From the Conquest to Caxton: Middle English Language, Literatures, History

Catalog description

This seminar will explore the English language and its literatures in its most diverse centuries, which 19th century philologists saw as the middle span: after the collapse of Old English language, poetic style, and indigenous power-centers at the Norman Conquest (1066), up to printing (1476), the beginnings of standard Modern English, claims to an English literary tradition, and the origins of Atlantic adventurism and imperialism. Between those benchmarks we'll consider multilingualism, English linguistic diversity and changes, social identity, literary forms, and ideas about language and literature, sampling many Middle English works and more fully reading the Katherine Group, Gawain-poet, Piers Plowman, and Julian of Norwich's Showings.