ENGLISH 314 / HISTORY 310
LIFE, LITERATURE AND POWER IN MEDIEVAL
ENGLAND
PROFESSORS GALLOWAY and HYAMS
Fall 2001
MT 251
TR 10:10 – 11:25
This prospectus will be updated periodically. You
will find the authoritative text at
http://falcon.arts.cornell.edu/prh3/310/310index.html.
Please check all details there, especially assignments and their dates
Prof.
Galloway GS
63 Phone:
255-2325; Net-ID: asg6
Monday 12:30-1:30, Thurs. 11:45-12:45, and by arrangement
Prof.
Hyams MG
307 Home
phone: 257-3168; Net-ID: prh3
Tuesdays
2-3 pm, Wednesdays 12 noon – 1 pm, and by arrangement
REQUIRED READINGS
CLANCHY England and its Rulers, 1066-1272
HOLMES, The Later Middle Ages, 1272-1485
BURROW, English Writers and their Work
BRERETON, Froissart: Chronicles
CAWLEY, Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays
ANDERSON, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience
DONALDSON, Piers Plowman (translation)
SCHMIDT, Piers Plowman (edition)
Other readings will be made available as needed on Electronic Reserve (e-Reserve), or from the Instructors in xerox or on these Web pages. You should check the Web version of this prospectus each week for details.
Uris Reserve: We
shall use this sparingly and as the needs arise during the term. So, watch this
space!
PE535
.B97 1996 BURROW &
TURVILLE-PETRE, A Book of Middle English (excellent intro on language)
This course explores key
issues and key texts from the English literature of the period 1100-1500. It
aims to survey and introduce the Age of Middle English—its history, its
language, and its literature—to majors in English and History and others who
seek something more than a bare acquaintance with the Canterbury Tales
and Wars of the Roses. The instructors, coming from two different disciplines,
expect to educate themselves as well as the class on the contributions that
history and literature can each make to the understanding of the other.
Lectures will be designed to provide context for the class’s central feature:
close reading of texts, some in the original Middle English, some in
translation of Middle English, French, and Latin, ranging from literary
masterpieces to chronicle narratives, from dream visions to social satire.We
shall show how both “literary” and “historical” kinds of approaches to the
high-quality, diverse, and often exotic writings of the period give the breath
of life and human meaning to the thoughts and feelings of men and women from an
alien period that was also a foundation for our own culture.
- Take-Home Exam in Week XI. This is designed to ensure that students
study the History textbooks carefully with supplementary help from the
lectures. The thrust will be on names, dates, events rather on any deeper
analysis, of the kind that will be expected in Paper II below. =
approx. 20% of the Final Grade.
- Weekly translations from ME texts as handed out on each Thursday
for return to the instructors for correction the next Tuesday. Each should
be followed by about half a page of comment or reaction to the texts.
Grading will be S/U, but will make up approx. 25% of the Final
Grade
- Mini-Paper (c. 5 pages). Choose any of the translation texts (2. above) from
Weeks I-VI for extended comment on literary interest or historical value.
This should be in typescript, and meet the standard Cornell expectations
as to bibliography etc. = approx. 20% of the Final Grade.
- Paper II. You must consult with one or both of the instructors to gain
his/their approval of a title for a paper 10-15 pages long on some aspect
of English language or literature in the period covered, or – even better
– on some crossover topic of English literary or cultural history. Titles
to be agreed by Week XI; completed paper in on Monday Dec 10. =
approx. 30% of the Final Grade.
- Office Hours. All students will be
expected to attend Office Hours fairly frequently, in order to raise
issues that have not come up in class. This is considered one of the
course requirements, but is obviously also an opportunity to gain
one-on-one assistance in the study.
I. Conquest and Continuity Sept 4, 6
Clanchy, chaps. 2-3 Do
you need a Map of England?
