Dr. Laurel Amtower
Office Phone: 594-1517

ENGL 530: CHAUCER

Required Texts (available at Aztec Shops or online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble):

The Canterbury Tales (Ed. Jill Mann, Penguin Books)
Troilus and Criseyde (Ed. Barry Windeatt, Penguin Books)
Dream Visions and Other Poems (Ed. Kathryn Lynch, Norton Publishing)
A Companion to Chaucer and His Contemporaries (Eds. Laurel Amtower and Jacqueline Vanhoutte, Broadview Press)

Course Requirements:

• midterm and final (online)
• weekly quizzes on posted lectures
• 3 1-page essays

Class Lectures: This course is being offered as a distance learning course, which means that all lectures will be posted online via Blackboard. Class lectures will be posted on Blackboard on a weekly basis. These online lectures may be viewed as Quick Time movies or listened to as podcasts. Your understanding of the lecture will be enhanced if you read all materials to be covered that day in advance.

Exams: All students are required to pass two 2-hour, timed essay-style exams that will cover the reading assignments (including the introduction to the books) and materials from class lecture. Exams will be offered on Blackboard on the weeks scheduled below. You will have two days during which to take the exams, but the exams must be completed and submitted within 2 hours of starting.

Exam questions will range from the historical to the literary and will draw from the posted lectures and from all assigned reading materials. You will be expected to be familiar with the main characters of each work, as well as each work’s major themes, issues and concerns. You may also be asked to identify major passages and to comment upon them. Exams must be taken on the dates specified in the syllabus and may not be made up except in case of extreme emergency. A documented excuse must be provided.

Quizzes: Beginning Week 2, weekly quizzes will be due on Fridays by 6 pm.

Writing Assignments: Guided writing assignments designed to engage your critical assessment of the materials will be posted Blackboard on a weekly basis. You must complete three of these; you may choose which three. Topics may be found in the weekly schedule below, but they must be submitted via Blackboard and by the due date specified. No late papers will be accepted.

Each paper should be typed, single-spaced, and one page only.

Policies and Procedures:

Blackboard: All lectures and any documents generated for the class will be posted on Blackboard under “course materials.” Please check the site regularly to get specific assignments, study guides, or any other updates that might be available. You can also keep track of your grades there.

Exams: All students will be expected to take exams on the dates noted in the schedule. Exams may not be taken on dates other than those assigned except in case of medical or family emergency (documentation required). In such cases an alternate exam may be issued to minimize opportunities for cheating.

Late Policy: No late papers.

Cheating/Plagiarism: Please note that this course uses turnitin.com to check for plagiarism. The punishment for cheating or plagiarism in this class is immediate failure course and disciplinary action by the Office of Judicial Affairs.

What counts as plagiarism? Any time you use another person’s words or ideas and pass them off as your own. If you are going to paraphrase another person’s work, you must change every major word—every adjective, noun, and verb must be different. If you use ANY word from the original, it must be quoted. This includes words from websites and other students’ papers as well as words from published articles or books.

SCHEDULE:

Week 1: First day of class, Jan 20
Discussion Topic: On-line courses and how they work; Middle English and Chaucer’s medieval world. Please read in advance: “Chaucers Wordes Unto Adam, His Owne Scriveyn,” “The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse” (available for download on website and on Blackboard), and the introduction to The Canterbury Tales book ordered for class (pp. xvii-lxxii).

Week 2:
Please read in advance: Canterbury Tales General Prologue; Chap. I in Chaucer Companion (including historical documents), AND these selections from Chap. IV: “A Myrour to Lewde Men and Wymmen,” “Against Pilgrimage,” and excerpts from the Vox Clamantis, pp 236-244.

Week 3:
Please read in advance: Canterbury Tales: Knight’s Prologue and Tale I, II, III, IV; ch. 5 in Chaucer Companion (including historical documents).
For thinking and discussion: How do Palamon and Arcite fit the requirement of chivalry? In what ways do they seem too extreme?

