11:15A-12:30P  TR  (30) 3 cr

OPEN TO MAJORS ONLY.  DECLARED MINORS OBTAIN AUTHORIZATION FROM
BH402.

This survey of important medieval and Renaissance texts will focus on their role in English
urban culture.  We will think about the way literary texts came into being within the social life of
London and other towns, how urban people encountered and read these texts, and how writers
restated the concerns and experiences of urban life in their literary work.

The course will be divided into the following segments: The Dangers of Writing in Chaucer's
London, Women and Fifteenth-Century Urban Culture, Tudor Prophecy and Propaganda, and
Elizabethans Imagine the City.  In addition to works by Chaucer and Shakespeare, the readings
will include medieval plays, THE BOOK OF MARGERY KEMPE, Arthurian romances,
devotional poetry, some how-to texts on proper behavior, and More's UTOPIA.

Writing will include three papers on a broad range of assigned topics, a midterm, and a final
exam. You will also be asked to do occasional presentations to the class on aspects of the
reading. English L202 is strongly recommended as a prerequisite for this class.