SCHOOL OF ENGLISH
Floriated border from a Psalter in the University Library Collections
MLitt in Mediaeval English
2012 / 2013 Handbook
Please take time to read this handbook carefully: your course director will
assume that you have done so, and that you are aware of the information and
advice it contains.
EN5015
Reading the Mediaeval Text
EN5017
Old English
EN5018
Middle English Literature in Context
EN5099
Dissertation for MLitt Programme
EN5100
Literary Research: Skills and Resources (see separate handbook)
5000 level
Special topic or optional module
Copies of this handbook and also School of English Postgraduate Information and
Guide to Style in Essays, Theses and Dissertations are available electronically at
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/english/postgraduate/Formsandhandbooks/
School of English
2012/13
MLitt in Mediaeval English
THE COURSE
The taught courses for the MLitt in Mediaeval English comprise four 20-credit modules
and one 40-credit module, as follows:
v
v
v
v
v
EN5100 Literary Research: Skills and Resources (taken by all first-year
postgraduate students except Creative Writing): 20 credits
EN5015 Reading the Mediaeval Text: 20 credits
EN5017 Old English: 20 credits
EN5018 Middle English Literature in Context: 40 credits
5000 level optional module: 20 credits
EN5100 Research Skills nurtures general skills required for the dissertation. EN5015
develops some of the more specific skills and knowledge required for research in
mediaeval literature: paleography and textual criticism related to the age of
manuscript, and an understanding of mediaeval literary thought and cultural change.
EN5017 develops competence in Old English language. EN5018 studies central
Middle English and Scottish texts of the later Middle Ages within their wider cultural
context, both continental and insular. The availability of a special topic option allows
students maximum flexibility in choosing a specific area of mediaeval literature to
explore under expert, individualised supervision.
Details about EN5100 and optional modules are given in separate handbooks; details
of the other mediaeval core modules are given below.
OPTIONALITY
Students undertaking the MLitt in Mediaeval English will also have 20 credits free to
spend in one of three ways:
a) a Special Topic in English Studies
b) any English 5000-level core module
c) an approved postgraduate module outwith English
The default is for MLitt Directors to advise students into EN5402 Special Topic in
English 2 unless a student knows already that s/he wants to spend the optional 20cr
on a module running in Semester I or on a specific alternative module running in
Semester II.
There is two weeks’ leeway to change at the beginning of each semester, as with the
undergraduate system. This allows sufficient time for interested students draw up a
Special Topic in collaboration with a potential future PhD supervisor, even if that
Special Topic is to run in Semester I.
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MLITT IN MEDIEVAL ENGLISH: YEAR PLAN
Modules in bold are compulsory.
Modules in grey indicate the choices available for your remaining ‘free’ 20 credits.
Semester I
Semester II
EN5100 Literary Research (20 cr)
EN5015 Reading the Mediaeval Text
(20 cr)
EN5017 Old English (20 cr)
EN5018 Middle English Literature in Context (40 cr, whole year)
EN5401 Special Topic in English EN5402 Special Topic in English
Studies
Studies
†EN5--module
other
5000-level
English †EN5--module
*MS5021 Core Language: Latin
other
5000-level
English
*MS5024 Mediaeval Language
*MS 5026 Special Topic in Mediaeval *MS5027 Special Topic in Mediaeval
Studies
Studies
(all 20 cr)
(all 20 cr)
† Subject to availability and permission of the relevant module’s coordinator.
* MS modules are offered by SAIMS. They may be taken subject to availability and
permission of the Director of SAIMS as well as that of the relevant module’s
coordinator.
The default is to register you for EN5402 Special Topic in English Studies.
If you know want to spend your free credits on a Semester I option instead (either
because it is timetabled to run then, or you wish to undertake a Special Topic with a
member of staff who will be on leave in Semester II), this should be organised as soon
as possible. Students have until Week 2 of each semester (where relevant) to finalise
their module choice.
Note that although the schedule looks far heavier in Semester I, the classes for
EN5100 Literary Research normally require no preparation and the module is
assessed by a single pass/fail assignment due in December.
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PARTICIPATING TEACHERS ON THE MLITT IN MEDIAEVAL ENGLISH
MR THOMAS G DUNCAN
(Honorary Senior Lecturer
email: tgd)
Mr Duncan’s research and teaching interests are in Old and Middle English language
and literature. He has published editions of the Middle English and Anglo-Norman
Mirror, two collections of Middle English lyrics (Medieval English Lyrics 1200-1400 and
Late Medieval English Lyrics and Carols 1400-1530) and edited the Companion to the
Middle English Lyric (Cambridge, 2005).
DR IAN JOHNSON (Programme Director)
(Office: Kennedy Hall, Room 302
email: irj)
With Professor A.J. Minnis he edited (and contributed to) the medieval volume of the
Cambridge History of Literary Criticism (2005; pbk 2009). He was Co-Director, with
Professor John Thompson (PI) and Dr Stephen Kelly (Co-Director) of Queen's
University Belfast, of the AHRC-funded project ‘Geographies of Orthodoxy: Mapping
English Pseudo-Bonaventuran Lives of Christ, 1350-1550’. He has published on
medieval devotional literature, gender, and Boethius in Middle English, and is General
Editor of The Mediaeval Journal.
