ENGL 3190

Chaucer

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2016-2017 Catalog.

We will approach the range and scope of Chaucer's poetry (The Book of the Duchess, selections from the Canterbury Tales, his short lyrics, and selections from Troilus and Criseyde) through the rise of vernacular English writing in the 14th century; the politics of authorship and the place of literature in effecting social change; the influence of European literary forms, Christian allegorical modes of reading, and English language change on late medieval poetry; and the culture of the manuscript. We will look at his varieties of genre (fabliau, saint's life, epic, lyric, sermon, beast fable, romance); at the representations of men and women; and at the ways in which Chaucer's contemporaries handled similar literary themes, subjects, and structures.

Distribution Category (LA-AS)

When Offered Fall.

Breadth Requirement (HB)

Comments This course may be used as one of the three pre-1800 courses required of English majors.

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