Engl 515 explores 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 critical issues: Chaucer’s use of sources and models (including his own work) and recent advances of New Historicism and gender studies. Throughout the term we will be animated by the question of love in one form or another.
Course workload: Memory work, class discussion, postings to our class discussion site, a class presentation, and a paper (12-17pp.).

Texts:

• Benson, Larry D. The Riverside Chaucer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
• Capellanus, Andreas. The Art of Courtly Love. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.
• Miller, Robert P. Chaucer: Sources and Backgrounds. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.
• Meisel, Anthony and Del Mastro, M.L. trans. The Rule of St. Benedict. New York: Doubleday Image Books, 1975.