DR CHRIS JONES
(Office: Kennedy Hall, Room 205
email: csj2)
Dr Jones’s interests are in poetry, especially that of the Anglo-Saxon period and the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular interests in poetics and poetic
technique, intertextuality, and the materiality of poems as textual objects. He is also
interested in Anglo-Saxonism, the phenomenon of Medievalism, the reception and
adaptation of medieval literature in the post-medieval world. His book Strange
Likeness: The Use of Old English in Twentieth-Century Poetry came out in 2006.
DR RHIANNON PURDIE
(Office: Castle House, Room 10 email: rp6)
Dr Purdie’s research interests are in secular literature written in Middle English, Old
French, Anglo-Norman and Older Scots, and in editorial theory and practice in relation
to texts in Middle English and Older Scots. Her book on the origins of English tailrhyme romance, Anglicising Romance, came out in 2008. She has edited the Middle
English romance Ipomadon for the Early English Text Society and is currently editing
a collection of five Older Scots romances as Shorter Scottish Medieval Romances for
the Scottish Text Society. She has also written articles on Chaucer, Dunbar and, for a
bit of variety, medieval dice games.
DR CHRISTINE RAUER
(Office: Kennedy Hall, Room 305
email: cr30)
Dr Rauer’s research interests lie in what could be called 'North Sea Literature': Old
English language and literature, insular Latin literature, Old Norse literature; the
literary history of Anglo-Saxon England, particularly non-English influences
(Continental, Celtic, Scandinavian): her book Beowulf and the Dragon: Parallels and
Analogues came out in 2000 and she is currently editing The Old English Martyrology.
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OTHER STAFF AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION
DR MARGARET CONNOLLY
(Honorary Research Fellow, e-mail: mc29)
Dr Connolly’s research interests are in Middle English literature and especially in
Middle English prose: her volume in the Index of Middle English Prose series, Handlist
XIX: Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) was published in July
2009. She is also interested in the production and reception of Middle English
devotional texts, and in later medieval manuscript studies generally, including book
history, editing, and the translation of medieval texts. She has edited Contemplations
of the Dread and Love of God (for the Early English Text Society), The Middle English
Mirror (an ongoing project with T. G. Duncan, for Middle English Texts), and has
published extensively on medieval English manuscript culture. She is General Editor
of The Mediaeval Journal.
EXTERNAL EXAMINER
The external examiner for the MLitt in Mediaeval English is Professor Joyce Hill,
Emeritus Professor of Medieval Literature, School of English, University of Leeds.
AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
Educational aims of the programme
To produce graduate students who:
are familiar with a wide range of significant mediaeval English and Scots texts
(in verse and prose) and their cultural context, from its earliest beginnings to
the close of the Middle Ages.
can discuss these texts (a) in their historical context, (b) generically, and (c)
with reference to their cultural contexts and mediaeval understandings of
textuality.
are able to handle with confidence and skill various critical and scholarly
approaches to materials.
are enhanced in the ability to write lucidly, concisely, accurately, relevantly and
grammatically on mediaeval English and Scottish texts and related issues.
are better able to present themselves confidently and convincingly in
discussion of mediaeval English and Scottish texts and related issues.
have a basic understanding of the conditions in which mediaeval texts were
produced and received.
have had the opportunity to equip themselves to pursue the study of any area
of mediaeval English literature at further postgraduate and research-degree
level.
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Intended Learning Outcomes
The ability to communicate ideas about mediaeval English and Scottish texts
both verbally and in writing in an articulate and persuasive manner.
The ability to absorb and understand written and spoken communication and to
construct fluent and appropriate responses, whether in writing or orally (in the
latter case with some degree of improvisation).
The ability to use a variety of different methods of information retrieval in a
variety of different media (including the use of electronic and manual library
catalogues and internet technology), and to use the retrieved information
judiciously.
Confidence to work within differing learning environments, including traditional
face-to-face learning in both small and larger groups, as well as self-directed
learning in libraries and on-line.
The resourcefulness and self-confidence to carry forward acquired
interpretative and analytical strategies into areas and topics not previously
studied, culminating (for students of the MLitt but not the Diploma) in the writing
of a 15,000 word dissertation.
The ability to prioritise, manage one’s time effectively and work to deadlines.
The ability to work both in groups and in one-to-one discussion.
The ability to motivate oneself as an effective independent learner.
The ability to benefit from constructive criticism from both peers and experts.
