Medieval Dreams and Visions
From Zeugma
Engl. 624: Medieval Dreams and Visions
Tuesday 3:30-6:10 pm; COM 206
Course Texts
- Boethius: Consolation of Philosophy
- Petrarch: The Secret
- Chaucer: Dream Visions
- William Langland: Piers Plowman: A New Translation of the B Text
- Anon: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Patience and Pearl
- Online course texts
- Course Reader, available at Cal Copies
Course Requirements
- Attendance and active participation in all seminar meetings (15%)
- Weekly response papers, approximately 1 page, single-spaced. These papers are informal, but should address the readings and topics due that day in class, focusing on interpretive issues or questions that strike you as being interesting. Graded satisfactory/unsatisfactory. (30%)
- One formal presentation, using PowerPoint, on a topic relevant to the class. Topics follow in schedule, below. (15%)
- Seminar paper, approximately 15 pages, typed, double-spaced, on a topic of your choice, which discusses one or more of the literary texts of the class in relation to some critical perspective or concept. (40%)
Course-related Wiki Pages
Schedule
Week 1: Intro the first
Introduction and sign-ups for presentations
Week 2: Intro the second
Reading:
- Dream of the Rood
- Romance of the Rose
- Christine de Pizan’s response
- Christine’s Vision
- Peter Brown, “Middle English Dream Visions”
- “Commentary on the Dream of Scipio,” in Dream Visions, appendix
Week 3: Dreaming and Desire
Reading:
Presentation Topic: What is the connection between Boccaccio and Dante? How do dreams function for both?
Week 4: Waking Visions and Desire
Reading:
- Margery Kempe
- Julian of Norwich, chaps 3, 4, 5, 7, 58, 59, 60
- Marie de France, “Yonec”
- Augustine’s Confessions VI. 15 and IX.10
Presentation Topic: What is “mysticism” in the Middle Ages? What was the typical mystic experience?
Week 5: Dreaming and Desire
Reading:
- Chaucer: Parliament of Fowls
- A. C. Spearing, “Parliament of Fowls as Dream Poetry” in appendix
- Charles Muscatine, “Chaucer’s Early Poems” in appendix
Presentation Topic: Allegory and Dream Visions as a medieval genre
Week 6: Predestination and Foreboding
Reading:
- Chaucer, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” and “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”
- “Literacy and Learning” in coursepack
Presentation Topic: Medieval Dream Books (The Somnium Danielis)
Week 7: Predestination and Foreboding
Reading:
Presentation Topic: Medieval views on fate and predestination
Week 8: Reform and Social Allegory
Reading:
- Gower, Vox Clamantis
- Piers Plowman B passi I-XII
- “Politics and Ideology” in coursepack
Presentation Topic: The Peasant’s Revolt
Week 9: Reform and Social Allegory
Reading:
- Piers Plowman B to end
- “Religion” in coursepack
Presentation Topic: choose any single episode from PP and present it
Week 10: Crossing Over
Reading:
- The Pearl
- Consolation of Philosophy
Presentation Topic: Medieval Consolation as genre
Week 11: Crossing Over
Reading:
- Chaucer, Book of the Duchess
- Machaut, “Fountain of Love” (in appendix)
- Ovid, “Ceyx and Alcione” (in appendix)
Presentation Topic: Ovid’s story of Ceyx and Alcione, how Chaucer changes it; and why
Week 12: Dreams, Language, and the Self
Reading:
- Chaucer, Legend of Good Women
Presentation Topic: choose any single tale from LGW and present it
Week 13: Dreams, Language, and the Self
Reading:
- Petrarch, The Secret
- Augustine, Confessions I.4-I.6; I.12-I.18
- “On Christian Doctrine” selection from “Religion” in coursepack
Presentation Topic: Petrarch’s Life and Ambitions
Week 14: Dreams Language, and the Self
Reading:
- Chaucer: House of Fame
Presentation Topic: The late Middle Ages and the concept of Fame
Week 15: Apocalypses
Reading:
- De Trinitate
- Hildegard von Bingen
- Richard Rolle
