Medieval English Literature supervisions
Studying for Part 1 Paper 1, “English Literature and Its Contexts 1300 – 1550”
Next term I will be leading your supervisions for Part 1 Paper 1. We will be looking at some long texts during the term, and it might be difficult to keep up, so it is a good idea to read some of the longer texts over the vacation.
In the first four weeks we will look at some of the ‘classics’ of Middle English literature. You should prepare by reading at least parts of these during the vacation.
Week 1: Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde (buy the Riverside Chaucer: inexpensive but scholarly and very useful) together with Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy (Penguin has a good translation).
Week 2: Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (also in the Riverside Chaucer): the General Prologue, and at least four of the following: the Knight’s Tale, the Miller’s Tale, the Reeve’sTale, the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, the Clerk’s Tale, the Merchant’s Tale, the Franklin’s Tale (together with any accompanying prologues and epilogues).
Week 3: William Langland’s religious and social allegory Piers Plowman. Buy the Everyman edition by A.V.C. Schmidt of the B-Text of Piers Plowman (only the second edition); Schmidt has also translated this for Oxford World Classics. You may find it helpful to begin by reading the translation to get a sense of the whole text, before looking at sections (known as passus) in the original.
Week 4: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Buy the Oxford edition by J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, rev. by N. Davis: this has an excellent glossary. It will take time to read in the original, but it will be worth it.
In week 5 we will cover some medieval dream-poetry: Pearl, believed to be by the same poet as Sir Gawain, and some of Chaucer’s dream-poems: The Book of the Duchess and the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women.
In week 6, we will look at the works of Sir Thomas Malory, focusing the first, seventh and eighth books of Sir Thomas Malory’s Works in the edition by Eugene Vinaver.
In weeks 7 and 8, you will concentrate on one of the optional topics set for the exam. I would advise you against attempting the topic of ‘Passion and Lyricism’; instead, I would like you to consider studying either the topic of ‘Christ’s Body’ or of ‘Idleness and Inactivity’. The English Faculty’s reading list (available online from within Cambridge) is a good starting-point for deciding what you want to study. Perhaps you could look at some of the primary material for both topics over the vacation and decide which interests you more.
Do not take on too much secondary reading over the vacation. Concentrate on the primary reading discussed above. However, several pieces of secondary reading will help you greatly in preparing for the Michaelmas term:
-it will be vital for you to become familiar with the outlines of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century history. Choose a readable but serious history book about the period, perhaps Miri Rubin’s recent book, The Hollow Crown.
-A working knowledge of the Bible will be essential. In particular, make sure you are familiar with Genesis and the Gospels (re-read Matthew first).
-The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis is an extremely readable introduction to ideas which permeate medieval literature but which have since fallen into obscurity.
If you still have time and you want to begin your critical reading, I have two further suggestions. There are many up-to-date and informative essays on various texts and genres in The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature ed. by David Wallace (1999). For recent exciting and provocative analysis of both well-known and less familiar literature, dip into James Simpson’s Oxford English Literary History volume 2, 1350-1547: Reform and Cultural Revolution (2002), where you are bound to find references which pique your interest. This book is full of energetic polemic and you will not look at Middle English in the same way again!
For Middle English language, the Book of Middle English edited by J.A. Burrow and Thorlac Turville-Petre gives detailed information on grammar and syntax, but also contains passages from many of the works and authors we will be reading, each of which is prefaced by a very helpful couple of pages pointing out how each individual writer uses the language. I say more about Middle English on my introductory worksheet about reading the language.
I look forward to teaching you next term.