Unit 1:

Introduction to Modern Perceptions of the Medieval Period

Week 1

January 8th
Introduction to the course. In-class assignment on what we know about the medieval period.

January 10th
Due:
Chapters 1-5 of Gardner’s Grendel
Saussure Handout

Week 2

January 15th
Due:
Chapters 6-8 of Gardner’s Grendel
Lacan handout
Topics for paper #1 available online.

January 17th
Due:
Chapters 9-12 of Gardner’s Grendel
Beowulf assignment

Unit 2:
Medieval and Modern Ideals: Love is a Battlefield

Week 3

January 22
Due:
“Wulf and Eadwacer”
Read through this entire page on the poem to get a feel for the original Old English as well as the Modern English, then visit this page and listen to the poem aloud in Old English (the text on the page is Modern English, but if you click the Play button, the narrator speaks in Old English).

“The Wanderer”
Peruse this site on the poem and try to get a feel for what the website creator was trying to accomplish. Be sure to read all four translations and glance at the original Old English. Also take a look at the sample manuscript pages.

Begin reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for Thursday (available through the link below).

January 24

Due:
Read through the Modern English prose translation of the Middle English poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Also read Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool,” available at http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15433. Be sure to listen to the audio recording.

Week 4

January 29
Due:
Paper #1
John Donne, “The Flea”
Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”

Be sure to print out copies of the poems and bring them to class for discussion. Look up any unfamiliar words and make notes about any figurative language you notice, the overall theme of each poem, and any questions you may have about the texts or their authors.

January 31
Due:
Keats, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”
Keats, “Woman! when I behold thee flippant, vain”

Again, be sure to print out copies of the poems and bring them to class. Look up any unfamiliar words and make notes on any figurative language you notice, overall themes of each text, and any questions you may have about either the texts or their authors.
Topics for paper #2 available online.

Unit 3:
New Media and Its Effects on Our Understanding of the Medieval

Week 5

February 5
Due:
McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage
Manovich, The Language of New Media, pgs. 3-17

February 7
Due:
In-Class Presentations: Medieval Rewrite Project
Manovich, The Language of New Media, pgs. 19-61

Week 6

February 13
Due:
Manovich, The Language of New Media, pgs. 63-93
Wordsworth, “Tintern Abbey“
Again, be sure to print out copies of the poems and bring them to class. Look up any unfamiliar words and make notes on any figurative language you notice, overall themes of each text, and any questions you may have about either the texts or their authors.

Password for E-RES to be announced in class. . .

Unit 4:
The Medieval and the Modern: Issues of Gender

February 14
Due:
Marie de France, Lanval, E-RES
Christine de Pizan, excerpt from The Book of the City of Ladies, E-RES

Week 7

February 19
Due:
Paper #2
Dreamweaver Workshop, Transcriptions Lab SH2509

February 21
Due:
Anne Sexton, assorted poems, E-RES

Week 8

February 26
Due:
Poems from Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart, available through E-RES

February 28
Due:
Donna Haraway, “Manifesto for Cyborgs,” E-RES
Laura Miller, “Women and Children First,” also on E-RES, found in the same file as Haraway’s article

Unit 5:
Commodification of the Medieval Period

Week 9

March 4
Due:
Homework on the commodification of the medieval period. 
Read Chapter 1, Section 1–The Two Factors of a Commodity: Use-Value and Value, from Marx, Capital.
In-Class:
The first half of Shrek

March 6
Due:
Read Abrams, “Marxist Criticism”
Read Chapter 1, Section 4–The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret thereof, from Marx’s Capital.
In-Class:
The second half of Shrek

Week 10

March 11
Due:
Web Authoring Projects (send URL via email by midnight)
In-Class presentations of Web Authoring Projects

March 13
Due:
In-Class Presentations continued.

**Please note that the schedule is subject to revision as the course progresses.