Description
Chaucer wrote The Book of the Tales of Caunterbury towards the end of the fourteenth century but left it unfinished and without clear indications about the order of the tales. Chaucer’s original manuscript is lost, yet the text of the Tales is preserved in more than eighty fifteenth-century manuscripts and numerous printed editions; it is now even available in digital format. All these versions are not alike, because they result from different approaches to Chaucer’s text. While some scribes, printers and modern scholars just reproduced the text of The Canterbury Tales, others tried to produce editions that were as close as possible to Chaucer’s original. In this course we will deal with the textual transmission of The Canterbury Tales from Chaucer’s time to now, paying attention to how scribes, printers and editors approached this text through time. To do so, we will study the work of some fifteenth-century English scribes, of later printers and modern scholars, as well as the role played by the manuscripts in the making of editions at different points in time. Finally, we will see how all manuscripts of some of the Tales, which are now available in digital format, can be used for scholarly research and possibly for making editions of The Canterbury Tales.
Teaching method
Two-hour seminar per week.
Admission requirements
Successful completion of Middle English Literature courses.
Course objectives
Students will gain insight into the complexity of the transmission of medieval texts and scholarly editing. They will learn basic paleographical skills, improve their knowledge of Middle English and develop skills for reading and reporting on secondary literature. Students will also become familiar with the study of electronic versions of manuscript and the language contained in them.
Required reading
To be announced.
Test method
Oral presentation and participation to the discussion in class (30%); final paper or projects (70%).
Time table
Click here for the timetable
Information
English Department, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 102c. Phone: 071 527 2144, or by mail: english@hum.leidenuniv.nl.
Registration
Students can register through U-twist before 15 July, After 15 July students can only register through the Departmental Office.
Blackboard
This course is supported by Blackboard