Hall
Office hour: Wednesday, 11 am to noon (except Wednesday, May 1), and by appointment
Please note that these office hours are shared with the Clark Honors College
undergraduates; you may take your chances, or you may reserve office hour time
one week ahead.
Requirements | Sign-up list for words and topics | Guidelines for annotations | Guidelines for presentation | Weekly reading assignments | Topics/presentation lists | Web resources
The course will examine the literary form of dream vision, attempting to integrate--or at least recognize--formal, psychological, and cultural modes of assessing this poetry. Three Middle English works provide the course's center: Chaucer's Book of the Duchess and Parlement of Foules, and Langland's Piers Plowman will be read within the genre's particular and shifting literary features and effects. Literary context will include the Bible, Macrobius's Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, the Romance of the Rose, and the dits of Guillaume de Machaut. Weekly topics will explore cultural and intellectual contexts--the influence of dream theory, medical practices, and law--as well as literary issues--the subjectivity of the dreamer, vernacularity and reception, and gender readings.
Texts available at Mother Kali's
Also required
Recommended books for general overview of this topic (reserve list submitted 27 March 2002--items will soon be on reserve, except as noted):
1. A brief exercise in Middle English language You'll choose one word from a list, look it up in the Middle English Dictionary, and write a brief paper (one to two pages) on the word's subtleties and their effect on your reading of a line (or two) of Chaucer or Langland. Due Wednesday, April 10. See Web sign-up sheet for words and line references.
2. Topic presentations and annotated bibliography You'll sign up with another class member to present to the class one of eight topics, arranged in a weekly list. Each topic includes preliminary bibliography. If the preliminary bibliography is a critical book, you'll choose one or two chapters to annotate in writing; you'll distribute these annotations to the class. If the preliminary bibliography is an article or two, you'll annotate them for class distribution. If the preliminary bibliography lists a primary text, your job is to read the introduction to the volume and to find at least one pertinent critical article; you'll summarize introduction and annotate the article. In every case, if you've found a better chapter or article to annotate for distribution, do so. Guidelines for your annotations (with thanks to Prof. Lisa Freinkel) Each annotation should be 200-250 words and should cite the article or book chapter using proper MLA documentation style. Generally you should
Guidelines for presentation At the beginning of each class meeting we'll have brief presentations on the topic scheduled for that day. You can also be the "expert" on your topic for subsequent class discussion during the term. Prepare (together, if more than one of you has chosen the topic) a relatively brief (30-45 minutes) presentation in which you explain (a) the topic you researched, (b) what you discovered, and (d) the relevance for our class. Be concise and organized. In your presentation, do not summarize in detail the essays you've read (we already have your annotations). Rather, your presentation's goal is to help us understand some of the ramifications/implications of that topic relative to the dream vision. Your topic needn't necessarily be the topic for your term paper. On the other hand, your immersion in the subject could aid you in writing your term paper. Back to top of page, back to top of "Requirements"
3. An annotated bibliography for your term paper. Due May 15.
4. A term paper (10 to 12 pages). Due June 5.
Wednesday, April 3 Introduction: Why the dream vision? Antecedents, issues (social, literary), attractions, detractions
Wednesday, April 10 Topic:
Biblical visions
Primary texts Boethius, The Consolation
of Philosophy
Secondary reading Peter Brown, "On the Borders
of the Middle English Dream Visions," in Reading Dreams: The Interpretation
of Dreams from Chaucer to Shakespeare, ed. Brown (Oxford, 1999), 22-50.
Stephen A. Barney, "Allegorical Visions," in A Companion to "Piers
Plowman", ed. Alford (Univ. of Calif., 1988), 117-33.
Peter Dinzelbacher, "Vision Literature," in Medieval Latin,
eds. Mantello and Rigg (Catholic UP, 1996), 688-93.
