Mar 28, 2024  
2022-2023 Academic Catalog 
    
2022-2023 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

ENG 349-01 - Medieval Literature

4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: GLS 349-01 .  “Studies in Medieval Literature: Chaucer and His Followers.” This upper-level course studies some of the most influential works by Geoffrey Chaucer (d.1400) alongside those of his contemporaries and followers, including John Gower (d.1408), Thomas Hoccleve (d.1426), John Lydgate (d.c.1451), and John Skelton (d.1529). These poets helped establish Chaucer as the “father” of English literature, but does the title stand? Who should take the credit? To answer these and other questions, we will sample not only these courtiers’ works but those of the greater medieval world at the end of the so-called Middle Ages. In the spirit of studying Chaucer’s followers, we will also survey the global rise of Chaucer studies at its most formative stages, from FJ Furnivall’s founding of the Chaucer Society (1868) to the publication of WW Skeat’s six-volume edition of Chaucer’s oeuvre (1894), to the ongoing initiatives of the New Chaucer Society. 

Prerequisite: ENG 223 
Instructor: Abdelkarim