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TIMETABLES AND MODULE INFORMATION
EN5015 Reading the Mediaeval Text
(20 credits, semester I)
Class Hours:
Thursdays, 9.30 am – 11 am (10 seminars of 1-2.5 hours)
Venue:
Watson Room, Kennedy Hall
Module Organiser: Dr Ian Johnson (IRJ)
Other teachers:
Mr Thomas Duncan (TGD)
Dr Rhiannon Purdie (MRP)
Dr Norman Reid (NHR) University Library
Mrs Rachel Hart (RMH) University Library
Mr Daryl Green (DG) University Library
MODULE DESCRIPTION
This module is designed to provide or enhance some of the specific skills and areas of
knowledge necessary for undertaking research in mediaeval literature. Students will
study Paleography and Codicology; mediaeval textual transmission and editorial
theory; mediaeval theoretical conceptions of the text; the periodisation of Mediaeval
English literature.
(a) Paleography and Codicology (5 seminars of 1.5 hours, Semester I)
Taught by Dr Norman Reid, Mrs Rachel Hart and Dr Daryl Green of the University
Library. This will provide an introductory study of the manuscript culture, the forms of
transmission to which mediaeval texts were subject, and the means by which the
status of surviving versions of texts may be established. A pack of materials for study
will be provided in the first seminar of the Introduction to Paleography, which will run
from Weeks 2 to 6 in the Special Collections Reading Room. Please note that this is
currently on the North Haugh, behind the Library Annexe behind the Chemistry
Department. Directions will be provided!
(b) Editing and Textual Transmission (1 seminar)
Led by Dr Rhiannon Purdie. Following on from the study of Paleography, this session
focuses on the editorial theory and textual criticism relevant to texts from the
manuscript era. Competing editorial philosophies will be explored, as will some of the
practical problems posed by texts preserved in unique or multiple manuscript copies.
(c) The Eras of Mediaeval English Literature (2 seminars)
Led by Mr T. G. Duncan. This will examine the changing nature of the prevailing ethos
reflected in mediaeval English literature, as the heroic conceptions of Anglo-Saxon
society, found not only in war-poetry but also in elegiac verse, gave way to a more
personal sensibility, evident in Middle English chivalric literature and also in moral and
penitential writings.
(d) Mediaeval Literary Thought (2 seminars)
led by Dr Ian Johnson. This section of the module will include consideration of:
(i) conceptions of authority and authorship
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(ii) theories of levels of meaning in commentary tradition.
(iii) the tradition of prologues to commentaries on texts of authority and to other
literary works. Such prologues are key repositories of theoretical terms and
concepts.
(iv) theories of imagination and contemplation.
(v) conceptions of literary roles and their accompanying forms.
(vi) instances of writers' self-commentary.
(vii) allegory.
Particular attention will be paid to the similarities and differences between literary
theory in Latin and in Middle English. There will be opportunity to consider modern
approaches to criticism and theory comparatively alongside medieval traditions.
Middle English texts for discussion will be drawn from The Idea of the Vernacular: An
Anthology of Middle English Literary Theory 1280-1520, ed. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne,
Nicholas Watson, Andrew Taylor and Ruth Evans (Exeter: Exeter University Press,
1999).
ASSESSMENT
Assessment is by two separate exercises:
(a) One assigned piece of work arising from the Introduction to Paleography, to be
submitted directly to the Library. Due Friday of Week 8 (9 November).
(b) One essay of 3,000 words on a topic related to sections b), c) or d) of the module.
Students should approach the tutor(s) of the section that interests them to discuss
possible essay topics. Due Wednesday of Week 11 (28 November).
The title-page of each piece of submitted work must specify the module by number
and name, and the date of submission. Each piece of work will count for half of the
final module grade.
SEMESTER I
Week 1
Introduction
Thurs. 9.30-11am
Week 2
Paleography I
Thurs. 9.30-11am
Week 3
Paleography II
Thurs. 9.30-11am
Week 4
Paleography III
Thurs. 9.30-11am
Week 5
Paleography IV
Thurs. 9.30-11am
Week 6
Paleography V
Thurs. 9.30-11am
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Week 7
Textual Transmission (MRP)
Thurs. 9.30-11am
Week 8
Eras of Mediaeval English I (TGD)
Thurs. 9.30-11am
Week 9
Eras of Mediaeval English II (TGD)
Thurs. 9.30-11am
Week 10
Literary Thought I & II (IRJ)
Thurs. 9.30-12 noon
Week 11
No class: essay due
Week 12
No class
FURTHER READING
Paleography, Codicology and Textual Transmission
M. P. Brown, A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Late Antiquity to
1600 (London, 1990)
N. Denholm-Young, Handwriting in England and Wales, 2nd edn. (Cardiff, 1964)
A. S. G. Edwards, ‘Observations on the History of Middle English Editing’, in
Manuscripts and Texts: Editorial Problems in Later Middle English Literature, ed.
D. Pearsall (Cambridge, 1987), 34-48.
D. C. Greetham, Textual Scholarship: An Introduction (New York & London, 1992)
L. C. Hector, The Handwriting of English Documents, 2nd edn. (London, 1966)
G. S. Ivy, ‘The Bibliography of the Manuscript-Book’, in The English Library before
1700, ed. F. Wormald and C. E. Wright (London, 1958), pp. 32-65.
