Module Identifier | ENM1720 | |||||||||||
Module Title | CHAUCER & GOWER:POETICS & POLITICS IN REIGN OF RICHARD I I | |||||||||||
Academic Year | 2004/2005 | |||||||||||
Co-ordinator | Professor Diane Watt | |||||||||||
Semester | Semester 1 | |||||||||||
Pre-Requisite | good honours degree | |||||||||||
Co-Requisite | ENM0120 and ENM0220 plus three other MA option modules | |||||||||||
Course delivery | Seminars / Tutorials | 5 x 2 hours | ||||||||||
Assessment |
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Chaucer's shorter poems have been characterized as obscure and elusive narratives, lacking formal unity. The House of Fame in particular is full of disjunctions, and barely makes sense on first reading. This seminar will consider the following questions in relation to The Book of the Duchess and The House of Fame. How might we begin to interpret them? How important is the historical context of these poems? Are they occasional pieces or personal allegories? Why is the author identified with the dreamer? Does an understanding of the patronage system throw any light on their meaning? What is the relationship between love, death, and fame?
Session 2: Society and Gender
The Parliament of Fowls and The Legend of Good Women
These questions will be revisited in our discussion of The Parliament of Fowls and The Legend of Good Women, but in this seminar we will also consider the politics (including the sexual politics) of the poems. Of particular interest is the way in which Chaucer, in these two poems, transforms his classical sources and makes intertextual references to a variety of works, including Dante's Divine Comedy. Does Chaucer offer a utopian vision of social harmony in The Parliament, a satirical attack on women in The Legend or are the poems more similar than they might appear at first glance?
Session 3: Romance and Gender
Troilus and Criseyde
Our exploration of Chaucer's romance, Troilus and Criseyde, will pick up some of the issues already examined in relation to the dream poetry; in particular the representation of women and women's reputations, the connection between love poetry and (Boethian) philosophy, the transformation of sources, the relationship of the author to his authorities, the role of the author/narrator, and Chaucer's anxieties concerning literary fame.
Session 4: Men and Love:
Confessio Amantis prologue and books 1-4
In this seminar we will discuss the position of Gower?s major vernacular work in relation to his trilingual corpus (Gower wrote in Latin and Anglo-Norman as well as English) and consider the political and religious implications of his decision to write in English. We will also examine the confessional framework of Confessio Amantis (which is structured around the notion of the seven deadly sins), and consider some problematic aspects of the exemplary narratives embedded within the first half of the text, looking for example, at stories concerned with incest, homosexuality and cross-dressing.
Session 5: Patronage and Anxiety
Confessio Amantis books 5-8
Certain issues already raised in relation to the first half of Gower's Confessio Amantis, will be reexamined in the light of the second half. Again we will focus on narratives which seem to challenge gender norms, and we consider how they might be linked to the Advice to Princes section in book 7, and to the overt references to contemporary politics elsewhere in the text. In this seminar we will also consider Gower's problematic relationship to his royal patron(s), and his anxieties concerning his literary predecessors and contemporaries (including Chaucer).
This module is at CQFW Level 7