Chaucer

 

English 610 - 01
Term: Spring 2002
Time: 5:00-7:30 p.m. R
Room: Bliss 145
Prof. G. Steinberg
Office: Bliss 216
Office Phone: 771-2106
Office Hours: 11:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m. TF
and by appointment
E-mail: gsteinbe@tcnj.edu

TEXTBOOK:
Larry D. Benson, et al., eds., The Riverside Chaucer (ISBN 0395290317).

COURSE DESCRIPTION.  In this course, we will read the entire Canterbury Tales in its original Middle English.  As we read each tale, we will examine current scholarly discussion about it, reading criticism by some of the most interesting and influential Chaucer scholars today.  Our goal in the course, besides the straightforward enjoyment of Chaucer’s wit and artistry, will be to familiarize ourselves with (and to situate ourselves within) the critical dialogue about Chaucer’s tales.

REQUIREMENTS.  This course has the following requirements:

  1. significant participation in class and/or on the message board for class,
  2. seven 2-page response papers that react to one of the scholarly essays we are reading for class (graded Pass/Fail), and
  3. a seminar paper of 15-20 pages (not including notes and bibliography), on a topic of your choice, with appropriate research.

These three requirements will all be of roughly equal weight in terms of your final grade for the course.  Each response paper must react to a scholarly essay that I have assigned for class and must be submitted to me at the beginning of the class meeting at which we are scheduled to discuss that particular essay.  I recommend that you do most of your response papers early in the semester in order to give yourself more time toward the end of the semester for work on your seminar paper.  Be advised also that you will need your TCNJ e-mail username and password in order to access and participate on the message board.

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of this class.  Class discussion constitutes important, useful preparation for your seminar paper, and your participation in class is a significant part of your required work for the course.  If you positively must miss class, I expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared -- without excuses -- to the next class meeting.

OFFICE HOURS.  My office is Bliss 216.  My office hours this semester will be 11:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays.  If you cannot see me at this time, please, feel free as needed to call my office (771-2106) or to talk to me before or after class to arrange an appointment at another time.  You may also contact me by e-mail (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu), or you may leave a message for me in my box at the English department offices in Bliss 124.  E-mail is generally the fastest way to contact me in an emergency.

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES.  I may, on occasion, want to e-mail everyone in class.  I generally only have access to your TCNJ e-mail addresses, however.  As a result, if you regularly use an e-mail address other than your TCNJ address, I recommend that you have mail from your TCNJ address forwarded to the address you use more regularly.  That way, if I e-mail your TCNJ address, my message will be forwarded to your other address.  To forward mail from your TCNJ address, just go to http://managemail.tcnj.edu/  and click “Mail Forwarding Manager.”  Follow the directions there to set up the mail forwarding.

If you would like to send an e-mail message to anyone or everyone in class, you can do so through SOCS.  To access SOCS, go to http://socs.tcnj.edu and, after you have logged in with your TCNJ e-mail username and password, choose this course (ENGL 61001) from the drop-down menu.  Then, when our course page comes up, click the “Email” tab.  From there, you can select individual e-mail addresses or the entire class and send a message to the addresses you’ve selected.

You must also use SOCS to access the message board for class.  Once logged into the SOCS system and into our course, click the “Discussion” tab.  From there, you can read, post, and reply to messages on the message board.  As part of your required participation in class, you should check the message board and contribute to it regularly throughout the semester.

