The aim of this course is to explore the complexities of courtly culture and courtly love by means of Geoffrey Chaucer’s masterpiece Troilus & Criseyde (ca. 1385), which has often been praised as the first ‘psychological novel’.
Recommended editions: Larry D. Benson (ed.). 2008. The Riverside Chaucer. Third edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Online (Middle English) version: <http://www.librarius.com/troicris.htm> Modern English translation (to be downloaded in various formats): <https://www.poetryintranslation.com/klineaschaucer.php> or to be read online at <https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/English/TroilusandCressidaBkI.php>
Recommended secondary literature: Benson, C. David. 1990. Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde. London: Unwin Hyman. Frantzen, Allen J. 1993. Troilus and Criseyde. The Poem and the Frame. Twayne’s Masterwork Studies. New York: Twayne Publishers. Nuttall, Jenni. 2012. Troilus and Criseyde. A Reader’s Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Windeatt, Barry 1995. The Oxford Guides to Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Further (online) editions, translations, and studies will be made available on Moodle. |