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, Middle Welsh, Old French, and Old and Middle English, we will use or have access to modern English translations of all of them except for the most accessible of the Middle English texts (e.g., some of the Chaucer texts, Malory). 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.)

Students will be evaluated on the following: web site evaluation (250-500 words); small group project (the equivalent of 4 pp. per person); individual project (the equivalent of 5-8 pp.--may be an essay, an edition, or some other research-oriented enterprise); online quizzes; final exam.