ENGL 43521 - Seminar: Love, Sex, and Marriage in Middle English Literature

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

English

Description:

The idea of "love at first sight," lyrics on the pain of unrequited love, the genre of "romance"-all of these are arguably inventions of the Middle Ages. This course will examine the complex and elaborate discourse of "love" that dominated literary and even spiritual writings of the late medieval period. In particular, we will be looking at the literature of late medieval England, and, more specifically, how writers placed this highly romanticized conception of love in dialogue with the more pragmatic and earth-bound topics of sex and marriage. Reading texts as varied as Chaucer's infamous Wife of Bath, with her five successive husbands, Margery Kempe's description of her mystical marriage to the Godhead, and romantic entrapment of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, we will ask what made these topics so compelling to medieval writers and what relation, if any, their stories bore to actual contemporary practices of marriage and courtship. The research component of the course will survey different kinds of research frameworks to help enrich our understanding of the texts from both historical and theoretical perspectives, allowing students to create research projects tailored to their own interests and talents, leading up to writing of a 20-page research paper.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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