Optional A.J. Minnis and T.W. Machan, "The Boece
as Late-Medieval Translation," in Chaucer's Boece and the Medieval Tradition
of Boethius, ed. Minnis (D.S. Brewer, 1993), 167-88.
Wednesday, April 17
Topic: Romance of the Rose
Primary texts Chaucer, Book of the Duchess,
lines 1-709
Romance of the Rose, lines 4059-5588 (xerox of Dahlberg translation,
as well as edition, on reserve)
Stahl, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio by Macrobius (Columbia UP, 1990),
1-23, 39-46, 52-55, 69-77 (the dream), 81-117 (commentary) (xerox on reserve,
along with edition)
Secondary reading Ardis Butterfield, "Lyric
and Elegy in The Book of the Duchess," Medium Aevum 60 (1991), 33-60.
Wednesday, April 24 Topic: Guillaume
de Machaut
Primary texts Chaucer, Book of the Duchess,
lines 710 to end
"Sources and Analogues of The Book of the Duchess," in Chaucer's
Dream Poetry: Sources and Analogues, ed. and trans. Barry Windeatt (D.S.
Brewer, 1982), 3-72
Secondary reading Glenn Burger, "Reading
Otherwise: Recovering the Subject in the Book of the Duchess," Exemplaria
5:2 (Fall 1993), 3-25
Wednesday,
May 1 Topic:
Dream books See the date link for the class outline; you will tape the class
proceedings for me.
Primary text Chaucer, Parliament of Fowls
Secondary reading Kathryn Lynch, "The
Parliament of Fowls and Late Medieval Voluntarism," Chaucer Review
25 (1990), 1-16 and 85-95 (also available in Lynch's more recent book, Chaucer's
Philosophical Visions, not on reserve)
Britton Harwood, "Same Sex Desire in the Unconscious of Chaucer's Parliament,"
Exemplaria 13:1 (Spring 2001)
Wednesday, May 8 Topic: Gender
Primary text Piers Plowman,
Dreams 1 and part of 2 (Prologue through Passus 5): the fair field of
folk, Lady Meed, the confession of the deadly sins
Secondary reading David Aers, "Class, Gender,
Medieval Criticism, and Piers Plowman," in Class and Gender in Early English
Literature: Intersections, eds. Harwood and Overing (Indiana UP, 1994),
59-75
Clare Lees, "Gender and Exchange in Piers Plowman," in Class and
Gender, eds. Harwood and Overing, 112-30
Wednesday, May 15 Topic:
History: The Rising of 1381
Primary text Piers
Plowman, rest of Dream 2 and Dream 3 (Passus 6 through 12): the
half-acre and the division of labor: the pardon scene, the exposition
of the mental faculties; Thought, Wit, Kind, measure
Secondary reading Elizabeth Kirk, "Langland's
Plowman and the Recreation of Fourteenth-Century Religious Metaphor," Yearbook
of Langland Studies 2 (1988), 1-21. (I've not put any of the YLS
volumes on reserve; I hope we can all share them; let me know if there's a problem)
Wednesday, May 22 Annotated
bibliography due Topic: Medicine
Primary text Piers Plowman, a
dream within (Passus 11), Imaginative (Passus 12), and Dream 4
(Passus 13 through 14): the affective faculties--Patience and
Conscience--and Hawkin the Active Man
Secondary reading Anne Savage, "Piers Plowman:
The Translation of Scripture and Food for the Soul," English Studies 74
(1993) 209-21.
Wednesday, May 29 Topic: Law
Primary text Piers Plowman, Dreams 5
(Passus 15 to 17) and 6 (Passus 18): justice, the soul, the Tree of Charity,
Christian history, and redemption figured in legal terms.
Secondary reading R.A. Waldron, "Langland's
Originality: The Christ-Knight and the Harrowing of Hell," Medieval English
Religious and Ethical Literature, ed. Gregory Kratzman and James Simpson
(D.S. Brewer, 1986), 66-81.