George Kane, ed. Piers Plowman. The A Version (London: Athlone Press, 1960,
revised version 1988)
P. Maas, Textual Criticism, trans. B. Flower (Oxford, 1959)
Vincent P. McCarren and Douglas Moffat, eds. A Guide to Editing Middle English (Ann
Arbor, 1998)
M. B. Parkes, English Cursive Book Hands 1250-1500 (Oxford, 1969)
D. Pearsall, ‘Editing Medieval Texts: Some Developments and Some Problems’, in J.
J. McGann (ed.), Textual Criticism and Literary Interpretation (Chicago, 1985), pp.
92-106.
L. D. Reynolds and N. G. Wilson, Scribes and Scholars, 2nd edn. (Oxford, 1974), pp.
186-213.
G. G. Simpson, Scottish Handwriting 1150-1650 (East Linton 1998)
D. Wallace (ed.), Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature (Cambridge, 1999)
C. E. Wright, English Vernacular Hands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Centuries
(Oxford, 1960)
The Eras of Mediaeval English Literature
M. Alexander, The Earliest English Poems, 3rd edn. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991)
M. Alexander and F. Riddy (eds.), The Middle Ages, Macmillan Anthology of English
Literature, vol. 1 (London: Macmillan, 1989)
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A. C. Cawley and J. J. Anderson (eds.), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl,
Cleanness, Patience (London: Dent, 1962)
T. G. Duncan (ed.), Medieval English Lyrics: 1200-1400 (Harmondsworth: Penguin,
1995)
Mediaeval Literary Thought
Christopher Baswell, Virgil in Medieval England: Figuring the ‘Aeneid’ from the Twelfth
Century to Chaucer (Cambridge, 1995)
R. Copeland, Rhetoric, Hermeneutics and Translation in the Middle Ages (Cambridge,
1991)
R. Ellis, ‘The Choices of the Translator in the Late Middle English Period’, in The
Medieval Mystical Tradition in England, ed. M. Glasscoe (Exeter, 1982), pp. 18-48.
I. Johnson, ‘Prologue and Practice: Middle English Lives of Christ’, in The Medieval
Translator, ed. R. Ellis et al. (Woodbridge, 1989), pp. 69-85.
I. Johnson, ‘Tales of a True Translator: Medieval Literary Theory, Anecdote and
Autobiography in Osbern Bokenham’s Legendys of Hooly Wummen’, in The
Medieval Translator 4, ed. R. Ellis and R. Evans (Exeter, 1994), pp. 104-24.
A. J. Minnis and I.R. Johnson, eds. The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism.
Volume II: The Middle Ages. (Cambridge, 2005.)
A. J. Minnis, Medieval Theory of Authorship: Scholastic Literary Attitudes in the Later
Middle Ages, 2nd edn. (Aldershot, 1988)
A. J. Minnis and A. B. Scott (eds.), Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism c.1100c.1375: The Commentary-Tradition (Oxford, 1988)
Lee W. Patterson, Negotiating the Past: The Historical Understanding of Medieval
Literature (Madison, 1987)
D. W. Robertson, Jr., A Preface to Chaucer: Studies in Medieval Perspectives
(Princeton, 1962)
Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Nicholas Watson, Andrew Taylor and Ruth Evans eds., The
Idea of the Vernacular: An Anthology of Middle English Literary Theory 1280-1520
(Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1999). (recommended for purchase)
FEEDBACK
This will be by discussion at the end of the module.
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EN5017 Old English
(20 credits, semesters I & II)
Class Hours:
11 seminars of ninety minutes each (semester, teaching time and
venue to be confirmed).
Venue:
Unless otherwise stated, in tutors’ rooms
Module Organiser: Dr Christine Rauer (CR)
Other teachers:
Dr Chris Jones (CSJ)
MODULE DESCRIPTION
A grounding in Old English grammar and translation from Old English will be acquired
with the help of grammar exercises and translation practice on original Old English
texts. It is recognised that students may join this module with widely varying levels of
experience of Old English, from none to fairly extensive. The aim is to get all students
to an acceptable level of proficiency in reading and translation, and this is reflected in
the assessment of this module by two translation exercises. Time and students’
linguistic expertise permitting, some literary contextualisation of the texts studied and
translated may also be included. An electronic component (module website,
databases, internet tools) will assist students in their acquisition of the necessary
knowledge of Old English grammar, vocabulary and syntax.
ASSESSMENT
Two translation exercises; dates of assessment to be agreed with the group tutor.
Each will count for half of the final module grade. (A diagnostic test, which will not
count towards the module grade, may take place halfway through the module).
TIMETABLE
A detailed timetable will be circulated separately.
READING
Module Textbook:
To be confirmed.
Additional reading:
Peter S. Baker, Introduction to Old English (Oxford, Blackwell, 2003)
H. Gneuss, ‘The Old English Language’, in The Cambridge Companion to Old English
Literature, ed. M. Godden and M. Lapidge (Cambridge, 1991).