Extract from Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Peterborough) (Xerox + Translations on Web)
Orderic Vitalis on the Death of William the Conqueror, 1087 (e-Reserve)
II. Normans; Church and Society (A) Sept 11, 13
Clanchy, chaps. 5-6
William of Malmesbury, Historia Novella (e-Reserve)
III. Normans; Church and Society (B) Sept 18, 20
The
Owl and the Nightingale (Web)
Lai d’Haveloc (xerox)
Clanchy, chaps. 1, 4
IV. Renaissance and Cultural
Identity (A) Sept 25, 27
Clanchy, chaps. 7
Geoffrey of Monmouth; Wace, Roman de Brut; Layamon, Brut
(excerpts; e-reserve)
V. Renaissance and Cultural Identity (B) Oct 2, 4
Clanchy, chaps. 8-10 (Take a look at Magna Carta too.)
Brian
FitzCount Letter, 1136
Harley Lyrics (selection; Web)
Henry III’s Proclamation in English, 1258
FALL BREAK Oct 6-10
VI. England and English Thurs,
Oct 11
Clanchy, chaps. 11-12
Harley Lyrics (contd.)
Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora
(extract on Little St. Hugh of Lincoln, 1255)
VII. The Rise of English as a Literary Language (A) Oct 16, 18
Holmes, chaps. 1, 4
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Cawley), fitts 1-2
MINI-PAPER DUE
TUES OCT 23
VIII. The Rise of English as a Literary
Language (B) Oct 23, 25
Holmes, chaps. 5-6
Sir Gawain, fitts 3-4
Froissart, 37-8, 97-112 (Black Death, Calais)
Good Parliament 1376
(Stephenson & Marcham, no. 61 [I]) from Parliament Rolls & Anonimalle
Chronicle
HASKINS SOCIETY CONFERENCE
Sunday,
October 28 – Tuesday October 30
IX. Chivalry & the Hundred Years War Oct 30, Nov 1
Holmes, chaps. 2, 3
Froissart (Brereton), 120-45 (Black Prince).
Pearl (Cawley)
X. Piers
and his World (A) Nov 6, 8b
Holmes, chaps. 7-8.
Knighton, selection on 1381 (Web or e-Reserve)
Piers Plowman (B text), ed. Schmidt: Prologue
Froissart, 201-30 (Schism, 1381)
XI. Piers
and his World (B) Nov 13, 15
Piers
Plowman , passus 2-7 (sections in ME from Schmidt, rest from Donaldson)
Favent Chronicle (ASG translation)|
Froissart, 316-27 (1388)
XII. Piers
and his World (C) Nov 20
Piers
Plowman (B Text), passus 8-12 (sections in ME from Schmidt, rest from Donaldson)
THANKSGIVING BREAK, Nov 21-6
XIII. Piers
and his World (D) Nov 27, 29
Piers
Plowman (B Text), passus 13-20 (concluded) (sections in ME from Schmidt, rest from
Donaldson)
York Crucifixion (Cawley Plays)
Froissart, 421-71 (Richard II’s downfall)
XIV. Post-Piers:
Lollards, Pathos, and the Awkward 15th CenturyDec 4, 6
Pierce
the Plowman’s Crede
Brome Play of Abraham and Isaac (in Cawley)
Towneley, Second Shepherd's Play (in Cawley)
Exam Period, Dec 13-21
http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/m/mec/ =
Middle English Compendium
http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/m/med/ = Middle English Dictionary
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/danefrm.htm = Middle English Texts (TEAMS)
http://www.ub.rug.nl/camelot/teams/dane.htm = Havelok the Dane (ME text)
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Anglo/ = Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (19th c. transl.)
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/ = Online Medieval and Classical Library (OMACL texts)
http://orb.rhodes.edu/textbooks/OEindex.html = Old English: An Introductory Course
http://orb.rhodes.edu/ = The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies (ORB)
http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/me/me.html = Labyrinth Middle English Bookshelf
http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/subjects/british_isles/england/england.html = Labyrinth Medieval England
http://e3.uci.edu/programs/medieval/meclips.html = Site to help with pronunciation of Middle English
I realize that some students may lack the detailed knowledge of the
geography of England, that is sometimes crucial to understanding the readings
and the matters they treat. Obviously you can consult an atlas in the library
or online. I have also prepared a few helpful maps for my students. I suggest
you at least look at the first two on the list. Or you can look at the best
online Historical Atlas I
know as yet.