ENGL 3014

Texts & Contexts: Medieval

Description & Goals:

This course is structured to provide English Majors with a grounding in the literary, historical, social, religious, political, and philosophical contexts that produced the literature of Medieval England. The texts we will read, then, should be seen as a kind of cultural commerce: a trade of ideas, conventions, outlooks, beliefs, prejudices, and insights reacting to and acting on each other. While the original languages of these texts include varieties of Latin, French, and Middle English, we will use or have access to modern English translations of all of them. We will also make a committed effort to explore the ways in which technology can aid us (or not) in these endeavors. (N.B.: there is no expectation that you are already cyber-jockeys; some of you may well be, and you can help the rest of us; some of you may become so transformed; all of us will be more proficient by the end of the semester.)