A history of English Literature: From the Old English Period to the Renaissance.
Year One, translation programmes
Contact details:
Lecturer: Dr Rafał Borysławski
Office hours: Wed. 13.15-14.45 (room 4.1)
Email: [e-mail]
www.ikila.us.edu.pl
Lecture topics:
1. Introduction to the course and an introduction to English literature. Contexts of medieval
English literature. The division into Anglo-Saxon (Old English) and Middle English (6
Oct.)
2. The beginnings of English literature: the heroic age (13 Oct.)
3. Christianity in early English (Anglo-Saxon) literature (20 Oct.)
4. Identity in the making: the Venerable Bede and King Alfred the Great (27 Oct.)
5. Old English wisdom and existential poetry (3 Nov.)
6. The age of transition: the Norman Conquest (10 Nov.)
7. The Arthurian myth and the age of chivalry (17 Nov.)
8. Courtly love and courtly poetry (24 Nov.)
9. The revival of English literature in the 13th and 14th century (1 Dec.)
10. 14th c. and Geoffrey Chaucer (8 Dec.)
11. Early English theatre. (15 Dec.)
12. The English myth  the Middle Ages and imperial ideology. (5 Jan.)
13. Written test (12 Jan.)
14. Assessment and the close of the course (19 Jan.)
Suggested reading:
Anthony Burgess, English Literature (London: Longman, 1993)
David Daiches, A Critical History of English Literature (London: Secker and Warburg, 1992)
Andrew Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1994)
Liliana Sikorska, An Outline History of English Literature (Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie,
2002).
A socio-historical perspective can be found in:
Norman Davies, The Isles. A History (London: Macmillan, 1999)
Credit requirements:
Assessment test in January 2011
Suggestions of websites related to the lectures and classes (please note that the websites were
operational on Oct 1st 2010):
General:
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/ - Norton topics online (Norton Anthology of
English Literature)
http://www.luminarium.org/lumina.htm - Medieval, Renaissance and 17th century literature,
Renaissance drama, Metaphysical poets
http://www.euratlas.com/summary.htm  periodical historical atlas of Europe
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/browse.htm#11th  Oxford Bodleian
library: Western manuscripts to ca. 1500 (tons of images)
http://www.netserf.org - Netserf, a fascinating gateway into things Medieval
http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth - The Labyrinth: wealth of Medieval resources
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHmedieval.html  Art History Resources on the web: the world of
Medieval art
http://the-orb.net - The Orb: the On-line Reference Book for Medieval Studies
http://image.ox.ac.uk/ - digitalised images from Oxford University manuscripts - lots of images to
view
Anglo-Saxon:
http://www.netserf.org/Civilizations/Anglo_Saxon/ - Anglo-Saxon resource page
http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/eduweb/engl401/ - a course in Old English at the University of
Calgary
http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/ - Beowulf in hypertext: text, characters and history
http://www.heorot.dk/beowulf-on-steorarume_front-page.html - Beowulf in cyberspace: a wealth
of e-resources on Beowulf (translations, essays, art projects)
http://www.bedesworld.co.uk/ - Bede s World  the Museum of Early Medieval Northumbria at
Jarrow
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/mythlinks.html  Germanic myths, legends and sagas resources
http://www.hastings1066.com/ - the Bayeux Tapestry - see the 11th century  comic strip
documenting the deeds of William the Conqueror
Marie de France
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~cmarecha/ - International Marie de France Society, texts, translations
and audio recordings
King Arthur
http://www.arthuriana.co.uk/ - Arthurian resources on the net
http://www.missgien.net/webworld/webworld8.html - Arthurian links
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cphome.stm  the Camelot project (Univ. of Rochester):
Arthurian texts, images, bibliographies and basic information
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/gawmenu.htm - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: text,
background and criticism.
Geoffrey Chaucer
http://geoffreychaucer.org/  annotated guide to online resources  plenty of stuff
http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/  Geoffrey Chaucer s website at Harvard University
 an excellent and terribly informative site devoted to Chaucer and his times
http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/chaucer.htm  another gateway to Chaucer resources
http://www.bl.uk/treasures/caxton/homepage.html  Caxton s Chaucer - view the first printed
edition of The Canterbury Text by William Caxton
Lecture 1: The historical and social context of Old English literature.
1. Time span of medieval English literature, culture and language:
a. The Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) period: beginnings to 1066 (Norman
conquest).
b. The Middle English period: from 1066 to the Renaissance.
2. Historical and cultural background:
a. Early medieval Europe (after the fall of the Roman Empire): migrations of peoples
and migrations of cultures.
b. Germanic culture on the continent (Roman historian, Tacitus, 1st c. A.D.)
- the idea of a mead-hall (court of an early nobleman) as a place for communal
feasting and listening to stories recited/sung by scops (Anglo-Saxon poets).
c. Invasions and violence in early English kingdoms  very little sense of stability
(the themes of ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt and sic transit gloria mundi)
d. Early English states (the Heptarchy)  political instability, the concepts of
nationality and nationhood slowly emerging, local communities more important
than nationhood, the leader s responsibility for his people (the idea of comitatus 
the retinue of warriors), this leading to early feudal relations in society.
e. The language: Old English profoundly different from Modern English,
multiplicity of regional dialects of the Old English (most extant Old English texts
are recorded in West Saxon dialect, spoken in the kingdom of Wessex).
Beowulf (Old English version) Beowulf (translated by Seamus Heaney)
Hwćt! We Gardena in geardagum, So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, And the kings who ruled them had courage and
hu ða ćþelingas ellen fremedon. greatness.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, We have often heard of those princes heroic
monegum mćgþum, meodosetla ofteah, campaigns.
egsode eorlas. Syððan ćrest wearð There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes,
feasceaft funden, he þćs frofre gebad, A wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes.
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah, This terror of the hall-troops had come far.
oðþćt him ćghwylc þara ymbsittendra A foundling to start with, he would flourish later on
ofer hronrade hyran scolde, As his powers waxed and his worth was proved.
gomban gyldan. þćt wćs god cyning! In the end each clan on the outlying coasts
Beyond the whale-road had to yield to him
And begin to pay tribute. That was one good king.