Seminar in Research and Theory:
 The Canterbury Tales

 

LIT 499
Term: Spring 2009
Time: 12:30-1:50 p.m. MR
Room: Bliss 114
Prof. G. Steinberg
Office: Bliss 216
Office Phone: 771-2106
Office Hours:  2-4 p.m. MR
Email: gsteinbe@tcnj.edu

TEXTBOOK:

RESERVE BOOKS:

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 existing critical dialogue about Chaucer’s tales.

GOALS.  In terms of my goals for this course, I want you

    1. to become comfortable reading Chaucer in Middle English,
    2. to enjoy the playful wit and unique artistry of Chaucer’s writing,
    3. to conduct advanced research in the humanities by building upon the basic research skills first introduced in Approaches to Literature,
    4. to demonstrate the kind of intellectual independence and sustained, critical thought required for the production of high-quality literary, linguistic, textual and/or rhetorical scholarship,
    5. to discover, assert and insert your own critical “voice” in the ongoing, and often interdisciplinary, dialogues, critiques, and debates that frequently characterize the humanities,
    6. to apply a range of critical theories – linguistic, literary, rhetorical and/or cultural – to texts and their contexts in order to elucidate complex issues and concerns in the discipline and suggest additional avenues of critical inquiry,
    7. to think theoretically, moving beyond issues of textual analysis into more abstract modes of thinking, and
    8. to prepare and conduct research of your own and communicate your ideas and your findings with precision and clarity.

REQUIREMENTS.  This course has the following graded assignments:

  1. 10 two-page response papers (worth 2% of your final grade each or 20% total),
  2. participation in a writing group (5% of your final grade),
  3. a seminar paper of suitable length and research (50%),
  4. a draft of your seminar paper (15%), and
  5. a comprehensive final exam (10%).

Your final grade will be based on the following scale:  A = 93-100, A- = 90-92.9, B+ = 87-89.9, B = 83-86.9, B- = 80-82.9, C+ = 77-79.9, C = 73-76.9, C- = 70-72.9, D+ = 67-69.9, D = 60-66.9, and F = below 60.

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of this class.  Class discussion constitutes important, useful preparation for your graded work.  If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day’s contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of information for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone).  If, however, you positively must miss a class, I expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared – without excuses – to the next class meeting.  And please, don’t ask, “Did I miss anything?”  Check out Tom Wayman’s poem about that question.

OFFICE HOURS.  My office is Bliss 216, and my office hours are 2:00-4:00 p.m. on MR.  If you cannot see me during these office hours, 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 email (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu), or you may leave a message for me in my box at the English department offices in Bliss 124.  Email is generally the fastest way to contact me in an emergency.

EMAIL.  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 automatically.  To forward mail from your TCNJ address, go to http://www.tcnj.edu/~helpdesk/Zimbra.htm and click “Forward Email.”  Follow the directions there to set up mail forwarding.

If you would like to send an e-mail message to one or more of your classmates, 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 class from the list of your courses this semester.  Then, when our course page comes up, click the “Email” button.  From there, you can select individual e-mail addresses or the entire class and send a message to the address(es) you’ve selected.

Accommodations.  The College of New Jersey prohibits discrimination against any student on the basis of physical or mental disability or perceived disability.  The College will also provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations to enable students with disabilities to participate in the life of the campus community.  Individuals with disabilities are responsible for reporting and supplying documentation verifying their disability, and requests for accommodations must be initiated through the Office of Differing Abilities Services (Eickhoff Hall 159).  If you require special assistance, I will make every reasonable effort to accommodate your needs and to create an environment where your special abilities will be respected.

LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM.  A one-credit Languages Across the Curriculum (LAC) independent study may be added to this course for those students who have intermediate level proficiency in another language (particularly Latin or Italian) and who wish to complement the work in this course by utilizing their language skills. Please visit the LAC website at http://internationalstudies.intrasun.tcnj.edu or contact dcompte@tcnj.edu for more information. Students must meet with Dr. Compte to enroll in the LAC independent study by January 27.

