Professor Jo Koster

Bancroft 228

Office Phone: 323-4557

Class meets MW 5-6:15 in BANC 264

E-mail: kosterj@winthrop.edu

Office Hours: TBA and cheerfully by appointment

ENGL 511: Chaucer
Spring 2008--UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!!!!!

Texts:

• Dream Visions and Shorter Poems, Norton Critical Edition, ed. Kathy Lynch, ISBN 0393925889, 2006.

• The Canterbury Tales, 2nd edition, Norton Critical Edition, ed. V.A. Kolve and Glending Olson, ISBN 0-393-92587-0, 2005

• Troilus and Criseyde, Norton Critical Edition, ed. Stephen A. Barney, ISBN 0-393-92755-5, 2006

• The Cambridge Companion to Chaucer, 2nd ed., ed. Piero Boitani and Jill Mann, ISBN 0521894670, 2004.

These texts have been ordered at the Bookworm. If you choose to buy them elsewhere, make sure you get THESE editions and ISBNs only.

Course Goals:

1. To read and enjoy the major works of England’s most famous medieval poet.

2. To understand how gender, class, culture, religion, and history affected his life and works.

3. To learn the rudiments of Middle English as a spoken and written language.

4. To sharpen and demonstrate your critical skills in well-written essays.
5. To become familiar with Middle English critical resources in print and electronic forms.

See a complete listing of course goals for the Department of English at http://www.winthrop.edu/english/goals/index.htm.   Goals for teacher certification majors: http://www.winthrop.edu/english/goals.htm#englished.

Two in-class tests on Chaucer’s language, a take-home final examination on content and critical interpretation, several short responses to critical perspectives on Chaucer, and a significant critical essay (7-10 pages for undergraduates, 12-15 pages for graduate students) on a topic of your choosing, or a significant unit of lesson plans for teaching Chaucer on the secondary level. All students must master the pronunciation of Middle English and read 20 or more lines satisfactorily in private with the instructor. Graduate students will be expected to lead discussion in class on at least two days and to write an additional critical book review on a recent (since 1996) work of secondary criticism in Chaucer studies.

Expectations

1. This is an intense course, especially with the challenge of mastering an earlier form of literary English. Emphasis will be placed on a lot of discussion. Therefore, you are expected to do the reading before class and to come to class prepared. Smiling silence will not earn you a high class participation grade in a course at this level.

2. As a 500-level class, you will be expected to dip into secondary criticism of the works we read as well as the primary texts themselves. The Norton Critical Editions and the Cambridge Companion offer you some good places to start, but you should get into the habit of probing more deeply on your own as well, using appropriate scholarly resources.

3. Attendance is expected. University policy is that students who miss more than 25% of classes (8 classes on a two-night per week class) must receive a grade of F. If you miss more than two classes, expect your final grade to be lowered at least three points for every absence.

4. You are expected to purchase the texts and bring them to class as assigned. If you do not choose to purchase them from the Bookworm, please check the ISBNs for the texts so that you can get the right editions wherever you choose to shop.

5. I expect you to observe the English department’s conventions for the appropriate use of borrowed information and documentation, available at http://www.winthrop.edu/english/plagiarism.htm.  Plagiarism of any sort is unacceptable in the class and will result in an F grade for the class. Please ask me in advance if you have any questions about how you are using borrowed materials in your work. All work is presumed to be original for this class unless I give explicit permission otherwise.

6. We will use www.turnitin.com for all papers written in this class. Your class ID# is 2123952 . I will provide you with the password in class.

7. All written work must conform to MLA style. See Harris’ Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Composition, 4^th ed., or the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5^th ed., if you have any questions.

8. Cell phones and pagers must be turned off during class. If yours goes off during class, you will be counted absent for the day. Same goes for texting--don't do it in class unless you wish me to become wonderly wroth.

9. Graduate students will note that there are some additional course requirements for them. This is required by the SACS accreditation board for joint undergraduate/graduate classes.