ENG404.001
Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
FALL 2003

". . . the linear pilgrimage from the Tabard Inn to Canterbury Cathedral with tales strung out like beads on a string is deceptive. In the thematic interweaving and open-endedness of his stories and links, Chaucer has created what Umberto Eco characterizes as a rhizome labyrinth: 'one which is so constructed that every path can be connected with every other one. It has no center, no periphery, no exit, because it is potentially infinite'" (Postscript to The Name of the Rose).--Lillian Bisson, Chaucer and the Late Medieval World

"Everything that is transitory / Is only an allegory"--Goethe

"What is truly historical--rather than merely mimetic--about the artwork is inseparable from what within it exceeds its history."--Gerhard Richter

COURSE DESCRIPTION

In this course, we will focus solely on the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's experimental narrative, which we will read in the original Middle English. Our primary aim will be to read and enjoy the Tales, and also to  learn the rudiments of Middle English as a spoken and written language and to become familiar with Middle English critical sources in print and electronic forms. Additionally, we will spend a good deal of time exploring the following topics in Chaucer's work: aesthetics; authorship and readership; social antagonisms and class rivalries; religious, racial, and gender differences; sexuality; the medieval traditions of anti-feminism and anti-Semitism; the relationship between the individual and structures of power and authority in 14th-century England; the formation of the "modern self" in art; and the relationship between history and cultural memory in art.

We are also going to engage in what Guy Davenport, in his essay "On Reading," calls "imaginative reading"--"For the real use of imaginative reading is precisely to suspend one's mind in the workings of another sensibility, quite literally to give oneself over to Henry James or Conrad or Ausonius, to Yuri Oleysha, Basho, and Plutarch." In order to read in this manner, one must be willing, therefore, to lose oneself in literature, and hence, in the worlds and minds that literature creates. As students of literature, we must also take the time to read literary works with care and thoughtfulness; we must engage their ideas energetically and with conviction in discussion with others; we must seek to understand these works on the multiple levels of reality and unreality they body forth. To that end, we will practice the skills of close reading and the equally important skills of intellectual dialogue and debate, and we will also develop our skills at writing critically about literature. Finally, we will seek together to make connections between the older worlds of Chaucer's Tales and the world we live in today.

Hopefully, you will also learn that one does not think well in a vacuum--our ideas benefit immeasurably when exchanged with others in a series of critical dialogues. Preparing for and participating in class are vitally important to your success in this class, and therefore, your contribution to in-class discussions as well as your attendance record will be factored into your final grade. While some class time will be devoted to lecturing by the professor, an equal amount of time will be devoted to discussing various aspects of the readings and the ideas they raise, and the professor wants to see students vigorously engaging with the readings. Allow the professor to also note here that if she senses that students are not keeping up with the reading or are coming to class unprepared to discuss the readings, she will institute weekly reading quizzes. Please don't make her resort to this.

NOTA BENE: You may use study guides and/or plot summaries to help you with your reading of the Tales (most preferable would be looking at the interlinear translations available on Larry Benson's Chaucer website at Harvard), but you MUST read the Middle English text to understand class discussion of Chaucer's multiple meanings. In the words of Alan Baragona, "Though all translations of Chaucer are bad, unreliable at best and misleading at worst, you may use them, but only to supplement your reading. The greatest danger of Cliff Notes is that they present one or at most two views, giving us the impression of consensus in matters over which scholars disagree. EVERYTHING IN CHAUCER IS CONTROVERSIAL AND DISPUTABLE."

REQUIRED TEXTS & SUPPLIES

Larry D. Benson, ed. The Riverside Chaucer. 3rd ed. Houghton Mifflin, 1987.

On Reserve at Lovejoy Library:

Alcuin Blamires. The Case for Women in Medieval Culture. Oxford, 1998.

excerpts from: Alcuin Blamires, ed. Woman Defamed and Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts. Oxford, 1992. [electronic course reserves]

W.F. Bryan and Germaine Dempster, eds. Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. London, 1958.

Norman Davis, ed. A Chaucer Glossary. Oxford, 1979.

Robert P. Miller, ed. Chaucer: Sources and Backgrounds. Oxford, 1977.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

ORAL PRONUNCIATION EXERCISE (10%)

In order to understand Chaucer's achievement as a poet, you must be able to pronounce his language as well as translate it, and you will be tested once, early in the semester, on your ability to pronounce a substantial portion of Chaucer's verse of your choosing (30-50 lines) that you will EITHER: A) schedule a time to come to my office and read the passage aloud, OR: B) read the passage aloud onto a cassette tape. You will be judged on accuracy of pronunciation and the ability to read the verse line for meaning and sense (i.e., appropriate pauses and emphases). Consult the Chaucer Audio Files at the Chaucer Metapage website for assistance with this exercise.

TRANSLATION EXERCISE (10%)

In addition to oral translation in class, you will also undertake one out-of-class modern verse translation of a passage of your choosing from the Tales. You may consult any part of Benson's book (including the glosses at the foot of the page, the Explanatory Notes, pp. 795-965, and the Glossary, pp. 1211-1310, in the back of the book) and you may use Norman Davis's A Chaucer Glossary (in Lovejoy Library's Reference section), but you may NOT consult any other translations while doing your own.

1 CRITICAL ESSAY (30% for undergraduate students; 40% for graduate majors)

A two-part project: an annotated bibliography and a critical research paper on a critical problem of interpretation on one of the Tales. NOTE: There are TWO versions of this assignment on the "COURSE ASSIGNMENTS" webpage, one for undergraduate students and one for graduate English majors

2 EXAMS (20% each = 40% for undergraduate students; 15% each = 30% for graduate majors)

There will be two exams that will comprise sections of identification (identify speaker, situation, and tale for a specific passage), short answer (information), and short response (interpretation) questions related to the content and language of Chaucer's Tales and also to Chaucer's life, influences, and artistry.

ORAL PRESENTATION (10%)

Each student will be asked to make at least ONE 15-minute oral presentation on a specific topic assigned by the professor that is relevant to the readings under discussion. There may be some opportunities as well to make more than presentation, if time allows and if you are so inclined toward the extra credit (I would especially recommend that graduate majors take this opportunity if possible, especially as you need to always be honing your oral presentation skills).

LATE ASSIGNMENT POLICY

The professor does not accept late assignments. Period. If there is an extraordinarily good reason for needing an extension on a due date, let the professor know in advance, and she will be kind.

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Attendance, promptness, and participation are essential to success in college courses. Faculty members recognize that unexpected occasions may arise when a student must be absent from class, but the general attendance policy of this professor is that if a student is absent more than the number of required class sessions per week (in this case, that would be more than 1 session), the professor has the option of lowering the student's final course grade by one letter grade for each additional session missed. Furthermore, if absences become excessive (more than two weeks' worth of sessions), the SIUE Registrar, at the professor's request, reserves the right to withdraw the student administratively. For more information on this, please consult the following: SIUE Class Attendance Policy. Failure to attend class in a responsible and committed manner may thus be grounds for failure in or administrative withdrawal from the course.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

Any student found engaging in an act of academic dishonesty will be promptly dismissed from the course with a grade of "F." By "academic dishonesty," I mean PLAGIARISM (the act of representing the work of another as one's own), which the University considers a grave breach of intellectual integrity. All definitions, terminology, concepts, and patterns of organization taken from an outside source must be identified and given credit in any essay or exam you write--whether it be for the English department or any other department. For more detailed information on this, please consult the following: SIUE Plagiarism Policy.

GRADING SCALE

Grading Guidelines

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS (subject to revision as semester progresses)

Oral Presentations