RESPONSE PAPERS.  In the course of the semester, you are required to write 10 short, informal papers (about 2 pages each) on the readings for class.  You may choose on which days you want to submit response papers, but keep in mind that you may only submit a response paper for a day on which a critical essay is assigned in the course schedule below.  Please submit all response papers in hard copy in class on the appropriate day.

In each response paper, you are to summarize the main point of the critical essay(s) assigned for that day and respond to that main point in a critical but reflective fashion.  You are not simply to write about Chaucer or about your personal interpretation of the day’s reading assignment from The Canterbury Tales.  To receive credit for a response paper, you must accurately summarize and thoughtfully respond to the main point of the assigned critical essay(s) scheduled for the class meeting.  The purpose of the response papers is

  1. to help you in your preparation for class discussion,
  2. to help me see where you’re struggling with the readings for class,
  3. to help you generate ideas for a seminar paper topic,
  4. to help you learn how to understand, summarize, and respond to other Chaucer scholars,
  5. to help you develop your intellectual independence and your capacity for sustained, critical thought for the production of high-quality Chaucer scholarship, and
  6. to help you learn how to discover, assert and insert your own critical “voice” into the ongoing dialogues, critiques, and debates within Chaucer studies.

Response papers will be graded Pass/Fail.  I ask you to type them (so that they are easier for me to read), but they need not be a perfect, polished product.  Be as specific as you can, getting down as much as you can, as quickly as you can.  I don’t want a five-paragraph theme; rather, I want an exploration – as detailed and specific as possible – of the reading assignment(s) for the day.  Normally, as long as your response paper summarizes and responds to the main point of the critical essay(s) assigned for the day and is of suitable length, detail, and thoughtfulness, you will receive 100% of the credit available for that response paper.  You may not submit more than one response paper on a single day, nor may you submit a response paper for a day that you are absent from class.  You may submit more than 10 response papers (to make up for any response papers that do not pass), but no matter how many extra papers you turn in, you will not receive credit for more than 10.

SEMINAR PAPER.  In a seminar paper of 15-20 pages, argue a clear, specific, original thesis on a topic of your choice.  I expect you to enter into the critical conversation going on in scholarly articles and books on your topic, saying something new while responding to what others have said before you.

Your seminar paper will be evaluated according to the following criteria (in order, more or less, of importance and weight):

  1. Does the paper have a clear, specific, original thesis?  Does the thesis offer an interesting perspective or “hook” that is provocative without being gimmicky or offensive?
  2. Does the paper use a variety of sources (rather than rely heavily on a single source)?  Does the paper synthesize its sources, characterizing the critical conversation on its topic and entering into that conversation in a meaningful way?  Does the paper respond to its sources critically but thoughtfully?
  3. Does the paper engender confidence that its research is reasonably authoritative and complete?  Are most of the paper’s sources recent (i.e., published within the last 10-20 years)?  Are all of the paper’s sources scholarly?  Is factual information in the paper accurate?  Does the paper summarize information and arguments from its sources accurately and fairly?
  4. Does the paper’s organization progress logically?  Does the paper have a clear and consistent overall organization that relates all the ideas of the paper together in support of the thesis with appropriate transitions to aid the reader (rather than simply a list of random observations without relation to one another or to the thesis)?  Does the paper have appropriate transitions to aid the reader in following the paper’s logic (rather than weak transitions, such as “The first...,” “Another...,” and “...also...”)?
  5. Does the paper provide relevant, concrete evidence and logically persuasive reasons for every assertion?
  6. Does the paper show sensitivity to the concrete historicity of the texts under consideration (rather than treat them as timeless museum pieces or reflect on them anachronistically)?
  7. Does the paper exhibit confidence and insight when analyzing texts or scholars not discussed in class?
  8. Does the introduction to the paper offer an interesting, helpful preview of the content, logic, and organization of the paper?
  9. Is the writing in the paper clear, effective, correct (according to the norms of standard American English), and appropriate to an academic setting?

You will submit a draft of your seminar paper about a month and a half before the final version is due.  This draft will be graded on its own merits.  It should be as close to a finished product as you can get, although it can be slightly shorter than your final draft (i.e., 10-15 pages).  Your draft will be evaluated according to the same criteria as your final version.

