Middle English literature
Charles Stevenson
8 or 12 points
* 3 hours per week
* First semester
* Clayton
* Pre- or corequisites: ENH2190/3190 and ENH3390, descriptions of which can
be found in the Arts undergraduate handbook for 1997.
Objectives Students taking this subject should develop advanced skills in reading and analysing the language of Middle English, with a consequent capacity to read in their original language the complex and substantial literary texts prescribed for study; a broad knowledge of the historical and cultural background of these texts; knowledge and understanding of medieval literary genres and in particular the nature of and conventions used in medieval English religious and secular dream visions and allegories.
Synopsis A study of later Middle English narrative and dramatic texts which operate within the non-realistic frames and conventions of allegory and dream-vision. The literature is read in the original language and discussed in its linguistic and cultural context. Chaucer, Langland and the Gawain-poet are studied as the major authors.
Assessment (8 points) Essay (2500 words): 40%
* Essay (2500 words):
40%
* Seminar assessment (1000 words): 20%
Assessment (12 points) Essay (4000 words): 40%
* Essay (4000 words):
40%
* Seminar assessment (1000 words): 20%
Prescribed texts
Chaucer The Riverside Chaucer ed. Benson, OUP, 1988
James I of Scotland The Kingis Quhair ed. Norton-Smith, OUP, 1971
Langland W The vision of Piers Plowman: A complete edition of the b-text ed. Schmidt, Dent, 1987
Mankind ed. Stevenson, Monash U, 1995
`Pearl' in Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ed. Cawley and Anderson, Dent, 1991
Recommended texts
Ackerman R W Backgrounds to Medieval English literature Random House, 1966
Coote S English literature of the Middle Ages Penguin, 1988
| Published by Monash University, Clayton, Victoria
3168 Copyright © Monash University 1996 - All Rights Reserved - Caution Authorised by the Academic Registrar December 1996 |