Middle English Allegorical Poetry

PS: Middle English Allegorical Poetry
Mi. 11.00-13.00
Geb. 25.22 Raum U1.72 Beginn: 17.10.2001
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Allegorical poetry can be described as a fictional literary narrative or artistic expression that conveys a symbolic meaning parallel to but distinct from, and more important than, the literal meaning. Allegory has also been defined as an extended metaphor. The symbolic meaning is usually expressed through personifications and other symbols. Related forms are the fable and the parable, which are didactic, comparatively short and simple allegories. (Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia 1994)

Le Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (c.1230) and Jean de Meun (c.1275) and Dante’s Divina Commedia (c.1320) are outstanding examples of the European Middle Ages setting the model for a large number of Middle English allegorical poems.

In our seminar we will read and discuss The Pearl, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Romaunt of the Rose and selections from William Langland’s Piers Plowman. Apart from a careful interpretation of the texts we will try to obtain a systematic understanding of the term ‘allegory’ in that we will learn how to distinguish between allegory as a rhetorical figure, allegory as a text form, and allegory as mode of literary production and perception.

As to the objectives of the course, three main issues will be predominant, after having attended this course you shall be able

to discuss and explain the topic in adequate terms (language)
to know the most important representatives of the text form (knowledge)
to explain and critically reflect upon the central issue, allegory, in theoretically and methodologically well-founded statements (theory and method)

We will provide additional materials and perhaps a news forum on the university's BSCW-Server to which you can be invited, if you send your name and a valid email-address to: holteir@phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de

Preparatory reading:

The Online Companion to Middle English Literature offers short introductions to Allegory, The Pearl, Geoffrey Chaucer The Romaunt of the Rose and William Langland Piers Plowman www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/~holteir/companion/index.html

The Pearl and Piers Plowman are available at the University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center: www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/me/me.html

Printed editions of the texts are:

Hillmann, Mary Vincent (Ed.) The Pearl: mediaeval text with a literary translation and interpretation. Convent Station, N.J. 1961. [ULB and FB Anglistik];
Schmidt, A. V. C. (Ed.). The Vision of Piers Plowman: a critical edition of the B-text based on Trinity College Cambridge MS B. 15. 17. 2nd ed., London: Dent & Sons 1994;
Schmidt, A. V. C. (Transl.). Piers Plowman: A New Translation of the B-Text. London: OUP 2000;
Benson, Larry D. (Ed.). The Riverside Chaucer. 3rd ed. London: OUP 1988.

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Voraussetzungen: Introduction to Medieval English Studies -
Part I: General and Part II: Middle English
Leistungsnachweis: wahlweise: Klausur, mündliche Prüfung, Referat, Hausarbeit
Veranstaltungstyp: Wahlpflicht M.A./Prom.; SII: B1,2

Der Inhalt der Lehrveranstaltung ist geeignet für die Zwischenprüfung
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