In this course we will be exploring some of Chaucer’s best works from early in his career (The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls) to late (The Canterbury Tales). We will consider the issue of textual survival from a manuscript culture to a print culture, and attend to two main critical issues: Chaucer’s use of sources and models (including his own work) and the recent advances of New Historicism and gender studies.

TEXTS
Main:
Benson, Larry D., ed. The Riverside Chaucer (Paperback). New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN: 0192821091

Secondary:
Capellanus, Andreas, intro. by John J Parry, The Art of Courtly Love. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990. ISBN: 0231073054

Miller, Robert P. Chaucer: Sources and Backgrounds. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. ISBN: 0195021673

The Rule of St. Benedict, trans. by Anthony Meisel and M. L. Del Mastro. New York: Doubleday, Image Books, 1975. ISBN: 0385009488

The Cambridge Companion to Chaucer, ed. by Piero Boitani and Jill Mann. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press: 2004. ISBN: 0521894670

Course Workload: Two class presentations and a paper (ca. 20 pp.).