After the Norman Conquest of 1066 the English language and English literature came fully into their own in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and some of his contemporaries in the later fourteenth century. This course will concentrate on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: we will read some of the Tales and “translate” parts of them in tutorial, for which elementary Middle English grammar will be studied. In order to understand these remote texts properly, the lectures will deal with aspects of the cultural history of the Middle Ages: social structure, church and clergy, ideas about nature, love, sex, marriage, dress and food, life and death, and especially the tension between ideal and reality.
Timetable
Will be available from June 1st on the Internet.
A la carte and contract teaching
More information for students who are interested in taking this course as an A la carte student (no exam).
More information for students who are interested in taking this course as a Contract student (with exam).
Course objectives
Reading and translation of fourteenth-century English; elementary Middle English grammar; cultural history of the Middle Ages; oral production and interaction in Modern English.
Required reading
The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry D. Benson, Oxford University Press Paperback, 1988.
Reader with background material.
Examination
Written short-question examination.
Information
Secretary English Department, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 102c
English@hum.leidenuniv.nl.
Blackboard/webpage
No blackboard available.
Overview
To be announced.