FEEDBACK
This will be by discussion at the end of the module.
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EN5018 Middle English Literature in Context (40 credits, semesters I & II)
Class Hours:
Thursdays 2-4pm (fortnightly)
Venue:
Semester 1: Room 001, Kennedy Hall (unless otherwise
stated)
Semester 2: Watson Room, Kennedy Hall
Module Organiser:
Dr Rhiannon Purdie (MRP)
Other teachers:
Dr Ian Johnson (IRJ), Dr Chris Jones (CSJ), Dr Christine
Rauer (CR)
MODULE DESCRIPTION
This module teaches some central Middle English and Scottish texts of the later
Middle Ages within their wider cultural context, both continental and insular. It runs
over both semesters, with fortnightly seminars based on the discussion of a historical
and generic variety of major literary texts produced from ca.1200 to 1500. Syllabus
texts range from the early Worcester Fragments, studied in their manuscript context,
to Scots writers such as Douglas and Dunbar whose work stretches into the early
sixteenth century. Middle English examples of key medieval genres such as saints’
lives and romance are compared to their sources or counterparts in other languages;
Middle English and Scottish authors such as Chaucer, Langland, Love, Kempe,
Douglas, Dunbar and Henryson are studied alongside such major European writers as
Boethius (Consolation of Philosophy) and Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun
(Roman de la Rose).
ASSESSMENT
This module is assessed by TWO essays of 4,000 words each, one in each semester.
Please note that essays significantly under or over this risk penalty as writing within
the word-limits is considered to be part of the assessment. Students will develop their
own essay titles in consultation with the specialist(s) most appropriate for the texts or
topic that they wish to write about. It is normally expected that this will be a
comparative study.
Essay One is due Monday 7 January 2013
Essay Two is due Tuesday 7 May 2013 (Week 13)
CONTENT AND SYLLABUS
SEMESTER I
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Week 1: ‘Quhen alexander our kyng was deid’ (CSJ)
Reading
(i) the eight-line lyric normally called ‘Quhen alexander our kyng was deid’ in any
anthology or literary history of Scottish poetry. Possible texts could include The
Golden Treasury of Scottish Verse, ed. Hugh MacDiarmid (1941); Penguin Book of
Scottish Verse, ed. Tom Scott (1970); the Triumph Tree, ed. Thomas Owen Clancy
(1998); the New Penguin Book of Scottish Verse, ed. Robert Crawford and Mick Imlah
(2001); Gifford, Dunnigan et al, Scottish Literature (2002); Roderick Watson, The
Literature of Scotland (2007). But prizes will be given for texts I have not seen before.
Bring your text to class with you.
(ii)
Bella
Millet’s
page
‘What
is
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~wpwt/mouvance/mouvance.htm
mouvance?’
at
Preparatory Questions
1. What work is the text made to do in the anthology/literary history where you found
it?
2. How does the idea of ‘mouvance’ affect the way we might read medieval literature?
Week 3: Boethius and Orpheus in Middle English and Scots (IRJ)
Reading
1. Please read The Consolation of Philosophy in its entirety, either online in
O’Donnell’s Modern English version or in Chaucer’s or Walton’s Middle English
translation.
•
Boethius' Consolatio Philosophiae, translated and edited, with a commentary, by
James J. O'Donnell, available online from Facta & Verba (Georgetown) at:
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod/boethius/jkok/toc1_t.htm
•
Boece in The Riverside Chaucer, gen. ed. Larry D. Benson. Oxford, 1988.
•
John Walton’s Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae. Ed. M. Science EETS OS
170 (1927)); but also available from the University of Virginia at:
http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_
1.1228.xml;brand=default
For this text we will be concentrating on Book III Metre 12 and the Prefaces.
2. Sir Orfeo: Auchinleck MS version as edited for TEAMS by Anne Laskaya and Eve
Salisbury at: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/orfeofrm.htm
3. Robert Henryson, Orpheus and Eurydice, ed. David J. Parkinson, in The Complete
Works (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2010), available online from
TEAMS at: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/tmsmenu.htm
4. Johnson, Ian, ‘Making the Consolation in Middle English’, in Boethius in the Middle
Ages, ed. Noel Harold Kaylor and Philip Edward Phillips (Leiden and New York, Brill,
forthcoming). Text to be provided to students.
5. Petrina, Alessandra, ‘Robert Henryson's "Orpheus and Eurydice" and Its Sources’,
in Fifteenth Century Studies 33 (2008) 198-217
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Preparatory Questions
1. How and why does the moral of each version of the story of Orpheus vary?
2. What does each version of the story of Orpheus say about the nature and role of
the poet and poetry?
3. Summarise the Consolation of Philosophy in no more than 200 words.
Week 5: The Roman de la Rose, Chaucer and Dunbar (MRP)
Reading
1. Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, The Romance of the Rose. Trans. Charles
Dahlberg. Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1983. Or any
other translation.
