Homework Page, Middle English Literature Fall 2011 Mr Furr

Middle English Literature, Fall 2011 -- Mr Furr

Homework Page

I will post all writing assignments on this page.. You should create a 'bookmark' of your own to this page, so you can go to it without having to first go to the Home Page for the course.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS

For Monday Sept. 12:
- Set up your computer for Streaming Audio.
- Send me two email messages from two different email servers, as instructed on the Internet page.
  - I advise you NOT to use AOL! AOL often rejects email from Montclair State University servers. If you miss something for this reason, it's YOUR responsibility. See directions on the Internet page.
- Make sure the format of your Subject line conforms to the model at the bottom of our Home Page.
THIS IS A REQUIRED ASSIGNMENT. If you don't complete it on time, you will get an "F" for this assignment.
- (IF YOU WANT TO - please go to Melissa Snell's Medieval-Renaissance Page, and subscribe to her 'Knightly Newsletter'. This is a very good page for anyone with a general interest (as opposed to a strictly academic interest) in the Middle Ages, and is lots of fun! Melissa keeps adding good stuff. Explore this page and enjoy! NOT REQUIRED, BUT LOTS OF FUN!)

Also for Monday Sept. 12, listen to, and study, the first lecture on The Medieval World-View. Download the audio file GFMVW1.rm using this link.. Click on the link to the file, SAVE it to your own hard drive, and then listen to it on your own computer. Then do the same for the other two "Medieval World View" files, GFMVW2.rm and GFMWV3.rm
You will need the free RealPlayer program. You may already have it -- just try listening to it.

Otherwise, download the latest RealPlayer by going to the "Streaming Audio" link on our Home Page and double-clicking on the link to download the latest Realplayer.

While listening to, and making notes on, this lecture, make sure you are looking at the handouts, or Web Pages that accompany this lecture (and the next two lectures as well): The Social Hierarchy; The Universal Hierarchy; and the Ptolemaic Theory of the Universe. Please print these out and use them as "handouts." Also, bring them to class as well.

You will need to complete the set-up for Streaming Audio.

THIS IS A REQUIRED ASSIGNMENT. The fact that it is over the Internet doesn't mean it is "optional" or "extra."
For Thursday, Sept. 15.
For Monday, Sept. 19.
For Thursday, Sept. 22.

Assignments on Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose.

NOTE: Please bring your copy of the novel to class with you every day!

Here is a link to The Apocalypse of St. John the Divine, as it is called in the Douay-Rheims Bible, the official Catholic translation of the Vulgate (Latin) Bible. And here is a link to the real Vulgate text, as read in the Middle Ages -- the Latin version by St. Jerome.

Both these versions are good for searching. Perhaps try reading the English before you tackle the Latin, though? ;-)

For Monday, September 26: complete and mail to me only the completed quiz on NOR which I have emailed to you. Please print out and bring a copy to class, as well.
NOTE: Please print out this page and bring it to class. It is a list of the passages we will discuss in Eco's novel.
For Thursday, September 29.

Please read this page: "Now that we have completed the first two weeks of the class..."

For Monday October 3.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

For Thursday, October 6. Download the reading using this link.
For Monday, October 10.
For Thursday, October 13 -- make sure you have completed all the supplementary readings we have had so far. Bring them all to class. We'll spend today catching up, and then go on to Fit 2 of Sir Gawain. Print that out and bring it to class as well.
For Monday, October 17.

Assignments on Chrétien de Troyes, Erec and Enide

For Thursday, October 20.
For Monday, October 24
For Thursday, October 27.
For Monday, October 31 - no additional reading. We will finish up Erec and Enide today.

Assignment on Medieval Literary Criticism

For Thursday, November 3.
- Please also read, print, and bring this page to class with you. It is a fine little Medieval Irish poem that illustrates some of the questions we'll be discussing today.
- Also, please bring your text of Eco, The Name of the Rose, to class. There's a short section, 316-7 (380-1) - literal and allegorical; also, 130 (148), that we should look at briefly before going on to discuss allegory

Assignments on Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron.

NOTE: Go to the list of tales we will read here

For Monday, November 7
For Thursday, November 10
For Monday, November 14
For Thursday, November 17. No separate assignment. Bring the following to class with you:
- all your Decameron HW;
- Your copy of the text of the Decameron;
- the web pages / handouts on medieval. We'll review the important stuff once more

Assignments on Geoffrey Chaucer, Dream Visions and Other Poems.

NOTE: Please read "A Quick Course in Chaucer's Language", pp. xvii-xx of our text.

For Monday, November 21. Please note -- no class today. We will discuss these poems, plus "Fortune", on Monday November 28.
Please read Chaucer's short poem "Truth", The "Envoy" is part of the poem, so don't forget that.
This poem is full of sophisticated expressions of the values found in all of Chaucer's works to one extent or another. Your assignment is: (a) learn all the vocabulary -- it's very simple; (b) write out a translation into Modern English. In other words, learn it well.
We will discuss it in class on Monday, November 28.
Also please study (= read and reread, carefully) "Gentilesse".

Thursday, November 24: Thanksgiving Day. NO CLASS.
Spend this long weekend reading the readings for the rest of the course. Get started on Chaucer, "Book of the Duchess".!
Also, remember to do the assignment for Monday!

For Monday, November 28
For Thursday, December 1. We will spend 1 1/2 classes on Chaucer's "Book of the Duchess."
- There are translations into Modern English here (in Plain Text) and here (in PDF).
- Please begin reading Robertson and Huppé, "The Book of the Duchess" (1963), also available for download on our Blackboard page.
For Monday, December 5. Of course, first read the text of the poem, "The Boke of the Duchesse" It is online here, at the Online Medieval and Classical Library. But please use this PDF'd edition, so we all have the same pagination.
For Thursday, December 8.
Monday, December 12: - To Be Announced.
Thursday, December 15. :Last Day of Class. No assignment, but end of semester matters will be discussed.

http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/mel/melhw11.html | Email me | created 6 Sept 11