ENGLISH 609:

ISSUES OF GENDER IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

Prof. Baker Office hrs: MW 2-3:15 & by appt.

Student Learning Goals:

1. To gain a familiarity with some of the most important texts of medieval literature.

2. To identify some of the critical issues involved in the study of medieval literature.

3. To understand the concepts of gender expressed in medieval literature.

Aug. 23 Women in the Judeao-Christian tradition: Genesis 1:1-3 (your own copy); Augustine, On the Trinity, Book 12, omitting chapters 5 & 6 (on reserve)

28 Excerpts from Theophrastus, Paul, and Jerome in Kolve and Olson, eds., The Canterbury Tales, 326-42, 350-53

Reports: Bloch, Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love, chaps. 1-4; Wilson and Makowski, Wykked Wyves and the Woes of Marriage

30 "Historia calamitatum," in The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, 57-106

Report: D. W. Robertson, Abelard and Heloise

Sept 4 "Personal Letters," in The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, 109-56

Report: Gilson, Heloise and Abelard

6 Troubadours and Trobairitz: Goldin, ed., Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouveres, Part 1, Lyrics 2, 4, 6, 8, 14, 17, 21 (on reserve)

11 Bogin, ed., The Women Troubadours

13 Andreas Capellaneus, The Art of Courtly Love, abridged ed. (on reserve)

Report: Cherchi, Andreas and the Ambiguity of Courtly Love

18 Marie de France, "Guigemar" through "Lanval" in Lais

Report: Bloch, Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love, chaps. 5-7

20 Marie de France, "Le Deus Amanz" through "Eliduc" in Lais; Walter Map, excerpts from Letter of Valerius to Ruffinus, against Marriage, in Kolve and Olson, 342-47

25 Dante, La Vita Nouva, chaps. 1-24

27 La Vita Nouva to end; excerpt from Aquinas, Summa Theologica (on reserve)

Report: Harrison, The Body of Beatrice

Oct. 2 Ancrene Wisse, Parts VI, VII in Savage and Watson, eds., Anchoritic Spirituality, 176-207 (on reserve)

Report: Georgianna, The Solitary Self

4 "Holy Maidenhood" and "Wooing of Our Lord" in Anchoritic Spirituality, 223-57

Report: E. Robertson, Early English Devotional Prose and the Female Audience

11 Julian of Norwich, Showings, long text Revelation 1 through 12

16 Showings to end

18 Staley, ed, Book of Margery Kempe, Book 1 through chapter 55; excerpts from The Book of St. Bride, 207-18; Atkinson, "Female Sanctity in the Late Middle Ages," 225-36; Lochrie, "From Utterance to Text," 243-56

23 Book of Margery Kempe to end

Report: Staley, Margery Kempe's Dissenting Fictions

25 Chaucer, "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" and background materials in Kolve and Olson, 311-69

30 Chaucer, "Clerk's Prologue and Tale" and background materials in Kolve and Olson, 370-92

Report: Dinshaw, Chaucer's Sexual Poetics

Nov. 1 Chaucer, "Franklin's Prologue and Tale" and background materials in Kolve and Olson, 393-409

Report: Hansen, Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender

Short essay due (4-6 pages) : Analyze, compare and contrast the critical methodologies and agreements used to discuss the "Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" in Lee Patterson , "'For the Wyves Love of Bath': Feminine Rhetoric and Poetic Resolution in the Roman de la Rose and the Canterbury Tales," Speculum 58 (1983), 656-95, and Mary Carruthers, "The Wife of Bath and the Painting of Lions," PMLA 94 (1979), 209-22 (on reserve)

6 Chaucer, Legend of Good Women, in Love Visions, ed. Stone

Report: Delany, The Naked Text

8 Dahlberg, trans. Romance of the Rose, chap.. 11; Baird and Kane, trans., La Querelle de la Rose (on reserve)

13 Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies, Book 1 and Book 2 through chap. 12

Report: Quilligan, Allegory of Female Authority

15 The Book of the City of Ladies to end

Report: Brown-Grant, Christine de Pizan and the Moral Defence of Women

20 Christine de Pizan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies

Report: Blamires, The Case for Women in Medieval Culture

27 Student essays discussed

29 Student essays discussed

Dec. 4 Student essays discussed

6 Student essays discussed

14 Final version of essay due by 3 pm