Key passages from the Roman de la Rose (page nos. from Dahlberg translation, but
line numbers given to allow you to find passage in any translation):
pp. 31-40, lines 1-690 [the Dream; entering the Garden]
pp. 42-4, lines 865-984 [God of Love and his arrows]
pp. 53-9, lines 1681-2076 [shot by the God of Love; the value of the dream]
pp. 86-8, lines 3911-4058 [end of Guillaume’s text]
pp. 185-9, lines 10439-678 [battle troops of God of Love; joint authorship]
pp. 339-54, lines 20704-end [the winning of the Rose]
2. William Dunbar’s The Goldyn Targe.
Although you may use any reasonable edition, the standard scholarly edition of
Dunbar’s works is:
The Poems of William Dunbar, ed. Priscilla Bawcutt. 2 vols. Glasgow:
Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 1998.
3. The Parliament of Fowls in
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Riverside Chaucer. Ed. Larry D. Benson et al. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1988.
4. Quilligan, Maureen. ‘Allegory, Allegoresis, and the Deallegorization of Language:
the Roman de la Rose, the De Planctu Naturae and the Parlement of Foules’, in
Allegory, Myth and Symbol. Ed. Morton W. Bloomfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1981. pp. 163-86.
5. (optional extra) Lewis, C. S. The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition.
London: Oxford University Press, 1938. chapter on Roman de la Rose.
Preparatory Questions
1. Compare and contrast Chaucer’s and Dunbar’s use of the Roman de la Rose.
2. Comment on the significance of the lack of closure in Guillaume’s Roman, the
Parliament of Fowls and the Goldyn Targe.
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Week 7: ‘The Worcester Fragments’ (CSJ)
Reading
1. The text(s) which Hall calls ‘Worcester Fragments’, in Selections from Early Middle
English 1130-1250, ed. by Joseph Hall, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon, 1920), I, pp. 1-4.
This
is
also
available
online
at
Project
Gutenberg
http://www.archive.org/stream/selectionsfromea26413gut/26413-0.txt
2. S. K. Brehe, ‘Reassembling the First Worcester Fragment’, Speculum, 65 (1990),
521-36.
3. Seth Lerer, ‘Old English and its Afterlife’, in The Cambridge History of Medieval
English Literature, ed. by David Wallace (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999), pp. 7-34, especially 22-30.
Preparatory Questions
1. How many poems are we discussing?
2. Is Brehe’s presentation of The First Worcester Fragment preferable to the traditional
presentation in other editions, such as Hall’s?
3. Does Brehe’s argument have consequences for how we view the Soul’s Address to
the Body (or does the Soul’s Address have consequences for Brehe’s argument’)
4. How does Lerer position these verses within a literary historical narrative, and is he
right to do so?
Week 9: From Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato to Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde (MRP)
Reading
1) Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde. In The Riverside Chaucer. Ed. Larry D. Benson et
al. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988
2) Boccaccio, Il Filostrato.
trans. Nathaniel Griffin and Arthur Myrick. Cambridge, Ontario: In parentheses
Publications
(Italian
Series),
1999.
Free
pdf
download
from
http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/. A prose translation with original stanza numbers
marked (Windeatt’s table is keyed to stanza numbers).
or
Chaucer, Geoffrey, Troilus and Criseyde. Ed. Barry Windeatt. London:
Longman, 1984. Parallel-text edition of Boccaccio and Chaucer.
3) Windeatt, Barry. Oxford Guides to Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1992. pp. 50-72
Preparation
Using Windeatt’s detailed tables of exactly how and where in each Book Chaucer
corresponds (or not) to Boccaccio, prepare to comment on the nature and significance
of at least one example each of:
a) expansion/modification
b) outright addition of material
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c) abbreviation or omission
d) straightforward rendition of Boccaccio
Ensure that you draw on material from at least three books of Troilus.
Weeks 10-11: Essay consultation sessions
SEMESTER II
Week 1: Nicholas Love, Margery Kempe and Vernacular Theology (IRJ)
Reading
1. Nicholas Love’s Mirror, ed. Michael Sargent (Exeter, 2004 & 2005) multiple copies
in library
2. Book of Margery Kempe TEAMS edition by
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/tmsmenu.htm#menu
Lynn
Staley
at
Secondary Reading/Resources
Useful
‘Mapping
Margery
Kempe’
http://college.holycross.edu/projects/kempe/
web
site
at:
Gillespie, Vincent, ‘Vernacular Theology’, in Oxford Twenty-First Century Approaches
to Literature: Middle English, ed. by Paul Strohm (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2007), pp. 401-20
Karnes, Michelle, ‘Nicholas Love and Medieval Meditations on Christ: Interiority,
Imagination and Meditations on the Life of Christ,’ Speculum 82 (2007), 380-408
A Companion to The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. John H. Arnold and Katherine J.
