A. Books
There is one required book for this course:
Kolve, V.A., and Glending Olson, eds. Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales. Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue. Second edition. Norton Critical Editions. N.Y. 2005. ISBN-10: 0393925870; ISBN-13: 978-0393925876
This is an "original", Middle-English edition of Chaucer. We simply can't work with translations. And you will find the notes and vocabulary useful.
(There is an earlier edition, 1989. Unfortunately, it does not have the same content. For one thing, it has only nine tales, while the new edition has 15. So you will not be able to use it, and please do not buy it -- you will waste your money!)
All other texts are available on the Worldwide Web or on our FTP server.
You may not use a translation in this class. 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.
B. Other Required Readings
All of the readings you’ll be responsible for are on pages on the WorldWide Web or our FTP server. They are just as "required" as printed books would be.
You will 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.
2. The CourseThis 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.
3. Format of ClassWe 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 as such, except for a little at the beginning of the course.
In addition to Email and the Worldwide Web, you will need to set up, and use, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and IRC (Internet Relay Chat). The directions for using these important Internet features are given on our Home Page.
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 one of your reports. 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.
6. Library WorkI’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.
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).
7. 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.
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). I check my email very often.
My office phone is 973-655-7305. But I do NOT check messages on my Voicemail here. There are too many of them, and the sound quality is not good. So, please do NOT leave me any Voicemail at this number. Email me instead!
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.
To email me about lateness please use the subject line format on our Home Page. If you don't, I won't accept your notice of lateness.
Please do not be consistently late.
I will grade you on the following:
11. Office Hoursyour short assignments
your research project.
your grade in the final exam
My office is Dickson Hall 325. Office hours for this semester are MR 11:30 a.m. - 12: 45 a.m., or by appointment.
The easiest and recommended way to contact me is by e-mail. Please put your LAST NAME and the initials CHAU first on the "Subj:" line of any e-mail message you send me.
http:/chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/chaucer/chsyl10.html | furrg@mail.montclair.edu | created 30 Aug 10