Dr. Jess Fenn Welles 218C fenn@geneseo.edu Office Hours: M/W 11-12 and by appointment ENGL 366: Connections in Early Literature: Chaucer s Ventriloquism This course will trace the transformation in poetic narrators from Anglo-Saxon to late medieval England. From the anonymous bards and objects that narrated Old English poetry to the appearance of Chaucer himself as the narrating figure of The Canterbury Tales, the changes in poetic narrators during this period reflect larger shifts in cultural ideas about authorship, authority, and the place of the writer and text in society. This course will focus in particular on Chaucer s fashioning of an authorial persona through the re-use of others materials in his poems, placing this type of activity in the context of both medieval and twentieth-century theories of authorship. Readings may include works by Ovid, Jean de Meun, Marie de France, Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve, and more. Theorists include Spearing, Lawton, Bakhtin, Barthes, and Foucault. Readings in French and Latin will be available in translation. We will read Chaucer, Gower, and Hoccleve in Middle English, though no prior knowledge of the language will be assumed. (May be taken for credit twice under different subtitles.) Prerequisites: ENGL 203 or permission of instructor. Credits: 4 Required Readings All course readings will be available in the Course Reader, distributed on the first day of class. Texts in Latin and French will be available in Modern English translations. Chaucer s texts will be available in Middle English editions with glosses for the beginning reader. Some readings will only be available in Middle English with minimal glosses. Suggested Readings The following books have been placed on Reserve in Milne. These will help with your own general edification, but also with your provocations and your papers for this course. I encourage you to take advantage of them. Arner, Lynn. Chaucer, Gower, and the Vernacular Rising. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Chance, Jane. The Mythographic Chaucer. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995. Clemen, Wolfgang. Chaucer s Early Poetry. London: Methuen, 1963. Dinshaw, Carolyn. Chaucer s Sexual Poetics. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989. Knapp, Ethan. The Bureaucratic Muse: Thomas Hoccleve and the Literature of Late Medieval England. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2001. Mann, Jill. Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1973.
Chaucer s Ventriloquism p. 2 Pearsall, Derek. The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical Biography. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995. Quinn, William. Chaucer s Rehersynges: The Performability of the Legend of Good Women. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1994. Schibanoff, Susan. Chaucer s Queer Poetics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. Spearing, A.C. Textual Subjectivity. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Staley, Lynn. Margery Kempe s Dissenting Fictions. University Park: Penn State University Press, 1994. Strohm, Paul. Social Chaucer. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1989. Assessment The assessment for this class will rest on the following elements: Class Participation....10% Paper 1 (5-6 pages)...25% Midterm. 20% Provocations......10% Paper 2 (7-8 pages)...35% *For both papers, a full letter grade will be deducted from the final paper grade in the absence of a paper draft distributed in class on the day the draft is due or in the absence of attendance at workshop. Class Participation This includes coming to class having read the materials to be discussed that day and being ready to engage in informed conversation about them. You will also be required to post on the Medieval Studies blog twice during the semester once before midterm, and once after. Provocations Each of you will be responsible for leading class discussion on a text once during the semester. This involves reading the text itself with care and attention, and informing yourself as to the wider issues and criticism surrounding it. You will come to class with a few key questions you believe we must discuss in order to understand this text better and to link it to our course s themes and interests. You should choose a passage in the primary work that will springboard discussion of the questions and ideas you ve raised, so that we have a concrete starting place. Please feel free to come talk to me in office hours about your provocation, though you should do so at least a week in advance of your presentation. You will be assessed on the relevance of your provocation to the text in question and to the class s guiding interests, on the clarity and organization of your presentation, on the presence of another critic s argument in
Chaucer s Ventriloquism p. 3 your presentation, and on the presentation s ability to generate class discussion. **Provocations are due to me, by email (in-text only; no attachments), by 5 p.m. the night before your presentation. You will create one handout for the class along the lines of the model provocation I ve given you and bring enough copies for everyone. You will create another version for me which you will send me in your email with answers to the questions you ve posed to the class in your provocation. If you do not send your provocation in advance of your presentation, you will lose 5% (half) of the mark for this assignment. Class I do not allow the use of electronic devices such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc. in class, unless you have special accommodations from the university that require the use of such devices. You are required to come with a hard copy of the texts under discussion for the day. The absence of such a hard copy will be cause for dismissal. Class Events You may attend the following event (and write a brief response to be turned in during the week following the event) for one full point of extra credit on your final mark for the class: Medieval Literary Reading Wednesday February 4, 2:30-3:30, Harding Room, Welles Hall In the Middle Ages, "reading" meant reading aloud. Households gathered in groups to hear the latest romance. Authors read their poems aloud to courts. Even monks, alone in their cells, would speak the words on the page aloud to better "digest" them. Geneseo's first medieval literary reading (Wednesday February 4, 2:30-3:30, Harding Room, Welles Hall) will feature readings by Graham Drake, Jess Fenn, Weston Kennison, and Glenn McClure, followed by questions and discussion. COURSE OUTLINE I: Anonymous Narrators W January 21 Introduction. Anglo-Saxon Poetry: The Riddles and Caedmon s Hymn M January 26 Anglo-Saxon Poetry: The Husband s Message and The Wife s Lament
Chaucer s Ventriloquism p. 4 W January 28 M February 2 Selected medieval lyrics Foucault, What is an Author? The Lais: Lay le Freine Prologue to Sir Orfeo II. Bookish Narrators W February 4 M February 9 W February 11 M February 16 W February 18 M February 23 Chaucer s Book of the Duchess, prologue Introduction to the Roman de la Rose, first few pages Ovid s Ceyx and Alcione, Metamorphoses. Gower s Ceyx and Alcione, Confessio amantis. Chaucer, The House of Fame, Prologue and Book I Chaucer, The House of Fame, Books II and III *Circulate paper drafts, 4-5 pages. Drafts are due in class. Workshops, Paper 1 W February 25 Workshops, Paper 1 M March 2 The Legend of Good Women: Prologue, Hypsipyle, Medea.
Chaucer s Ventriloquism p. 5 W March 4 *Paper 1 due Hypsipyle and Medea from Ovid s Heroides and Metamorphoses. M March 9 Hagedorn, Chaucer s Heroides, from Abandoned Women. Verducci, Jason s Two Medeas, from Ovid s Toyshop of the Heart. W March 11 MIDTERM EXAM 3/16-3/20 SPRING BREAK III. Narrators in the world and Literary Tradition M March 23 W March 25 M March 30 W April 1 M April 6 The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Donaldson, Chaucer the Pilgrim. Lawton, Apocryphal Voices, from Chaucer s Narrators. The Wife of Bath s Prologue The Discourse of La Vieille and the Jealous Husband, Roman de la Rose. The Speech of Dipsas, from Ovid s Amores. Leicester, Art of Impersonation. The Tale of Sir Thopas Ann Haskell, Sir Thopas: The Puppet s Puppet W April 8 Hoccleve, Complaint
Chaucer s Ventriloquism p. 6 M April 13 Hoccleve, Dialogue W April 15 *Paper 2 draft due Hoccleve, La Male Regle and Regiment of Princes, excerpts M April 20 Workshops, Paper 2 W April 22 Workshops, Paper 2 M April 27 The Book of Margery Kempe, excerpts W April 29 The Book of Margery Kempe, excerpts M May 4 FINAL ESSAY DUE