| 14C Ms. Collections (w/Engl 498D) | Coldewey | MW 1:30-3:20 |
Writing the English Nation in the later Middle Ages
In the course of the fourteenth century, a number of important changes occurred that affected England’s conceptualization of itself as a nation. Following the Norman Conquest, England matured for a couple of centuries as a nation defined largely by the Latin of the Church and the Anglo-Norman of the aristocracy. During the 1300s, however, England began to move progressively further from its earlier standards, in language, culture, politics. Even before the onset of the century-long conflict with France (the Hundred Years’ War), a new concept of the English nation was being articulated in literary manuscripts and other documents.
This seminar will begin with texts in manuscript collections such as Harley MS 2253 (from the west country, ca. 1340) and the Auchinleck MS (produced in London in the 1340s). We will try to develop some appreciation of how they (differently) conceive of their English audience and address ‘national’ concerns at the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War.
Later in the seminar we will look to Piers Plowman and works of Chaucer to see what we can determine about the direction of change at the end of the fourteenth century. How do these works relate to those in the earlier collections and how do these writers establish a new sense of English-ness in and through their works.
Since many of the readings for the class will be in dialects of Middle English, participants should have good familiarity with at least Chaucer in the original. Requirements for the seminar will include close reading of selected texts in Middle English and in the critical and theoretical works relevant to the texts and the topics of the seminar. Since the seminar will be primarily one that depends on the interests and individual research projects of the participants, students will provide a few oral reports on their work and produce a substantial research paper at the end.
We will start our seminar with readings from Kathy Lavezzo’s Imagining a Medieval English Nation and from some additional materials I will distribute at the beginning of the seminar. Other required readings will be decided on at that time, selected in part as a result of particular research interests of participants.
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