11:15a-12:30p TR (30) 3 cr.

We will read selected texts--in translation and Middle English--from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The course will not attempt to be a survey; rather, we will read a variety of works in the important genres. Readings may include the following: romances (Sir Orfeo, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Malory's Morte Darthur), dream vision (Chaucer's Parlement of Foulys, Langland's Piers Plowman, the Pearl), "mystical" texts (The Book of Margery Kempe, the Shewinges of Julian of Norwich), and drama. We will read the texts for enjoyment, but we will also follow their leads to talk about social, political, religious and other interests.

The course will begin with Chaucer's Parlement to familiarize students who have not read Middle English with the language and also to help students who have read some Middle English to recall the language. Chaucer's Middle English is relatively simple; however, many of the texts we will read are in difficult dialects not as directly related to Modern English as Chaucer's language is. Although we will depend upon translations for these more difficult works, we will spend some time looking at passages in the original. Students who wish to do more extensive work with the language may do so with me outside of class.

There will be two papers, a midterm, and a final.