At the end of the course, the student
• has acquired a literary and historical overview of the Middle English period;
• has been introduced to a representative selection of authors and types of writings in the original Middle English;
• is able to recognise and analyse a range of genres, topics and ways of creating meaning prevalent in late medieval literary culture;
• is able to place Middle English writings in their cultural, historical, and material settings.
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In addition to political, cultural and societal changes, the Conquest of England by the Normans in 1066 had a number of unforeseen effects in literary culture and linguistics, including the introduction of new literary genres up to then practically unknown to the English, and a brand new stage of the language, that is, Middle English. Through weekly readings, you will familiarise yourself with a broad range of writings from the beginning to the end of the Middle English period (ca. 1170-ca. 1500). These texts are written in different mediums (prose/verse), modes (narrative/chronicle/history), genres (fabliau/allegory/lay/exemplum/romance), by different authors (anonymous/known/attributed). But whatever the texts may be, they have been written for two main purposes: sentence and solace, as Geoffrey Chaucer put it. Sentence means significance, more specifically the deeper meaning that is instilled in all human expression, and indeed in Creation at large. Solace means pleasure and refers to the enjoyment a narrative may give the listener or reader. Sentence and solace go hand in hand, though not usually in equal measure.
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The final grade is the average mark of two written exams that each need to be passed with a 5.5 minimum. The written exams cover the lectures, the seminars, and the primary and secondary sources read for the course.
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