Medieval English Literature, Spring 2016 -- Mr Furr

Homework Page

Back to Home Page for this course.

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 January 25:
  • Set up your computer for audio files.
  • Send me two email messages from two different email servers, as instructed on the Internet page.

• Make sure the format of your Subject line conforms to the model at the bottom of our Home Page.

• Also for Monday Jan. 25: Follwing the directions, and do the assignment on this page.

You will need the free RealPlayer program. You may already have it -- just try listening to it. Otherwise, download it using the links on the homework page for this class. If you don't, download it using the links on this page.

• For Thursday January 28.
• For Monday,February 1.
• For Thursday, February 4.

Old English Literature

• For Monday, February 8.
• For Thursday, February 11.
• For Monday, February 15. Note: by today, make sure you have read 1/2 of Beowulf, pp. 69-90, to the end of § 23.
• For Thursday, February 18. By this assignment you should have finished reading Beowulf.
• For Monday, February 22 - on "The Dream of the Rood."
• For Thursday, February 25: First: please download and install the VLC media player so we can listen to some audio files in .rm format. Download it for Windows here; for Mac here.
  (I suggest downloading this free player because I know it will play .rm files. If you have a different player that will play .rm files, use it by all means.)
  Now do this assigment.
  If you wish, you can right-click and download these three small audio files and play them from your computer. Just remember which folder you have saved them in!
  Please make notes while you listen to this lecture.
  The Riddles in the Exeter Book. Please read the selection in our textook, pp. 55-59.
  Also, download the OE text of these riddles from our Canvas page - the file is titled "The Old English Riddles in our Textbook.docx". Bring them to class. We can try to guess the answers.

Medieval Literary Theory: Allegory

• For Monday, February 29. Please study the three texts linked at the top of this page. Be sure to bring with you to class (a) the excerpts from Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy; and (b) the excerpts from Augustin3, On Christian Doctrine.
  Also: please study, print out, and bring these passages to class with you.
• For Thursday, March 3. This is a charming little story from Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron that will serve us as an introduction to the sophisticated deployment of medieval allegory.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

• For Monday, March 14. Also, please take a look at this page -- about your term paper project.
  Also, please download, read, and bring to class the following two files: "Roman de la Rose, beginning, Dahlberg transl.docx" and ""Chaucer, the Romaunt of the Rose, the Dream Vision.pdf"
• For Thursday, March 17. We will also discuss the term paper project a little more.
• For Monday, March 21 -- 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 Thursday, March 24.

More on Allegory

• For Monday, March 28. Let's study this short but mysterious lyric poem, "Maiden in a Moor Lay."
  Now see E.M.W. Tillyard's letter to the Times Literary Supplement of May 11, 1951, and R.J. Schoeck's reply, TLS June 6, 1951.

 Assignment on Piers Plowman. (Be sure to use the translation on Canvas, not the one in our textbook)

The original Middle English text can be consulted at this site at the University of Michigan.

• For Thursday, March 31.
• For Monday, April 4.
• For Thursday, April 7.

Assignments on Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Book of the Duchess"

• For Monday, April 11. We will spend 3 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 Thursday, April 14. 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 Monday, April 18.

Assignments on Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Fowls

• For Thursday, April 21 - Read "The Parliament of Fowls,"  pp. 414-427. in our text.
  Please read it in the original. You may, however, use one or more translations for "help." Here are: a prose translation; a verse translation; a blank verse (no ryhmes) translation.
• For Monday, April 25.
• For Thursday, April 28.

Monday, Mary 2: Last Day of Class. We will discuss important end of semester matters. Please attend!

http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/mel/melhw16.html | Email me | created 16 January 16