Late Medieval Writers

TEXTBOOKS:

• Dante Alighieri, The Portable Dante (Penguin, 2003), ISBN 0142437549
• Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron (Signet, 2002), ISBN 0451528662
• Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (Broadview, 2008), ISBN 1551114844
• Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (Norton, 2006), ISBN 0393927555
• Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies (Penguin, 1999), ISBN 0140446893
• John Gower, Confessio Amantis, volume 1, 2nd ed. (TEAMS, 2006), ISBN 9781580441025*
• John Lydgate, The Siege of Thebes (TEAMS, 2001), ISBN 1580440746†

 *This text is available online at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/rpcabk1fr.htm (Book 1) and http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/rpcabk8fr.htm (Book 8), so you do not have to purchase it if you don’t mind printing a copy of the online version.
†This text is also available online at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/thebfrp.htm (Prologue), http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/thebfr1.htm (Part I), http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/thebfr2.htm (Part II), and http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/thebfr3.htm (Part III), so you do not have to purchase it if you don’t mind printing a copy of the online version.

COURSE DESCRIPTION.  This course will examine the flowering of vernacular literature in fourteenth-century Europe.  Emphasis will be placed on reconstructing how and why fourteenth-century European writers, such as Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Christine de Pizan, came to create a vernacular tradition that transcended national and linguistic boundaries.  Topics covered in the course this semester will include classical and vernacular precursors to fourteenth-century writers and issues of love, sex, and gender.

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

1. enjoy the richness, vitality, and strangeness (and master the challenges) of late medieval literature;
2. demonstrate familiarity with a significant body of texts within – and on the margins of – a variety of literary traditions;
3. read, analyze, and synthesize literary texts and traditions from a critical, theoretical, multinational, and interdisciplinary perspective;
4. engage in the practice of comparative literary analysis by writing about literary texts and traditions from within a comparative framework and drawing conclusions about the significance of literary and cultural intersections and divergences/differences;
5. pursue a sustained investigation of the idea of literature itself by examining what literature is and how it is culturally, politically, philosophically and/or sociologically defined and influenced, and by exploring, from a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective, how and why literary texts are categorized (in terms of traditions, periods, genres and movements); and
6. demonstrate sensitivity to the concrete historicity and cultural specificity of texts and to the development of literary traditions, cultural values, modes of thought, and uses of language over time and across national boundaries.

REQUIREMENTS.  This course has the following graded assignments:

1. 12 two-page response papers (worth 2% of your final grade each or 20% total),
2. a mid-term exam (20% of your final grade),
3. a formal essay (30%), and
4. a comprehensive final exam (30%).

Your final grade will be based on the following scale:  A = 93%-100%, A- = 90%-92%, B+ = 87%-89%, B = 83%-86%, B- = 80%-82%, C+ = 77%-79%, C = 73%-76%, C- = 70%-72%, D+ = 67%-69%, D = 60%-66%, and F = below 60%.  This scale is absolute.  Because the response papers are in a sense a form of extra credit built into this course from the start, I do not give extra credit at the end of the semester to help students raise their grade even a whisker.  So, even if, at the end of the semester, you are just .0001 points away from an A-, your final grade will be a B+.

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 TF.  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.

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 quarter-unit (one-credit) Languages Across the Curriculum independent study may be added to this course for those students who have intermediate level proficiency in Latin, Italian, or French 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 Monday, Jan. 25.

RESPONSE PAPERS.  In the course of the term, you are required to write 12 short, informal papers (about 2 pages each) on the readings for class.  You may choose for which days you want to write a response paper, as long as you have completed 12 response papers by the end of the term. You should write your response paper before the class meeting at which we discuss the reading assignment covered in your paper and submit it in hard copy in class during that class meeting.  For each response paper, choose one of the following topics and analyze the reading assignment for the day with respect to the topic you’ve chosen:

1. Literary Relations/Intertextuality.  Which previous reading assignment does this text remind you of most?  What elements in this text remind you of that previous reading assignment?  Is it similar to the earlier assignment in terms of form, content, imagery, tone, or structure?  Does the writer seem to have had the earlier text specifically in mind as he or she wrote?  Does the writer refer to the earlier text explicitly by name or implicitly through allusions and echoes?  Why might the writer have wanted to remind us of the earlier text?  Is the writer honoring, criticizing, or updating the earlier text?  What elements have been changed?  Why might the writer have felt the need to change those elements?  What do the changes reveal about the writer’s purpose?  What do the changes reveal about the writer’s relationship to the earlier text and its writer?  What if the writer did not explicitly know the earlier text?  What can we learn by comparing and contrasting the two texts then?  How does seeing one work in relation to another work in the same or a similar tradition aid our understanding of each work?
2. Genre.  What seem to be the main generic elements of the text?  In terms of narrative, does the text have an epic scope or a more narrow reach?  In terms of style and tone, does the text strive for high art or for a more low-brow feel?  In terms of characters, are there a particular set of stock characters that are used?  What features seem to define the genre of the text?  What kinds of tropes, images, structural elements, stereotypes, and conventions seem typical?  What are the characteristics of the form of the text?  Is the text poetry, prose, or a combination of both?  If poetry, what kind of poetry is used (rhyme scheme, line length, stanza form)?  What do medieval writers seem to associate with this kind of form?  How does the genre of this text compare to that of previous reading assignments?  NOTE:  Many of the texts we are reading are translations, and in some cases, the translation is in prose, but the original was in poetry.  When you talk about form, talk about the form of the original, not the form of the translation.
3. Social Values/Function.  What social values does the work assume or espouse?  What social values does it seem to question or criticize?  What seems to be the work’s main purpose in terms of cultural work – propaganda, social critique, social norming?  How does the work portray the world and human nature?  How might its portrayal of the world and human nature be being used to rationalize or condemn certain social values or realities?  How do its social values compare to those of previous assignments in class?
4. Love, Sex, and Gender.  How are love, sex, and gender portrayed in the text?  What seems to be the attitude of the author toward men and women?  How does the text portray relationships between men and women?  Is love positive, negative, spiritual, carnal, idealized, animalistic?  What might the author’s portrayal of love/sex reveal about his attitudes toward gender?  What does the text generalize about male and female gender roles in love/sex and in life generally?  What does the text imply or say about the roles appropriate for each gender?  What kinds of spaces, occupations, attitudes, or images are associated with one gender or the other?  Does the text seem to favor or criticize either gender?  How does the text’s treatment of love, sex, and gender relate to that of previous reading assignments in class?  What stereotypes about the genders seem to have existed in the medieval period?
5. Setting.  Where is the text’s story set?  Is the setting realistic or mystical or fantastical?  How does the setting affect our perception of the plot and characters?  Does the setting change?  How is change of setting significant to the action and characterization of the work?  Is the setting symbolic?  If so, how?  What details in the setting are important and meaningful?  How does the symbolism of the setting compare to the symbolism of setting in previous reading assignments?  What assumptions do medieval writers seem to make (and what stereotypes do they seem to have) about certain settings (e.g., forests, monasteries, gardens, Brittany, the sea)?
6. Religion.  How are religion and religious ideas portrayed in the text?  How Christian is the work in outlook, doctrine, and/or symbolism?  Does the text use Christian images?  Does it allude to Christian stories?  Does it espouse Christian values (with or without explicit Christian content)?  Does it reflect on or mention Christian doctrine?  How is organized religion portrayed?  How are Church figures (such as friars, monks, priests, and nuns) portrayed?  How does religion in the text compare to that in previous readings?

You should have written on each one of these topics at least once over the course of your 12 response papers for the term.  Keep in mind that some topics are more relevant to some readings than others (and some topics may not be relevant at all to other readings).

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.  Rather, response papers should be just what their name says – a response.  Think about one of the topics  that I ask you to consider; then, write a response.  Don’t worry about typos or comma splices or organization.  Don’t worry about answering every question I ask under the particular topic.  In fact, focus on the one question that seems most interesting to you, and be as specific as you can, getting down as much as you can, as quickly as you can.  Treat response papers more like a journal entry than like a formal paper.  I don’t want a five-paragraph theme.  Rather, I want an exploration – as detailed and specific as possible – of the reading assignment for the day.  Normally, as long as you submit a response paper of suitable length, detail, and thoughtfulness (and as long as you submit it in hard copy in class on the assigned day), you will receive all the points that the response paper is worth.  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 develop your intellectual independence and your confidence as a reader,
4. to help you explore the relationships among the texts we’re reading, and
5. to practice comparative literary analysis (in preparation for your formal essay).