WRITING GROUPS.  You should form writing groups by the second week of class at the latest.  You may form these groups yourselves, as long as you include no fewer than three and no more than five people in your group.  Just let me know via email who the members of your group are going to be.  Initially, the groups will meet to brainstorm ideas for seminar paper topics.  Later, your group’s members will read your seminar paper drafts and serve as peer reviewers before you turn things in to me.  The groups should meet at least five times during the semester (although I encourage groups to meet even more often than that).  At least five times, each group must submit via email a brief report of what the group has been doing.  I will determine a writing group grade for you individually based on these reports.  If a group would like me to come to one (or more) of its meetings, I will graciously accept any invitations.  Three or four of your meetings should take place before the draft of your seminar paper is due; the other one or two meetings should occur before the final version of the paper is due at the end of the semester.  Do not wait until too late to begin meeting.  Use these groups as a way to jumpstart your work on your seminar paper.

COURSE SCHEDULE.  This schedule is subject to change at the discretion of the professor.  Changes made after the beginning of the semester will be shown in red.
Date Assignment
R Jan 22 Introductions
M Jan 26 Background: Read “Language and Versification” in the introduction to The Canterbury Tales, especially the material on pronunciation.  You might also want to check out a handy online glossary of the most common archaic words used by Chaucer available at http://www.towson.edu/~duncan/glossary.html.  Another good web resource is “The Chaucer Metapage” at http://www.unc.edu/depts/chaucer/.  Click here for some very rough notes about “Social Class in Chaucer’s Day.”
Theory:  Read The Critical Tradition, ed. David H. Richter, pp. 481-488, 527-539, and 641-651 (on reserve at the library).
R Jan 29 Theory:  Read Judith Fetterley, “Introduction to The Resisting Reader” (available in SOCS under “Resources”) and The Critical Tradition, ed. David H. Richter, pp. 1172-1188 and 1386-1399 (on reserve at the library).
M Feb 2 Canterbury Tales: Read the General Prologue.
Critical Essay: Read Malcolm Andrew, “Context and Judgment in the General Prologue,” Chaucer Review 23 (1989), 316-337.
R Feb 5 Canterbury Tales: Read the Knight’s Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Terry Jones, Chaucer’s Knight, pp. 141-216 (available in SOCS under “Resources”).
M Feb 9 Canterbury Tales: Read the Miller’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Chaucer, ed. Valerie Allen and Ares Axiotis, pp. 169-192 (on reserve at the library).
R Feb 12 Canterbury Tales: Read the Reeve’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Britton J. Harwood, “Psychoanalytic Politics:  Chaucer and Two Peasants,” ELH 68 (2001), 1-27 (available through Project Muse).
M Feb 16 Canterbury Tales: Read the Cook’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Paul Strohm, “‘Lad with Revel to Newegate’:  Chaucerian Narrative and Historical Metanarrative” (available in SOCS under “Resources”).
R Feb 19 Canterbury Tales: Read the Man of Law’s Introduction, Tale, and Epilogue.
Critical Essay: Read Susan Schibanoff, “Worlds Apart” (available in SOCS under “Resources”).
M Feb 23 Canterbury Tales: Read the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read 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 26 Canterbury Tales: Read the Friar’s Prologue and Tale & the Summoner’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Masculinities in Chaucer, ed. Peter G. Beidler, pp. 77-90 (on reserve at the library).
M Mar 2 Canterbury Tales: Read the Clerk’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Literary Practice and Social Change in Britain, 1380-1539, ed. Lee Patterson, pp. 156-215 (on reserve at the library).
R Mar 5 Canterbury Tales: Read the Merchant’s Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue.
Critical Essay: Read Holly A. Crocker, “Performative Passivity and Fantasies of Masculinity in the Merchant’s Tale,” Chaucer Review 38 (2003), 178-198 (available through Project Muse)
M Mar 9 NO CLASS (Spring Break)
R Mar 12 NO CLASS (Spring Break)