COURSE SCHEDULE.  This schedule is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor.  I recommend that you check this online syllabus regularly over the course of the term for changes and updates (which will be indicated in red).
Date Assignment
R Jan 24
  • General Prologue (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 23-36),
  • Malcolm Andrew, “Context and Judgment in the General Prologue,” Chaucer Review 23 (1989), 316-337 (available in the periodical stacks of our library), and
  • “Language and Versification” (Riverside Chaucer, pp. xxix-xlv), especially the material on pronunciation (you might also want to check out the online glossary of the most common archaic words used by Chaucer, available at http://www.towson.edu/~duncan/glossary.html; other good web resources are “The Electronic Canterbury Tales” at http://cwolf.uaa.alaska.edu/~afdtk/ect_main.htm and “The Chaucer Metapage” at http://www.unc.edu/depts/chaucer/).
R Jan 31
  • Knight’s Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 37-66),
  • Terry Jones, “The Knight’s Tale,” in Chaucer’s Knight (Baton Rouge:  Louisiana State UP, 1980), pp. 141-216 (on electronic reserve at our library),
  • Miller’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 66-77), and
  • Lee Patterson, “‘No Man His Reson Herde,’” in Chaucer, ed. Valerie Allen and Ares Axiotis (New York:  St. Martin’s, 1996), pp. 169-192 (on reserve at our library).
R Feb 7
  • Reeve’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 77-84),
  • Britton J. Harwood, “Psychoanalytic Politics:  Chaucer and Two Peasants,” ELH 68 (2001), 1-27 (available through Project Muse),
  • Cook’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 84-86), and
  • Paul Strohm, “‘Lad with Revel to Newegate’:  Chaucerian Narrative and Historical Metanarrative,” in Theory and the Premodern Text (Minneapolis:  U of Minnesota P, 2000), pp. 51-64 (on electronic reserve at our library).
R Feb 14
  • Man of Law’s Introduction, Tale, and Epilogue (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 87-104),
  • Susan Schibanoff, “Worlds Apart:  Orientalism, Antifeminism, and Heresy in Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale,” Exemplaria 8 (1996), 59-96 (on electronic reserve at our library),
  • Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 105-122), and
  • S. H. Rigby, “The Wife of Bath, Christine de Pizan, and the Medieval Case for Women,” Chaucer Review 35 (2000), 133-165 (available through Project Muse).
R Feb 21
  • Friar’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 122-128),
  • Daniel T. Kline, “‘Myne by right’:  Oath Making and Intent in The Friar’s Tale,” Philological Quarterly 77 (1998), 271-293 (available in the periodical stacks of our library),
  • Summoner’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 128-136), and
  • Jean E. Jost, “Ambiguous Brotherhood in the Friar’s Tale and Summoner’s Tale,” in Masculinities in Chaucer, ed. Peter G. Beidler (Cambridge:  D. S. Brewer, 1998), pp. 77-90 (on reserve at our library).
R Feb 28
  • Clerk’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 137-153),
  • David Wallace, “‘Whan She Translated Was’:  A Chaucerian Critique of the Petrarchan Academy,” in Literary Practice and Social Change in Britain, 1380-1539, ed. Lee Patterson (Berkeley:  U of California P, 1990), pp. 156-215 (on electronic reserve at our library),
  • Merchant’s Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 153-168), and
  • Elaine Tuttle Hansen, “The Merchant’s Tale,” in Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender (Berkeley:  U of California P), pp. 245-266 (on reserve at our library).
R Mar 7
  • Squire’s Introduction and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 169-177),
  • Carol Heffernan, “Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale:  The Poetics of Interlace or the ‘Well of English Undefiled,’” Chaucer Review 32 (1997), 32-45 (available in the periodical stacks of our library),
  • Franklin’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 178-189), and
  • R. Allen Shoaf, “The Franklin’s Tale:  Chaucer and Medusa,” in Chaucer, ed. Allen and Axiotis, pp. 242-252 (on reserve).
R Mar 14 NO CLASS -- SPRING BREAK
R Mar 21
  • Physician’s Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 190-193),
  • R. Howard Bloch, “Chaucer’s Maiden’s Head,” in Chaucer, ed. Allen and Axiotis, pp. 145-156 (on reserve), and
  • Seminar Paper Topics DUE (be prepared to talk in class about what you’re planning to write about).
R Mar 28
  • Pardoner’s Introduction, Prologue, and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 193-202),
  • Carolyn Dinshaw, “Eunuch Hermeneutics,” in Chaucer’s Sexual Poetics (Madison:  U of Wisconsin P, 1989), pp. 156-184 (available on reserve at our library),
  • Shipman’s Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 203-208), and
  • Peter G. Beidler, “Contrasting Masculinities in the Shipman’s Tale,” in Masculinities in Chaucer, ed. Beidler, pp. 131-142 (on reserve).
R Apr 4
  • Prioress’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 209-212),
  • Louise O. Fradenburg, “Criticism, Anti-semitism, and the Prioress’s Tale,” in Chaucer, ed. Allen and Axiotis, pp. 193-231 (on reserve),
  • Prologue and Tale of Sir Thopas (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 212-217), and
  • Angela Jane Weisl, “The Absent Woman:  Generic Stasis in the Tale of Sir Thopas,” in Conquering the Reign of Femeny:  Gender and Genre in Chaucer’s Romance (Rochester:  U of Rochester P, 1995), pp. 70-84 (on electronic reserve at our library).
R Apr 11
  • Tale of Melibee (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 217-239),
  • Daniel Rubey, “The Five Wounds of Melibee’s Daughter,” in Masculinities in Chaucer, ed. Beidler, pp. 157-171 (on reserve),
  • Monk’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 240-252), and
  • Jane Dick Zatta, “Chaucer’s Monk:  A Mighty Hunter before the Lord,” Chaucer Review 29 (1994), 111-133 (available in the periodical stacks of our library).
R Apr 18
  • Nun’s Priest’s Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 252-261),
  • Richard W. Fehrenbacher, “‘A Yeerd Enclosed Al Aboute’:  Literature and History in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” Chaucer Review 29 (1994), 134-148 (available in the periodical stacks of our library),
  • Second Nun’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 262-269), and
  • David Raybin, “Chaucer’s Creation and Recreation of the Lyf of Seynt Cecile,” Chaucer Review 32 (1999), 196-212 (available in the periodical stacks of our library).
R Apr 25
  • Canon’s Yeoman’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 270-281),
  • Peggy A. Knapp, “The Work of Alchemy,” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 30 (2000), 575-599 (available through Project Muse),
  • Manciple’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 282-286), and
  • Michaela Paasche Grudin, “The Manciple’s Tale and the Poetics of Guile,” in Chaucer and the Politics of Discourse (Columbia:  U of South Carolina P, 1996), pp. 149-163 (on reserve at our library).
R May 2
  • Parson’s Prologue and Tale (Riverside Chaucer, pp. 287-327),
  • James Dean, “Chaucer’s Repentance:  A Likely Story,” Chaucer Review 24 (1989), 64-76 (available in the periodical stacks of our library),
  • Chaucer’s Retraction (Riverside Chaucer, p. 328), and
  • Rosemarie P. McGerr, “Opening the Book and Turning the Page in the Canterbury Tales,” in Chaucer’s Open Books (Gainesville:  UP of Florida, 1998), pp. 131-153 (on reserve at our library).
Finals Week Seminar Paper DUE
Click here to go to my home page.