You may submit more than 12 response papers in the course of the semester (to make up for any response papers that do not receive a grade of Pass), but no matter how many extra response papers you turn in, you will not receive credit for more than 12 total.  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.  (NOTE:  Even if you do not submit a response paper on a particular day, you should still come to class prepared to discuss the response paper topics in relation to the reading assignment for that day, since we will focus on those topics in our in-class discussion; in other words the questions under the response paper topics are a great guide for your class prep each day.)

FORMAL ESSAY.  Choose one of the following topics:

1. Read the Wife of Bath’s Prologue from the Canterbury Tales.  The Wife of Bath is based in some ways on the Old Woman (la Vieille) from The Romance of the Rose (the Roman de la Rose).  We know that Chaucer had read Jean de Meun – he even translated part of the Roman into Middle English – so the Old Woman is a direct source for the Wife of Bath.  In a paper of 5-7 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about something we learn about the Wife of Bath’s character by seeing it in relation to Jean de Meun’s Old Woman.
2. Read the Summoner’s Prologue and Tale from The Canterbury Tales.  The Summoner’s Tale comes from the same tradition as Jacques de Baisieux’s “Tale of the Priest’s Bladder.”  Keep in mind that Chaucer probably never actually read Jacques’s tale in particular, so Baisieux is probably not be a direct source for Chaucer’s tale.  In a paper of 5-7 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about something we learn about the Summoner’s Tale by seeing it in relation to Jacques’s version of the same basic story.
3. Read the Franklin’s Prologue and Tale from The Canterbury Tales.  The Franklin’s Tale comes from the same tradition as Boccaccio’s Fifth Story on the Tenth Day of the Decameron.  Keep in mind that we do not know whether Chaucer ever read the Decameron, so Boccaccio may or may not be a direct source for Chaucer’s tale.  In a paper of 5-7 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about something we learn about the Franklin’s Tale by seeing it in relation to Boccaccio’s version of the same basic story.
4. Read the Second Nun’s Prologue and Tale from The Canterbury Tales.  The Second Nun’s Tale is from the same genre as the “Stanzaic Life of Margaret.”  Keep in mind that Chaucer probably never actually read the “Stanzaic Life of Margaret,” so the “Stanzaic Life of Margaret” is probably not a direct source for the Second Nun’s Tale.  In a paper of 5-7 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about something we learn about the Second Nun’s Tale by seeing it in relation to this other story in the same genre.

To help you think about what to write, consider the topics listed under “Response Papers” above.  How does Chaucer relate to his source/analogue in terms of literary relations/intertextuality, genre, social values/function, love/sex/gender, setting, or religion?  Choose just one of these areas (or another similar one of your own devising) as your focus.  You will submit this paper to me electronically in the “dropbox” in SOCS (not in hard copy or in class).  I encourage you, about a week before the paper is due, to submit a thesis paragraph (a draft first paragraph of your paper or just a paragraph that describes what you plan to write about) to me by email; if you do so by the date noted in the course schedule below, I will give you feedback on your proposed thesis before you submit your final paper.  Note:  You need not use outside sources for this paper (that is, sources in addition to the literary texts assigned); in fact, I would encourage you not to use outside sources (because I'd rather hear what you think than what some published scholar thinks).

Your paper will be evaluated according to the following criteria (in order of relative importance):

1. Does the paper have a clear, specific thesis?  Does the thesis offer an interesting perspective or “hook” that is provocative without being gimmicky or offensive?
2. Does the paper’s comparative analysis 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 similarities and differences 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...”)?
3. Does the paper provide relevant, concrete evidence and logically persuasive reasons for every assertion?
4. Does the paper show sensitivity to the concrete historicity of the literary works under consideration (rather than treat them as timeless museum pieces or reflect on them anachronistically)?
5. Does the paper exhibit confidence and insight when analyzing literary works not discussed in class?
6. Does the introduction to the paper offer an interesting, helpful preview of the content, logic, and organization of the paper?
7. Is factual information in the paper accurate?
8. Is the writing in the paper clear, effective, correct (according to the norms of standard American English), and appropriate to an academic setting?

COURSE SCHEDULE.  This schedule is subject to change at the discretion of the professor.  Changes made after the beginning of the term will be shown in red.  For each of the texts that we are reading, I encourage you to read the entire work if you are able, even beyond what is assigned below, which represents the bare minimum that you should read.

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