• Blanc Aurélie

• Blanc Aurélie

This course is aimed at first-year students. It is designed to introduce them to the Middle English language, essential for them to read medieval English texts during the rest of their studies. Grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation will be studied, and the students’ language skills will be developed through the careful reading of the Canterbury Tales.

The course’s second aim is for students to use their knowledge of Middle English to acquire a deeper understanding of Chaucer’s text. Close-reading and in-class discussions will develop the students’ analytical skills and enable them to explore the Canterbury Tales. At times courtly and solemn, at others irreverent, fun, or even obscene, the Tales’ diversity offers students a look at various genres of medieval literature, various themes (such as fate, love, revenge, or the role of women), and at the varied society of fourteenth-century England. It also addresses more general themes—storytelling, for instance, and the role of the author.

Requirements

Credit requirements are active participation and written work, which students need to submit at the end of term time. This written essay will be graded.

Course Registration

Please do not forget to register on MyUnifr (both for the “Proséminaire” and the “Examen”). For the official registration deadlines of the Faculty of Arts, see:

https://www.unifr.ch/lettres/fr/etudes/cours-et-examens/inscription-aux-cours-et-examens/

• Knowledge of basic grammar of Middle English
• Basic training in reading Middle English
• Training in analysing texts through close reading and through in-class discussions.
• Introduction to fourteenth-century English literature and culture
• Awareness of the questions surrounding authorship in the Middle Ages

Students are asked to acquire the following book:

Geoffrey Chaucer The Canterbury Tales: Seventeen Tales and the General Prologue edited by V.A. Kolve and Glending Olson (New York; London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018).