Introduction to Medieval English Studies - Part II Advanced (MacDonald)

The Anglistik I Basismodul is split across two semesters. The first semester covers Old English language and literature, from ca. 500–ca. 1200, and the second Middle English language and literature up to ca. 1500. The medieval period is defined by being othered and opposed to our ‘modern’ world, and its literature and language can seem foreign and challenging when first encountered. This Basic Module gives students the opportunity to work with a wide variety of texts from the early and late medieval period, in order to explore the very different voices of medieval authors ranging from Geoffrey Chaucer to the anonymous Deor poet. It also aims to equip students with the analytical skills, the language skills, the paleographical understanding, and the contextual knowledge that they will need to succeed in more advanced medieval English seminars. Across the two semesters, students are asked to engage closely with texts in their original contexts, which includes looking closely at manuscripts, translating from Old and Middle English, and thinking about different literary interpretations of texts from radically different cultures. In the first semester, we will focus on Ælfric’s Life of Saint Edmund, the poem Deor, and the travel catalogue Wonders of the East. In the second semester, we will look at The Owl and the Nightingale, The Book of Margery Kempe, and the ‘General Prologue’ to The Canterbury Tales