Chaucer

Syllabus

1. Required Readings

A. Books

NOTE: There are no "required texts" for this course.

All Chaucer and other texts are available on the Worldwide Web.

The following book has been ordered as "supplemental reading" at the University Bookstore:

Geoffrey Chaucer, Glending Olson (Editor), V. A. Kolve (Editor). The Canterbury Tales : Nine Tales and the General Prologue. W W Norton Co: Norton Critical Edition, 1989. ISBN: 0393952452

The standard text of Chaucer's complete works is:

Benson, Larry D., et al., The Riverside Chaucer, latest edition.

This is the most useable of the contemporary editions. It has vocabulary helps at the foot of each page, which is a great advantage. In addition, it has good introductions and a fine dictionary at the end, as do other modern texts. It is quite expensive -- Amazon.com lists it for $68.15. It is excellent, but more than you really need as an undergraduate student of Chaucer.

Whatever edition you use -- the Norton Critical Edition, The Riverside, or any other --   use an "original", Middle-English edition of Chaucer. We simply can't work with translations. And you will need the notes and vocabulary that all modern editions of Chaucer provide you with.

I have already emailed you a message about Chaucer texts, which I will also put as a link on our course’s Home Page.

Furthermore, a translation will prevent you from spending the 2-3 weeks of reading of the original, which is necessary for you to begin to read Chaucer's English fluently. Please do not use translations.

B. Other Required Readings

All of the readings you’ll be responsible for are on pages on the WorldWide Web. They are just as "required" as printed books would be.

You will still be responsible for bringing the texts we are studying to class. The fact that you may choose to obtain them on-line doesn't excuse any failure to attend class with texts in hand.

These texts and illustrations will help familiarize you with certain medieval philosophical, aesthetic and critical concepts, as well as some modern critical approaches to medieval literature.

If it becomes necessary for me to photocopy articles or other materials for you, I will ask you to reimburse me, so that I can repay the English Department. Budget cuts have made it impossible to use the Xerox copier for free any more. I hope that this will not be necessary.

2. The Course

This course will introduce you to the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, for centuries acknowledged as the greatest literary figure of late medieval England. Chaucer lived at a time of rapid social and literary change, and had a wide experience of life and of reading. This makes his literature very allusive, historically rich, and critically fascinating.

I intend to make this a course on critical approaches and on research methods, and to carry it out as a ‘distance-learning’ course as much as possible. Naturally, you can come in to see me any time during my office hours, and by special arrangement with me at other times. We can also speak by telephone. But we will normally communicate by e-mail and IRC (Internet Relay Chat, real-time chat on the Internet).

3. Format of Class

We will meet twice a week. If the class is large enough, we will have two or more smaller discussion groups.

After the first few weeks, classes will be organized around student reports and presentations. Of course, I will give you whatever help you may need to prepare them.

I do not lecture, except for a little at the beginning of the course.

Assignments.

1. An Annotated Bibliography of critical articles. "Annotated" means a summary of, and comment upon, the article in question, which should be listed in standard MLA bibliographical format at the beginning.

2. A number of assignments, to be emailed to me according to the format described here..

3. Two reports, one on each of two works by Chaucer. These should be researched, and about 1500 words in length. Details of the format will be available on our course’s Home Page.

4. An individual research project. This should be an expanded, in-depth paper of which the contribution to the group presentation is a preliminary draft. It should be 10-12 pages (2500- 3000 words) in length, in standard MLA research-paper format. It should also be emailed to me.

I will provide detailed instructions about the research project, and how to email it to me, in link on our Home Page.

4. Library Work

I’ll provide instruction about how to search the catalogs of these libraries – both of Sprague Library and of the major research libraries in this area (and, for that matter, around the country and around the world) in a link on our course’s Home Page.

Please do not check any books out of Sprague Library on the subject of this course. Instead, when you find a useful book, bring the AUTHOR, TITLE, and LIBRARY CALL NUMBER to me, and I will put it on reserve for this class. This is to make sure that everyone in the class can consult the relatively few books on this subject that the library possesses.

The Reference and Inter-Library Loan librarians of Sprague Library can also be a valuable resource for your research.

In Sprague we will mainly be working with the MLA Bibliography, available on CD-ROM readers (as well as in hard copy).

5. Attendance and Class Participation.

The classes will be mainly discussions of the reading rather than lectures. Participation by the whole class in discussions is a must if they are to be interesting and worthwhile. In addition, considerable class time will be spent listening to, and commenting upon and discussing, papers written by the students in the class.

A typical class might be divided this way:

Instructor's presentation (sometimes), comments, suggestions.

Group Discussions: If large enough, I will divide the class into groups for discussion purposes. I will provide suggested topics for discussion, together with passages from the books.

General class discussion of the topic, passages, and related topics and passages.

This order can be varied.

6. Attendance Policy.

Attendance will be taken each day. Three unexcused absences will lower the final grade by one grade (e.g. "A" becomes "A-"); five unexcused absences lowers it by one letter (e.g. "A" becomes "B").

If you cannot attend class for whatever reason, I expect you to let me know by email; by phone; or in person before class. If this is impossible, leave a message the same day as the class. If you fail, or forget, to do this, your absence will be "unexcused."

You should email me (from any Internet Address).

If this is impossible, leave a phone message at (973) 655-7305, on the answering machine.

7. Lateness Policy.

If you are late for class -- after I have taken attendance - - I will count it as an "unexcused" absence unless you remember to tell me, at the end of that same class, that you came late. If you forget to do this, your recorded absence will remain. I do this because lateness disrupts the class and group discussions.

The first three times you are late for a class, I will warn you. After that, I will count yur lateness as an "unexcused" absence.

Please do not be consistently late.

8. Exams.

There will be no examinations as such. I will grade you on the following:

your short assignments;
your two reports
your research project.

9. Office Hours

My office hours are TF 11-12:15 a.m. in DI-325 , office phone (973) 655-7305.

BUT, the easiest and recommended way to contact me is by e-mail. Please put your LAST NAME and the initials CH first on the "Subj:" line of any e-mail message you send me.

http:/chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/chaucer/chsyl00.html | furrg@alpha.montclair.edu | last modified 1 Sep 00