English 152 Syllabus--Summer 2007
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Program for English 152a: The Canterbury Tales
MTWR 12.30-1.35
Summer A 2007
Robert A. Erickson, professor
Office: South Hall 2706
Office hours: MTWR 1.40-2.30
erickson@english.ucsb.edu
All selections from Cawley text; KO=Kolve-Olson text
Schedule
WEEK ONE
The Narrator, the Host, and the Knight (three key players in the “links”)
June 25 Introduction: Chaucer’s language and the world of the 14th Century
26 The General Prologue (pp 1-25) NB: The Knight, The Squire, The Prioress, The Monk, The Friar, The Cook, The Parson, The Summoner; KO: Donaldson “Chaucer the Pilgrim” (503-11)
27 The Knight (p. 2). The Knight’s Tale, a theological romance, parts 1 and 2 (pp 26-51)
28 The Knight’s Tale, parts 3 and 4 (pp. 51-82)
WEEK TWO
A Group of Fabliaux (short bawdy tales in verse: humans behave like animals)
July 2 The Miller (17). The Miller’s Prologue and Tale (83-103); KO: Three Guests (341-43)
3 The Reeve (18). The Reeve’s Prologue and Tale (104-117); KO: The Miller....(344-47)
4 [holiday] KO: St. Augustine (326-7); see Augustine on “charity” and “cupidity”(over)
5 The Cook (13). The Cook’s Prologue and Tale (104-117); The Shipman’s Tale (361-72)
WEEK THREE
Religion, Gender, and a Chicken Story (or beast fable: animals like humans)
July 9 The Prioress (4). The Prioress’s Prologue and Tale (374-81); KO: Alma etc. (439-50)
10 The Narrator’s Tale of Sir Thopas (382-90); KO: Guy of Warwick (451)
11 The Monk (5). The Monk’s Prologue (431-33); KO: Gower on monks (337-39) The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue and Tale (457-76); KO: Caxton, Marie de France, Renart, etc. (455-65)
12 Exam 1 (ID’s of names, passages, and a short paraphrase)
WEEK FOUR
Two Amazing Women: The Wife of Bath and Griselda
July 16-17 The Wife of Bath (14). The Wife of Bath’s Prologue (158-80), an oral autobiography. The Parson’s Tale (on sin: 549-553); on Luxuria [lechery]: 587-97; The Wife of Bath’s Tale (180-91); KO: de Meun (348-57); St Jerome (359-73); St John (379-80); St Paul (380-86)
18-19 The Clerk (9). The Clerk’s Prologue and Tale (221-56); the story of Griselda and Walter
19 Proposal for term paper due (one page) KO: Kittredge “The Marriage Group” (539-46)
WEEK FIVE
Two Male Attitudes Toward Marriage (a study in contrasts and irony)
July 23-24 The Merchant (9). The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale (257-89). The pear tree fabliau, with old January, May, and Damian KO: The Woman and the Pear-Tree (422-23)
25-26 The Franklin (11). The Franklin’s Prologue and Tale (310-34). Dorigen, Arveragus, Aurelius, and a fateful promise. KO: Boccaccio (424-28)
WEEK SIX
The Pardoner, a 14th-Century Confidence Man (a mystery story, man and tale)
July 30-31 The Pardoner (20). The Pardoner’s Introduction, Prologue, and Tale (343-60); KO: de Meun (431-36); The Hermit, Death, and the Robbers (436-38); Thomas (438)
Aug 1 The Manciple (17-18). The Manciple’s Prologue and Tale (519-29). The Parson’s Prologue (539-32). Chaucer’s “Retraction” (606-7) Term Paper due (6 pp minimum)
2 Exam 2 (ID’s and a short essay)
Required Texts
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Tales of Canterbury, ed. A. C. Cawley (Everyman) and
The Canterbury Tales, ed. V. A. Kolve and Glending Olson (Norton, 2nd ed)
Recommended: R. P. Miller’s Chaucer: Sources and Backgrounds
My recording of the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales is available at Learning Resources, Kerr Hall (recording #7)
Course Description
In this accelerated six-week course we read and discuss most of the Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400), an English author (or “maker”) of the late Middle Ages who wrote in what we now call Middle English. The Canterbury Tales (CT) were probably written in the 1390s, and the work was not finished at Chaucer's death. The primary aim of this course is to learn to read the Canterbury Tales in their original language and to interpret them perceptively in class discussion and in writing. In my lectures, I shall be concerned with Chaucer as a psychological artist, an author who represents the variety of medieval humanity under the aspect of "corage" and "malady of corage." "Corage" is a Middle English word that can be translated as heart, spirit, disposition, mind, personality, nature, soul, courage, desire, attention, and will. In the Middle Ages, people thought of the heart as the center of one's emotional and even mental life, and the heart was the seat of the soul. The Canterbury Pilgrims tell tales, and each of the Pilgrims is a study in "corage," its strengths and its illnesses. Under the general aspect of corage in all its varieties, and in the context of medieval medicine and Christianity, we shall be concerned in particular with the themes of "trouthe" (commitment); sexuality, gender, and marriage; sin, confession and penance; illusion and delusion; Chaucerian justice; charity and cupidity. Students in the course are expected to learn to read (and read aloud from) the Canterbury Tales in Middle English, and to develop their own individual interpretations of the tales in class discussion, exams, and papers.
Required work
The basic requirements for the course are attendance in lecture and discussion, writing a midterm and final exam, and completing a one page prospectus and a term paper of at least six pages. Weighting of the final grade is class participation (.1), midterm (.2), final (.3), and term paper (.4). The prospectus for the term paper should include the topic for the paper and the thesis or argument (ie what you hope to demonstrate). The Kolve-Olson (KO) text has an excellent selection of sources and analogues for the CT, and some of the best critical essays on Chaucer of the last hundred years. The term paper should be based on material in KO. Failure to complete any of the required work means failing the course; no Incompletes are given except for medical reasons; plagiary (“passing off someone else’s work as one’s own”) is the Eighth Deadly Sin. Regular and punctual attendance is required. NB: Everyone is expected to memorize and recite to me the first 18 lines of the General Prologue at some point in the course.
St Augustine on charity and cupidity: "I call 'charity' the motion of the soul toward the enjoyment of God for his own sake, and the enjoyment of one's self and one's neighbor for the sake of God; but 'cupidity' [from cupido, desire] is a motion of the soul toward the enjoyment of one's self...or any corporeal thing." (Please memorize)
The sacrament of penance in the Roman Catholic Church includes confession of sin, repentance, and submission to the penalty imposed by the priest who hears the confession, followed by his absolution (or forgiveness) of sins.
--MarthineSatris 17:16, 27 August 2007 (PDT)
