Although the Middle Ages is, in the popular imagination, the time of ‘courtly romance’, medieval texts are often – perhaps more often – concerned with other kinds of love, particularly family love, bonds between siblings or between parents and offspring.  Medieval stories of fathers and mother and their daughters or sons are sometimes drawn from classical or biblical sources, and sometimes from folklore.  In this course we will explore stories of many kinds, told in different genres – poetry, prose and drama – that illustrate aspects of parent-child relationships, good and bad. 

16.09   Perfect Parents: Mary and Joseph
23.09   Pious Fathers: Virginius
30.09   Pious Fathers: Abraham and Isaac
07.10   Monstrous Sons: Grendel
14.10   Vengeful Mothers: Medea
21.10   Mourning Mothers: Mary at the foot of the cross
28.10   Bereaved Fathers: Pearl
04.11   Incestuous Fathers: Antiochus
11.11   Wicked Stepmothers: the Man of Law’s Tale
18.11   Wicked Stepmothers: Apollonius of Tyre
25.11   Daughterly displacement: the Clerk’s Tale
02.12   Lost Daughters: Lai le Fresne
09.12   Allegorical Daughters: the four Daughters of God
16.12   Like Mother like Son: Mary and the Nativity

• Knowledge of basic grammar of Old and Middle English language
• Basic training in reading Middle English and Old English
• Understanding of the role of classical and biblical authorities in medieval England
• Developing skills in close commentary