Lewis. Woodbridge ; Rochester, NY : D.S. Brewer, 2004
Watson, Nicholas, ‘Censorship and Cultural Change in Late-Medieval England:
Vernacular Theology, the Oxford Translation Debate, and Arundel’s Constitutions of
1409’, Speculum, 70 (1995), 822-64
Watson, Nicholas, ‘The Middle English Mystics’ in CHEL 539-65. Connect to e-book
at:
http://histories.cambridge.org/uid=12084/book?id=chol9780521444200_CHOL978052
1444200
Geographies of Orthodoxy: Mapping the English Pseudo-Bonaventuran Lives of
Christ, c.1350-1550 at http://www.qub.ac.uk/geographies-of-orthodoxy/. AHRC project
website.
Lawton, David, ‘The Bible’, in The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English:
Volume I: To 1550, ed. Roger Ellis, pp. pp. 193-233
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Preparatory Questions
1. What, for Margery, is the role of Christ in her life?
2. Is Margery Kempe a ‘karaoke mystic’?
3. What, for Nicholas Love, are the principles and benefits of meditation on the
Sacred Humanity?
4. How far is the term ‘vernacular theology/ a help or a hindrance?
Week 3: Douglas’s Palis of Honoure and Chaucer’s House of Fame (MRP)
Reading
1. Gavin Douglas: The Palis of Honoure. Ed. David Parkinson. Kalamazoo,: Medieval
Institute Publications, 1992. Available on-line through TEAMS:
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/tmsmenu.htm
2. Chaucer’s House of Fame in the Riverside Chaucer.
particularly Book 3, lines 1110ff. description of House of Fame
3. (useful introduction; optional reading) Bawcutt, Priscilla. Gavin Douglas: A Critical
Study. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1976.
Preparatory Questions
1. What is the nature of Honoure? Is it as unreliable or morally suspect as Chaucer’s
Fame?
2. Why is th Palis, a work written in such tightly controlled stanzas, so confusing in
terms of its broader narrative arc?
3. Comment on Douglas’s handling of his sources and literary influences.
Week 5: Saints’ Lives: The South English Legendary (CR)
Reading
The South English Legendary, all texts available through TEAMS
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/tmsmenu.htm
1. 'The Life of St Benedict (see letter 'L')
2. 'The Life of Scholastica' (see letter 'L')
3. 'The Martyrdom of St Andrew in the South English Legendary' (see letter 'M')
4. 'The Martyrdom of St George' (see letter 'M')
Preparatory Questions
1. What are the aims of a hagiographer?
2. How well does the South English Legendary fulfil those aims?
3. What constitutes sanctity?
4. What are the different types of saint?
5. In what ways does the Middle English period differ from the Anglo-Saxon period in
its hagiography?
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Week 7 William Langland’s Piers Plowman and Hugh of St Victor’s Didascalicon
(IRJ)
Reading
William Langland, Piers Plowman, available, as edited by A.V. C. Schmidt, online from
the Oxford Text Archive at: http://ota.ahds.ac.uk/headers/1687.xml
Hugh of St Victor’s Didascalicon available online as ACLS
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;idno=heb06000
e-book
at:
Rorem, Paul, Hugh of Saint Victor (Oxford, 2009 )[Electronic book], at:
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/religion/9780195384369/toc.html
See Ralph Hanna’s essay on William Langland in The Cambridge Companion to
Medieval English Literature, 1100-1500, edited by Larry Scanlon (Cambridge, 2009).
Godden, Malcolm, The Making of Piers Plowman (London, 1990)
Simpson, James, Piers Plowman: An Introduction (London, 1990; rev. ed. Exeter,
2007)
Preparatory Questions
1. What is the meaning of Piers Plowman (in one sentence of fewer than fifty words,
please)?
2. Why does Piers Plowman resort to so many genres?
3. Which, for you, is the most telling scene in Piers Plowman?
4. How would Hugh of St Victor’s ideal reader do as a reader of Piers Plowman?
5. Please come up with a brilliant question to put to the class.
Week 9: Havelok: Literature and History; English and Anglo-Norman (MRP)
Primary Texts
1. Havelok (late 13c Middle English romance). Choice of editions:
Havelok the Dane, in Four Romances of England. Eds. Ronald B. Herzman,
Graham Drake, and Eve Salisbury. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications,
1999. Available on-line through TEAMS. Not a great edition, but free.
Speed, Diane. Medieval English Romances. 2 vols. Durham: Durham Medieval
Texts 8, 1993. Very good edition.
Havelok. Ed. G. V. Smithers. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987. The standard
scholarly edition, which also contains …
2. The brief ‘Havelok’ interpolation in MS Lambeth 131 of Robert Mannyng’s 14c
Chronicle of England, pp. xxii-xxiv (see above for edition).
3. Le lai d’Haveloc (12c Anglo-Norman poem)
Weiss, Judith, trans. The Birth of romance: an anthology: four twelfth-century
Anglo-Norman romances. London: Dent, 1992. For Lai d’Haveloc, pp. 141-58 plus
intro pp.xxiii-xxviii
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4. Geffrei Gaimar, Estoire des Engleis (12c AN verse chronicle)
Ed. and trans. Ian Short. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. lines 1-816
only.
