Material Middle English: Assignments

Meet My Manuscript: 20%

You will be assigned a manuscript of one of the texts we are reading (either Chaucer or Gower; there is only one Malory manuscript, so we won’t be drawing on it for this particular exercise). Your responsibility is to introduce the manuscript to your colleagues. There are two main parts to the exercise.

• First, you should describe the manuscript. You might pay attention to its physical characteristics; its decoration; its script; its production and provenance history if known; and its current location and accessibility (this last could include your thoughts on the digital surrogate with which you’ll be working).
• Second, you should present some observations or questions you might have about the way the manuscript intersects with your reading of the text it contains. Some manuscripts will be “canonical,” in the sense that they have been used by scholarly editors in the process of establishing the text. Others might be manuscripts that have been deemed unimportant, or uninteresting, or corrupt; despite (or indeed perhaps because of) that designation, they may offer new ways into the text.

You are not required to hand in any material related to this assignment. You should plan on speaking for about 15 minutes.

Reading Responses: 30% total

For all three of these Reading Response assignments, I will collect your notes at the end of the relevant class. These are at their root, participation assignments, and they will be graded accordingly. That is, I expect your notes to show signs of serious thought, and I hope that having worked through some issues ahead of time, you will be able to contribute meaningfully to class discussion. I am NOT expecting polished, connected prose in the written submissions, not fully fleshed-out comments in seminar.

Reading Response 1: Middle

• You will be assigned a section of one of the Middle English works we are reading. You should come to class with no more than one written page of notes or questions that highlight things of interest about the primary text. You should plan on speaking in the first instance for no more than 5 minutes, though of course I hope that further discussion will follow as all members of the seminar work through the materials

Reading Response 2: Modern

• You will be assigned responsibility for one of the critical readings on the syllabus. You should come to class with no more than one written page of notes that highlight questions or thoughts you had about the reading. You should plan on speaking in the first instance for no more than 5 minutes, though of course I hope that further discussion will follow as all members of the seminar work through the materials

Reading Response 3: Medley

• On this day, your job is to think about how the primary and secondary texts speak to each other. As usual, you will bring no more than one written page of notes, observations, queries - whatever - to class with your thoughts. You should plan on speaking in the first instance for no more than 5 minutes, though of course I hope that further discussion will follow as all members of the seminar work through the materials

Final Paper: 50%

Your final paper for this course will be underpinned by the work traditionally associated with a research paper, but the final product is to be the materials necessary for a 20-minute conference paper. You will hand in

• an 8 - 10 page script, written with an awareness of a listening/ observing audience
• an accompanying visual presentation (Powerpoint, Keynote, or similar)
• a list of the 10 - 15 critical works you consulted while preparing the paper, with brief (no more than 3 sentences each) annotations for each