PLEASE NOTE: AS OF MONDAY, APRIL 2, WE WILL BE MEETING IN 248 PLC
Louise M. Bishop,
voicemail 346-0733
Office hour: Friday, 1 to 2 pm (except Friday, May 5), in 374 PLC
(Jim Earl's office), and by appointment
Requirements | Sign-up list for words and topics | Guidelines for annotations | Guidelines for presentation | Weekly reading assignments | Topics/presentation lists | Web resources
Texts available at the University bookstore
Books to get your hands on (available on reserve at Knight library)
1. A brief exercise in Middle English language You'll choose one word from a list of ten, look it up in the Middle English Dictionary, and write a brief paper (one to two pages) on the subtleties you've found, or you anticipate finding, for this word in Chaucer and Langland. Due Monday, April 3. The ten words are gentil, degre, science, ferly, swevene, dream, truth, kynde, imagination, good.
2. Topic presentations and annotated bibliography You'll sign up to present to the class one of ten 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. In three cases, 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(s) scheduled for that day. You can also be the "expert" on your topic for subsequent class discussion during the term. Prepare a relatively brief (20 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 your essays in any detail (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 May 29.
Monday, March 27 Introduction: Why the dream vision? Antecedents, issues (social, literary), attractions, detractions
Monday, April 3
Topic: Romance of the Rose
Topic: Biblical visions
Primary texts Boethius, The
Consolation of Philosophy (on reserve, but a useful addition to
your library)
Romance of the Rose, lines 4059--5588 (xerox of Robbins
translation on in Booth Lounge)
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 (in Booth lounge).
April 10
Topic: Cherniss,
Boethian Apocalypse
Primary texts Chaucer, Book of
the Duchess, lines 1-709
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)
Secondary reading Ardis
Butterfield, "Lyric and Elegy in The Book of the Duchess), Medium
Aevum 60 (1991), 33-60.
Optional Kathryn Lynch, The
High Medieval Dream Vision: Poetry, Philosophy, and Literary Form
(Stanford, 1988), 21-76
April 17 Topic:
Guillaume de Machaut
Primary text Chaucer, Book of the
Duchess, lines 710 to end
Secondary reading Steve Ellis,
"The Death of The Book of the Duchess," Chaucer Review 29
(1995), 249-58
April 24
Topic: Dream books
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.
May 1 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
May 8
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.
May 15 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.
May 22 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 Alison Finlay, "The
Warrior Christ and the Unarmed Hero," Medieval English Religious
Literature, ed. Kratzman and Simpson, 19-29.
May 29 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.
April 3 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.
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. Back to schedule
April 10 Michael Cherniss, Boethian Apocalypse, has an intriguing thesis about the connection between Boethius and the dream vision genre. He has an incisive chapter about The Book of the Duchess; his other interests are Piers Plowman and Pearl.
April 17 Guillaume de Machaut is one of the most prolific French authors of the fourteenth century and an acknowledged influence on Chaucer. On reserve are his Fonteinne amoureuse and the Jugement dou Roy de Behaigne. Prof. Altmann of Romance Languages has agreed to help us with this topic. Back to schedule
April 24 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. Back to schedule
May 1 Gender issues prompted the most recent volume of the Yearbook of Langland Studies to produce a gender collection (on reserve). Stephanie Trigg's essay on Alice Perrers and Paxson's more theoretical effort are both illuminating. Back to schedule
May 8 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 (on reserve). 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. Back to schedule
May 15 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. Another tie to medicine is lovesickness: see Mary Wack, Lovesickness in the Middle Ages (UPenn, 1990). Back to schedule
May 22 Law gets its own synopsis in the Cambridge History: Richard Firth Green, "Medieval Literature and Law," 407-31; also on reserve is Joseph A. Hornsby, Chaucer and the Law (Pilgrim Books, 1988). Back to schedule
May 29 Apocalypse and apocalypticism as forms of social critique informs an important book on Piers Plowman, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton's Reformist Apocalypticism and ‘Piers Plowman' (Cambridge UP, 1990). 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