5. Bainton, Henry. ‘Translating the “English” Past: Cultural Identity in the Estoire des
Engleis’, in Language and Culture in Medieval Britain: The French of England c. 11001500. Gen. ed. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne. Woodbridge: York Medieval Press, 2009. pp.
179-87.
6. Field, Rosalind. ‘The Curious History of the Matter of England’, in Boundaries in
Medieval Romance. Ed. Neil Cartlidge. Cambridge: D S Brewer, 2008. pp. 29-42
7. Putnam, Edward Kirby. ‘The Lambeth Version of Havelok’, PMLA 15 (1900), 1-16.
Preparatory Questions
1. How relevant are the modern senses of ‘history’ and ‘literature’ when applied to
these versions of the Havelok legend?
2. How does the legend vary? Speculate on why.
3. What does these group of texts tell us about the relationship between AngloNorman and Middle English literary cultures?
Weeks 10-11: Essay consultation sessions
FEEDBACK
By discussion and questionnaire at the end of the module.
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EN5099 Dissertation
(60 credits, summer)
Students proceed to the dissertation on the basis of a satisfactory performance in the
taught component of the course. Progression is automatic if a student gains an
average of 13.5 or above across modules constituting 120 credits. The dissertation
may be on any topic of the student’s own choice, to be agreed with the supervisor.
Students are required to officially submit the title of their dissertation by the beginning
of April, so it is important that serious consideration is given to the topic from the
beginning of the course. Work for the assessed exercise for EN5100 may be used as
a preparation for the dissertation. While students will have the summer months in
which to write the dissertation, the supervisor may not be continuously available in the
university during that period. Students should therefore have fully worked out the
dissertation topic with the supervisor by March at the latest.
For administrative convenience the Course Director is assigned as supervisor to all
students at the admission stage. Students will normally be reallocated to appropriate
supervisors for EN5100 and for the dissertation.
The dissertation should not exceed 15,000 words and must be submitted by noon on
Friday 30 August 2013.
Dr Ian Johnson
Programme Director
June 2012
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MLITT IN MEDIAEVAL ENGLISH – Timetable for Semester 1
Semester
1
EN5015
Reading the Medieval
Text
EN5017
Old English
EN5018
Middle English
Literature in Context
Week
Beginning:
Thursdays, 9.30-11
(Watson Room)
Date, time and venue
tbc
Thursdays, 2-4pm,
usually fortnightly
(KH, Room 001 unless
otherwise stated)
Quhen alexander our
kyng was deid’ (CSJ)
(in Special Collections
Reading Room)
1
Introduction
(Mon 17 Sept)
2
Paleography I
3
Paleography II
4
Paleography III
5
Paleography IV
6
Paleography V
7
Textual Transmission
(MRP)
RAISIN MONDAY
8
9
10
11*
Boethius and Orpheus
in Middle English and
Scots (IRJ)
The Roman de la Rose,
Chaucer and Dunbar
(MRP)
‘The Worcester
Fragments’ (CSJ)
Eras of Mediaeval
English I (TGD)
ASSIGNMENT DUE:
9 Nov 2012
Eras of Mediaeval
English II (TGD)
From Boccaccio’s II
Filostrato to Chaucer’s
Troilus and Criseyde
(MRP)
Essay consultations
Literary Thought I &II
(IRJ)
EXTENDED CLASS:
9.30-12
ESSAY DUE:
Wed 28 Nov 2012
Essay consultations
12
ESSAY DUE:
7 Jan 2013
* (Wed. 30th November is St Andrew’s Day Graduation – no teaching)
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MLITT IN MEDIAEVAL ENGLISH – Timetable for Semester 2
Semester
2
EN5017
Old English
EN5018
Middle English Literature in
Context
Week
beginning
Date, time and venue
tbc
Thursdays, 2-4pm
(KH, Watson Room)
1
(Mon 28 Jan)
Nicholas Love, Margery Kempe and
Vernacular Theology (IRJ)
2
3
Douglas’s Palis of Honoure and
Chaucer’s House of Fame (MRP)
4
5
Saints’ Lives: The South English
Legendary (CR)
6
7
William Langland’s Piers Plowman
and Hugh of St Victor’s Didascalicon
(IRJ)
SPRING VACATION
8
TRANSLATION EXERCISES DUE
tbc
9
Havelok: Literature and History;
English and Anglo-Norman (MRP)
10
Essay consultations
11
Essay consultations
12
ESSAY DUE: 7 May 2013
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MLITT IN MEDIAEVAL ENGLISH – Additional Timetable
Semester
1
Week
Commencing
Module No: EN5100
Module No:
Date:
Time:
Venue:
Date:
Time:
Venue:
Semester
2
Week
Commencing
1
(17 Sept 2012)
1
(28 Jan 2013)
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
6
7
7
8
SPRING BREAK
9
8
10
9
11
10
12
11
WINTER BREAK
12
If you wish, please use this blank table to fill in your schedule for additional classes.
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