106-053 Chaucer and the Birth of the Author

Formerly 106-053 Chaucer and the Canon. Students who have completed 106-053 Chaucer and the Canon are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually 12.5 points of first-year English.

This subject explores the complex role of the vernacular writer in medieval society, amid changes in the late medieval conception of authorship. The works of Geoffrey Chaucer (The Canterbury Tale and other earlier poems) will be our main focus, but we will also consider the work of other medieval writers, and some of Chaucer's contemporaries and followers, across a range of genres, from romance to spiritual narrative and political satire. This subject will introduce students to reading Middle English, but several texts will also be read in Modern English translation.

• apply new research skills and critical methods to a field of inquiry;

• develop critical self-awareness and shape and strengthen persuasive arguments;

• communicate arguments and ideas effectively and articulately, both in writing and to others.

One essay of 1500 words 40% (due mid-semester) and one essay of 2500 words 60% (due at the end of the semester).

A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop.

• Chretien de Troyes, trans. William Kibler & Carleton Carroll, Arthurian Romances.
• Chaucer, ed. Larry Benson, The Riverside Chaucer.
• Chaucer, trans. Barry Windeatt, The Book of Margery Kempe.
• Chaucer, ed & tran. W.R.J. Barron & S.H. Rigby, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.