Optional Richard Firth Green, A Crisis of Truth
(Penn, 1998)
Wednesday, June 5 Topic: Apocalypse
Primary text Piers Plowman, Dreams 7
(Passus 19--Pentecost, Unity, Pride, and Conscience) and 8 (Passus 20): Friar
Flatterer, Courteous Speech, and Conscience yet again
Secondary reading Richard K. Emmerson, "Introduction:
The Apocalypse in Medieval Culture,"The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages,
eds. Richard K. Emmerson and Bernard McGinn (Cornell UP, 1992), 293-332.
Richard Rambuss, "'Processe of tyme": History, Consolation, and the
Apocalypse in the Book of the Duchess," Exemplaria 2:2 (Fall
1990), 6-59.
April 10 The Bible S. Barney's essay, which we're all reading, cites the Biblical antecedents of the dream vision. This topic involves reading in full what Barney cites, and using his notes to present an understanding of the Biblical antecedents of the dream vision, and choosing a related article to annotate. Back to schedule
April 17 Romance of the Rose We'll only be reading a small portion of the RofR as a class; this topic is ideal for someone who is already somewhat familiar with the RofR and can help us understand its background for the Middle English dream vision. The Dahlberg translation is on reserve, or you might consider buying it. Choose an article from Dahlberg's extensive bibliography (perhaps Heather Arden's book. . .).
April 24 Guillaume de Machaut is one of the most prolific French authors of the fourteenth century and an acknowledged influence on Chaucer. On reserve is his Fonteinne amoureuse. Let me know if you want to take it OFF reserve. Use the bibliography to find an article. Back to schedule
May 1 Dream books Steven Kruger's Dreaming in the Middle Ages details information about medieval dream books; also on reserve is Steven R. Fischer's Complete Medieval Dreambook, a "polyglot" assemblage of "Dream of Daniel" books. I've NOT put these books on reserve so that whoever takes this topic can take out the books for more than a day at a time. Annotate at least one of Kruger's chapters, perhaps the last. Back to schedule
May 8 Gender issues prompted a recent volume of the Yearbook of Langland Studies--volume 12 (1998). You could choose an essay from that collection (but don't do mine): both Stephanie Trigg's essay on Alice Perrers and Paxson's more theoretical effort are illuminating. Back to schedule
May 15 The history of the Rising of 1381 is treated by the leading critic of Wycliffism and the Lollards, Anne Hudson, in her essay "Piers Plowman and the Peasants' Revolt: A Problem Revisited," Yearbook of Langland Studies 8 (1994), 85-106. A more general overview is provided in David Aers, "Vox populi and the Literature of 1381," in The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature, ed. David Wallace (Cambridge UP, 1999), 432-53. I've not put this book on reserve, either; eight Orbis libraries own it. Back to schedule
May 22 Medicine as practice and metaphor is treated in Kruger's dream book (above) and in his essay in Reading Dreams, "Medical and Moral Authority in the Late Medieval Dream," 51-83 (on reserve). Another tie to medicine is lovesickness: see Mary Wack, Lovesickness in the Middle Ages (UPenn, 1990, and NOT on reserve). Back to schedule
May 29 Law gets its own synopsis in the Cambridge History: Richard Firth Green, "Medieval Literature and Law," 407-31; you might look at Joseph A. Hornsby, Chaucer and the Law (Pilgrim Books, 1988--not on reserve). Back to schedule
June 5 Apocalypse and apocalypticism as forms of social critique inform an important book on Piers Plowman, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton's Reformist Apocalypticism and ‘Piers Plowman' (Cambridge UP, 1990--not on reserve). Back to schedule
The Orb, at Rhodes | The Labyrinth | Piers Plowman archive at the University of Virginia | Piers Plowman homepage, maintained by Lawrence Warner, at Penn | Studies in the Age of Chaucer on-line bibliography for articles on Chaucer
General resources