SE2579: Canterbury Tales: Genre, History, Interpretation

School English Literature
Department Code ENCAP
Module Code SE2579
External Subject Code 100319
Number of Credits 20
Level L6
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader Dr Robert Gossedge
Semester Spring Semester
Academic Year 2013/4

Outline Description of Module

The aim of this module is to read in sequence the second half of The Canterbury Tales in order to comprehend the issues, genres, contexts and connections that are raised among these tales. Students will be encourages to think comparatively and critically about tales and groups of tales; they will also be encouraged to speculate on the way in which the poem relates to and interprets England of the later fourteenth century.

 

On completion of the module a student should be able to

The skill-based outcomes of this course will enable students to read Chaucer’s Middle English with some accuracy and write with some understanding of its poetic and thematic purposes; they will also be able to write comparative and contrastive essays on selected texts, understood both in terms of their medieval contexts and in terms of modern literary analysis.

 

The knowledge-based outcomes of this course will be: an understanding of Chaucer’s widest-ranging poem, and so medieval literature in general; the confidence to write about this major Early English writer; the capacity to undertake further studies in early literature on the basis of an understanding of the themes and styles of medieval poetry; a knowledge of the themes and styles of medieval poetry and a knowledge of the critical approaches that can be deployed in these contexts. 

 

How the module will be delivered

There will be 1 lecture per week, which will provide information on context, critical perspectives, and textual interpretations; there will also be 2 weekly seminars for all students, which will include a substantial portion of student-led discussion, directed by a number of discussion topics which will be provided on Learning Central and in print the week before each seminar. A major focus of these seminars will be in developing students’ reading of Middle English, as well as different critical and theoretical ways of reading the tales.

 

Skills that will be practised and developed

Students will develop increased proficiency in reading Chaucer’s English, as well as developing their understanding of its poetic and thematic purposes. They will also be able to write comparative and contrastive essays on selected texts, producing work that is appreciative of contemporary cultural contexts and modern methods of literary analysis. Employability skills include the ability to synthesise information, operating in group-based discussion involving negotiating ideas and producing clear, informed arguments in a professional manner.

 

How the module will be assessed

The module is assessed through 2 essays: a 1200-word piece (worth 40%) to concentrate on a single Canterbury Tale to be submitted in Week 7; and a 2000-word essay (worth 60%) to be submitted at the end of the course, which will examine at least 2 Tales covered on the course. Sample essay questions are provided in the module guide.

Students will also be invited to complete shorter formative writing tasks during the course – including translations and critical commentaries – and will be asked to contribute to seminars, though participation is not assessed.

 

 

Type of assessment

Title

Duration (exam) /

Word length (essay)

Approx. date of assessment

Essay

30

 

1200

Week 7

Essay

70

 

2000

End of Course

 

The module is assessed according to the Marking Criteria set out in the English Literature Course Guide.There are otherwise no academic or competence standards which limit the availability of adjustments or alternative assessments for students with disabilities.

 

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Written Assessment 30 Essay 1 N/A
Written Assessment 70 Essay 2 N/A

Syllabus content

Programme

 

Week 1Introduction and Shipman’s Tale

Week 2Shipman’s Tale

Week 3Prioress’s Tale

Week 4Sir Thopas and Melibee; link narrative

Week 5 Monk and Nun’s Priest

Week 6Reading Week

Week 7Second Nun’s Tale

Week 8 Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale

Week 9Manciple’s Tale

Week 10 Parson’s Tale and Retractions

Week 11 Conclusions and Questions

 

 

Essential Reading and Resource List

Primary Text

We will be using the Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edn, ed. Larry D Benson (Oxford)

Other editions are available, but editions of Chaucer you may previously have used – including the Norton Chaucer – do not contain all of the tales we will be reading, while other, inexpensive editions such as the Wordsworth Chaucer edited by Lesley Coote, can use unusual manuscripts and rarely come with glossaries as exhaustive as the Riverside.

 

General sources useful for a number of tales

Valerie Allen and Ares Axiotis (eds), Chaucer: Contemporary Critical Essays (London: Macmillan, 1997)

C. David Benson and Elizabeth Robertson (eds), Chaucer’s Religious Tales  (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990)

Alcuin Blamires, The Canterbury Tales: An Introduction to the Variety of Criticism (London: Macmillan, 1987)

Helen Cooper, The Canterbury Tales, Oxford Guides to Chaucer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989)

Robert M. Correale and Mary Hamel (eds), Sources and Analogues of The Canterbury Tales, 2 vols (Cambridge: Brewer, 2002)

Janette Dillon, Geoffrey Chaucer (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1993)

Roger Ellis, Patterns of Religious Narrative in The Canterbury Tales (London: Croom Helm, 1985)

Steve Ellis (ed.), Chaucer: an Oxford Guide (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)

Alan Gaylord, ‘Sentence and Solas in Fragment VII of The Canterbury Tales: Harry Bailey as Horseback Editor’ [in shortloan]

Donald R. Howard, The Idea of the Canterbury Tales (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976)

Maurice Keen, English Society in the Later Middle Ages, 1348-1500 (London: Penguin, 1960)

Peggy Knapp, Chaucer and the Social Context (London: Routledge, 1990)

Stephen Knight, Geoffrey Chaucer, Re-Reading Literature Series (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986)

Derek Pearsall, The Canterbury Tales (London: Allen and Unwin, 1985)

Helen Phillips, An Introduction to the Canterbury Tales: reading, Fiction, Context (London: Macmillan, 2000)

S. H. Rigby, English Society in the Later Middle Ages: Class, Status and Gender (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995)

Gill Rudd, A Complete Critical Guide to Geoffrey Chaucer (London: Routledge, 2001)

R. J. Schoeck and J. Taylor (eds), Chaucer Criticism: The Canterbury Tales (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1960)


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