Week 4:
Please read in advance: Canterbury Tales: The Miller's Prologue and Tale, Reeve’s Prologue and Tale.
For thinking and discussion: How is masculine rivalry presented in the tales here? What role does the woman play in actuating masculinity? How does the woman subvert masculinity in unexpected ways?

Week 5:
Please read in advance: Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale; chap. 2 from Chaucer Companion, including all historical documents.
For thinking and discussion: How do you think the antifeminist texts known to the Wife of Bath might have affected the kind of character she seems to have become?

Week 6:
Please read in advance: Canterbury Tales: The Friar’s Prologue and Tale; Summoner’s Prologue and Tale; The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale; from Chaucer Companion, read Augustine, “On Christian Doctrine” from ch. 4 (historical documents). For thinking and discussion: 1) What is “entente” and how does it affect both the Friar and characters in his tale? 2) Think about how the three rioters in the Pardoner's Tale misunderstand every moral concept spoken to them in the tale. Why do they misunderstand, and what might this indicate about their characters?

Week 7:
Please read in advance: Canterbury Tales: The Clerk’s Prologue and Tale; The Squire’s Prologue; Franklin’s Prologue and Tale.
For thinking and discussion: The main themes in both the Clerk's Tale and the Franklin's Tale have to do with the issue of "sovereignty" in marriage. What do you think of Griselda and how she handles her marriage? What about Dorigen and her predicament? Is Dorigen to blame for what happens? Why or why not?

Week 8:
No lecture. DUE THIS WEEK: Midterm Exam will appear on Blackboard Wednesday through Friday. You have two hours to complete the exam. Completed exams are due on blackboard by Friday at 6 pm.

Week 9:
Please read in advance: Canterbury Tales: The Prioress's Prologue and Tale; The Shipman's Tale. Hugh of Lincoln documents from ch. 4 in Chaucer Companion. For thinking and discussion: It is interesting to compare the Prioress's approach to being a woman to the Wife of Bath's. How do each position themselves as women? How do their relative social stations play into this? Do their attitudes toward their own gender affect the way they view storytelling?

Week 10:
Discussion Topic: Merchant’s Tale, The Nun's Priest's Tale, The Parson's Prologue, Chaucer’s Retraction. For thinking and discussion: 1) January goes blind in the Merchant’s Tale. How is this thematically significant to the tale overall? 2) Much of the Nun's Priest's Tale, arguably, has to do with the processes of telling stories and making meaning out of them. How does the Nun's Priest's Tale offer insights into how to read the Canterbury Tales overall?

Spring Break: March 29-April 2

Week 11:
Discussion Topic: The Book of the Duchess (in Dream Visions). For thinking and discussion: What does the narrator's sleeplessness say about him? What does it signify for him? does it represent any themes we might derive from the Book of the Duchess? What about Morpheus? What is the connection between the way he animates the body of the dead king and Geffrey’s own state of despair?

Week 12:
Discussion Topic: House of Fame (in Dream Visions). For thinking and discussion: consider how the three books of the poem can arguably be summarized as explorations of 1) our relationship to stories and the "authorities" who tell the stories; 2) language; and 3) the repercussions allowing fiction/literature/rumor to establish itself as historical "truth."

Week 13:
Discussion Topic: Troilus and Criseyde, I-III. For thinking and discussion: Lots of fun issues here. Why does Troilus fall in love with Criseyde? Is there anything particular about her that attracts his attention? Look closely at Criseyde's reaction as you read through Book III. What do you make of Criseyde’s dream in Book II? What does it indicate about her “love” for Troilus?

Week 14:
Discussion Topic: Troilus and Criseyde, IV-V. For thinking and discussion: The issue of fate and its relationship to writing really begin to emerge here. What do you think is the poet's attitude toward the act of writing historic poetry, given the attitudes he reflects toward his subject matter at the end of the book? Chaucer abandons this form altogether and moves to something entirely different in The Canterbury Tales, which engrosses him for the last decade (and more) of his life. Do you suppose Chaucer's move toward exploring new forms has anything to do with his own growth as a writer?

Week 15:
Final optional paper due May 10, by 6 pm.
Final Exam: Offered online through Blackboard. May be submitted between May 18 and May 20; due by noon on May 20.