Module Identifier EN31220  
Module Title SOCIETY,SEXUALITY AND SUBVERSION IN THE MIDDLE AGES  
Academic Year 2007/2008  
Co-ordinator Professor Diane Watt  
Semester Intended for use in future years  
Next year offered N/A  
Next semester offered N/A  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   20 Hours. Seminar. (10 x 2 hr seminar workshops)  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment Continuous Assessment: 2 essays (2,500 words each)100%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. Where this involves re-submission of work, a new topic must be selected.100%

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module students should typically be able to:

1. demonstrate an understanding of a range of late medieval texts in English;

2. describe and analyse a range of late medieval literary forms and genres;

3. demonstrate an understanding of late medieval English culture and history;

4. analyse a range of late medieval texts in English in relation to current critical and theoretical debates;

5. demonstrate an understanding of late medieval literary English.

Brief description

Focusing on works by Chaucer, Langland and the Gawain-poet, this module will challenge the myth that medieval literature was much more straightforward than modern literature by looking at the way in which society, orthodoxy, gender and sexuality are constructed within the set texts and by considering the extent to which certain of these texts are socially subversive, sexually transgressive or potentially heretical.   

This module complements the core module on Medieval and Renaissance Writing but will also be accessible to anyone interested in reading medieval texts and in locating the literature of the time in its social and historical context. It will also introduce a range of approaches to Medieval English poetry from more traditional criticism to Marxist, deconstructionist, feminist and postmodern readings. Such readings illustrate that medieval literature remains of relevance in the 21st century.

Content

SEMINAR PROGRAMME

PART ONE: SOCIETY

Seminar 1: Society in Transition

Seminars 2 & 3: Society in Decline

PART TWO: MARGINALITY AND PERSECUTION

Seminars 4 & 5: Anti-semitism and Conflicts of Faith

Seminars 6 & 7: Sodomy and Crises of Faith

PART THREE: SOCIAL SUBVERSION AND THE LIMITS OF GENDER

Seminar 8: The Incestuous Family Romance

Seminar 9: Paying One's Debts

Seminar 10: The Limits of Genre

Reading Lists

Books
** Should Be Purchased
Geoffrey Chaucer (ed. A C Cawley) (1992) The Canterbury Tales Everyman
J J Anderson (ed.) (1996) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience Everyman
William Langland (ed. A. V. C. Schmidt) (1995) The Vision of Piers Plowman Everyman
William Langland (trans. A. V. C. Schmidt) (1992) Piers Plowman Oxford
** Essential Reading
Carolyn Dinshaw (1989) Chaucer's Sexual Poetics London
Clare Lees (ed.) (1994) Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ages London
David Aers (ed.) (1986) Medieval Literature: Criticism, Ideology and History Brighton
David Aers, (ed.) (1988) Community, Gender and Individual Identity: English Writing 1360-1430 London
David Wallace (1998) Chaucerian Polity Stanford
Lee Patterson (1991) Chaucer and the Subject of History London
Louis Fradenburg and Carla Freccero (1996) Postmodern Sexualities London
Stephanie Trigg (ed.) (1993) Medieval English Poetry London
Stephen Medcalf, ''On Reading Books From a Half-Alien Culture'' in Stephen Medcalf (ed.) (1981) The Later Middle Ages London, pp. 1-55

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6