M Mar 16 Canterbury Tales: Read the Squire’s Introduction and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Joseph A. Dane, “‘Tyl Mercurius Hous He Flye’: Early Printed Texts and Critical Readings of the Squire’s Tale” Chaucer Review 34 (2000), 309-316 (available through Project Muse).
Canterbury Tales: Read the Merchant’s Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue.
Critical Essay: Read Holly A. Crocker, “Performative Passivity and Fantasies of Masculinity in the Merchant’s Tale,” Chaucer Review 38 (2003), 178-198 (available through Project Muse)
R Mar 19 Canterbury Tales: Read the Franklin’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Chaucer, ed. Valerie Allen and Ares Axiotis, pp. 242-252 (on reserve at the library).
Canterbury Tales: Read the Squire’s Introduction and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Joseph A. Dane, “‘Tyl Mercurius Hous He Flye’: Early Printed Texts and Critical Readings of the Squire’s Tale” Chaucer Review 34 (2000), 309-316 (available through Project Muse).
M Mar 23 Canterbury Tales: Read the Physician’s Tale & the Pardoner’s Introduction, Prologue, and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Carolyn Dinshaw, Chaucer’s Sexual Poetics, pp. 156-184 (on reserve at the library).
Canterbury Tales: Read the Franklin’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Chaucer, ed. Valerie Allen and Ares Axiotis, pp. 242-252 (on reserve at the library).
R Mar 26 Canterbury Tales: Read the Shipman’s Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Masculinities in Chaucer, ed. Peter G. Beidler, pp. 131-142 (on reserve at the library).
Canterbury Tales: Read the Physician’s Tale & the Pardoner’s Introduction, Prologue, and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Carolyn Dinshaw, Chaucer’s Sexual Poetics, pp. 156-184 (on reserve at the library).
M Mar 30 Canterbury Tales: Read the Shipman’s Tale and the Prioress’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Chaucer, ed. Valerie Allen and Ares Axiotis, pp. 193-231 (on reserve at the library).
R Apr 2 Canterbury Tales: Read the Prologue and Tale of Sir Thopas.
Critical Essay: Read Angela Jane Weisl, Conquering the Reign of Femeny, pp. 70-84 (available in SOCS under “Resources”).
M Apr 6 Canterbury Tales: Read the Tale of Melibee.
Critical Essay: Read Masculinities in Chaucer, ed. Peter G. Beidler, pp. 157-171 (on reserve at the library).
R Apr 9 Canterbury Tales: Read the Monk’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Jane Dick Zatta, “Chaucer’s Monk:  A Mighty Hunter before the Lord,” Chaucer Review 29 (1994), 111-133.
M Apr 13 Canterbury Tales: Read the Nun’s Priest’s Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue.
Critical Essay: Read Richard W. Fehrenbacher, “‘A Yeerd Enclosed Al Aboute’:  Literature and History in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” Chaucer Review 29 (1994), 134-148.
R Apr 16 DRAFT OF SEMINAR PAPER DUE in the dropbox of SOCS before class.
 Canterbury Tales: Read the Second Nun’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read David Raybin, “Chaucer’s Creation and Recreation of the Lyf of Seynt Cecile,” Chaucer Review 32 (1997), 196-212.
M Apr 20 DRAFT OF SEMINAR PAPER DUE in the dropbox of SOCS before class.
Canterbury Tales: Read the Second Nun’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read David Raybin, “Chaucer’s Creation and Recreation of the Lyf of Seynt Cecile,” Chaucer Review 32 (1997), 196-212.
R Apr 23 Canterbury Tales: Read the Canon’s Yeoman’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Peggy A. Knapp, “The Work of Alchemy,” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 30 (2000), 575-599 (available through Project Muse).  NOTE:  This essay is on Chaucer and Ben Jonson; you may skip the section of the essay devoted solely to Ben Jonson.
M Apr 27 Canterbury Tales: Read the Manciple’s Prologue and Tale.
Critical Essay: Read Michaela Paasche Grudin, Chaucer and the Politics of Discourse, pp. 149-163 (on reserve at the library).
R Apr 30 Canterbury Tales: Read the Parson’s Prologue and Tale & Chaucer’s Retraction.
Critical Essay: Read Closure in the Canterbury Tales, ed. David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley pp. 115-150 (on reserve at the library).
FINALS PERIOD Final draft of SEMINAR PAPER DUE in the dropbox of SOCS before our scheduled final exam time
FINAL EXAM

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