Admission requirements
Not applicable.
Description
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 the seminars, for which elementary Middle English grammar will be studied. In order to understand these remote texts properly, the lectures will deal with aspects of Middle English and of the cultural history of the Middle Ages, such as 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.
Course objectives
Students will acquire
1. Skills in reading and translating fourteenth-century English
2. A working knowledge of elementary Middle English grammar
3. Insight in the cultural history of the Middle Ages.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
One hour lecture and one hour seminar per week.
Assessment method
Assessment
- Written midterm examination consisting of a translation and open questions (mandatory)
- Written final examination consisting of a translation and open questions (mandatory)
Attendance is compulsory. Missing more than two seminars means that students will be excluded from the seminars. Unauthorized absence also applies to being unprepared, not participating and/or not bringing the relevant course materials to class.
Weighing
- Midterm exam: 30% of final grade
- Final exam: 70% of final grade
Resit
If the final grade (the average of midterm and final exams) is lower than 6.0, students may take the resit once. The resit covers the entire material of the course and the mark constitutes 100% of the final grade, thus replacing all previously earned marks. There is no resit for the midterm exam.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Benson, Larry D. ed. (2008). The Riverside Chaucer, Oxford University Press, paperback ISBN 978-0-19-955209-2
Horobin, Simon (2012). Chaucer’s Language, paperback ISBN 978-0-230-29379-3.
Reader with background material, order via Reader Online.
Registration
Enrolment through My Studymap (Login | Universiteit Leiden) is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website.
NB: First year students will be enrolled by the coordinator of studies. All other students need to contact the coordinator of studies to be enrolled for this course.
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Registration Studeren à la carte
Registration Contractonderwijs
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment and admission, contact the coordinator of studies
For other questions, contact the Student administration Arsenaal
Remarks
Students are expected to prepare for the first class. Information about reading and assignments for week 1 is available both on Brightspace (enrollment is required) and in the Reader. From week 2 onwards the weekly syllabus will only be available on Brightspace.
Textbooks need to be ordered as soon as possible so that they will be available by the beginning of the semester.