BENG414
Medieval English Literature

ECTS Value: 3 ECTS

Contact Hours: 15

Self Study Hours: 36

Assessment Hours: 24

 

Overall Objectives and Outcomes

The module provides an overview of medieval literary traditions and texts in England, spanning from poetry preserved in tenth-century manuscripts to poetic texts dating to the fourteenth century, as follows:

Part I- Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon Literature

Part II- Chaucer and Late Medieval Literature

Part III- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Arthurian Tradition

The course participants will be given an overview of the Anglo-Saxon historical and literary context, including the main literary genres, such as biblical poetry and battle poetry. The participants will be provided with the relevant cultural and literary contexts, including the prevailing genres and concepts in late medieval literature. The participants will be provided with an overview of the origin and evolution of Arthurian narrative. The module will also include discussions on the genre known as Medieval Romance, as some of the most important Arthurian narratives are told as romances.

By the end of this module, the learner will be able to:

Competences

  • a)Distinguish between early and late medieval English literature, as well as the genres prevalent in either period;
  • b)Work out the correlation between genre and meaning, as well as the relevant cultural contexts;
  • c)c) Adapt medieval narratives to a classroom context, not only to enable young students to appreciate these narratives, but also to convey lessons relating to linguistic and cultural changes, as well as empathy and the identification of priorities.
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Knowledge

  • a)Identify the genres characteristic of medieval poetry, including heroic-elegiac poetry (Beowulf), the dream vision (The Book of the Duchess), the fabliau (The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale), and the Medieval Romance (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight);
  • b)Describe the different concepts of heroism and monstrosity/alterity in Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight;
  • c)Analyse the representation of women in Chaucer’s poetry, at different stages of his poetic development, with reference to the notion of Courtly Love;
  • d)d) Review the influence of biblical themes on Anglo-Saxon literature, and the influence of biblical and classical themes, and continental literature, on late medieval English literature;
  • e)Describe how issues of gender, identity, power, and marginalisation appear within the literary tradition and how these can be addressed responsibly in teaching’;
  • f)f) Outline methods to convey medieval literature to students in class.
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Skills

  • a)Comprehend and analyse medieval literary texts with reference to their cultural and historical contexts;
  • b)Explore and demonstrate the representation of monstrosity and alterity in beowulf;
  • c)Demonstrate the concept of heroism in beowulf;
  • d)Apply chaucerian themes, including love, gender-based prejudice, and exploitative relationships to the modern reality;
  • e)Further explore the arthurian tradition, including its representations of themes as diverse as love, heroism, and monstrosity;
  • f)Communicate medieval English poetry to younger students, by way of online resources, simplified renditions of the narratives, and in-class discussions;
  • g)Formulate coherent arguments about medieval texts using textual evidence, historical context, and scholarly interpretations;
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Assessment Methods

This module will be assessed through: Assignment and Presentation (or Lesson Plan)

Suggested Readings

Core Reading List

  1. Beowulf, trans. and ed. by R. M. Liuzza, 2nd (Toronto: Broadview Editions, 2013)
  2. Chaucer, Geoffrey, ‘The Book of the Duchess’, in Love Visions, trans. by Brian Stone (London: Penguin Books, 1983), pp. 22-57
  3. Chaucer, Geoffrey, The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale, ed. by Maurice Hussey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016)
  4. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. by Daniel Donoghue and trans. by Larry D. Benson (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2012)

 

Supplementary Reading List

 

Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon Literature                

 

  1. Johnston Staver, R. (2005), A Companion to Beowulf.Greenwood Press
  2. Amodio, M.C.(2014), The Anglo-Saxon Literature Handbook.Wiley-Blackwell, , pp. 277-93 [section dedicated to Beowulf]

 

Chaucer and Late Medieval Literature

 

  1. Liendo, Elizabeth (2017), ‘“In hir bed al naked”: Nakedness and Male Grief in Chaucer’s Book of the Duchess’, Philological Quarterly, 96.4 (2017), 405-24
  2. Hanna, Natalie (2016), ‘”To take a wyf”: Marriage, Status, and Moral Conduct in The Merchant’s Tale’, Historical Reflections, 42.1 (2016), 61-74
  3. Zedolik, John (2016), ‘”The Gardyn is Enclosed Al Aboute”: The Inversion of Exclusivity in the Merchant’s Tale, Studies in Philology, 112.3 (2015), 490-503

 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Arthurian Tradition

 

  1. Knapp, Peggy, “The Immense Subtlety of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, in Knapp, J. & Knapp. P (ed.) (2017) Medieval Romance: The Aesthetics of Possibility, University of Toronto Press., pp. 149-75
  2. Howard, Donald Roy (1966), Three Temptations: Medieval Man in Search of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 215-54 [Chapter 5]
  3. Walker, Gregg (2013), Reading Literature Historically: Drama and Poetry from Chaucer to the Reformation Edinburgh University Press,, pp. 93-120 [Chapter 4]
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