Hey all,
Albert here, just posting a link that I think would be helpful to all of us, and we will get what we put in. I will be going through my notebook and posting terms soon, but I’m just making this now just in case anyone beats me to it. Enjoy, and enjoy your weekend.
Here is the link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10AkDjJl8a0WIwnY6Wyb04JD54AO1vPXuXyUVp_7F0dk/edit?usp=sharing
A fellow classmate,
Albert Pariente-Cohen
Here’s the Met video I showed in class in case you’d like to view it with better audio:
And while we’re appreciating the Met, here’s the information for visiting the Cloisters. It’s a really special place; take advantage of the opportunities NYC has to offer! The Cloisters
(Right now, as a Brit Lit bonus, there’s an exhibition of stained glass from Canterbury Cathedral—where Chaucer’s pilgrims are headed!)
(I’ve added below a BBC video about medieval childbirth and marriage, in case you’re interested in those important aspects of Margery Kempe’s life.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A04zOgN9DzE
We go back in time this week, specifically to the late 10th century. Keep the first half of the semester in mind as we go: you’ll have a much richer sense of these texts if you can retain your familiarity with the ones we’ve already studied. How, for example, might we compare Margery Kempe’s understanding of marriage with that of the Wife of Bath? Keep these kinds of questions in mind as you read.
You can see the only surviving manuscript of The Book of Margery Kempe here, through the British Library’s digitization project: Margery Kempe
(This site provides a transcription of the manuscript alongside the manuscript pages. It’s worth looking at, especially since we’re using a modernized version; this will show you the Middle English: Transcription)
The manuscript was only rediscovered in the 1930s. Here’s the story, via The Guardian:
“The story goes that when Colonel W Butler Bowdon was looking for a ping-pong bat in a cupboard at his family home near Chesterfield in the early 1930s he came across a pile of old books. Frustrated at the disorder, he threatened to put the whole lot on the bonfire the next day so that bats and balls would be easier to find in future. Luckily a friend advised him to have the books checked by an expert and shortly afterwards Hope Emily Allen identified one as the Book of Margery Kempe.”
I’ll admit that find the fragility of literary history—the fact that such astonishing texts could have easily been lost to us—really moving! Imagine all of the things we don’t have access to…or that might still be in cupboards somewhere!
Finally, here are some resources for further exploration, if you’re interested: Mapping Margery Kempe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvQp_hCPKjI
Here’s a link to a great set of comics about Robinson Crusoe by the excellent Kate Beaton: Land of No Baths
(I highly recommend poking around her site for more.)
This one, by an artist who goes by Thinston, might resonate as you finish the novel:
In case you missed it, here’s Saturday Night Live‘s take on the story of Adam and Eve:
We’ve talked a bit in this class, as we’ve moved from Old English to Middle English to Early Modern English, about how the language has changed and how those changes in language are reflected in the literature. Here’s an interesting article with an amazing graphic that helps you understand how dramatic these changes are: Changes in the English Language
UPDATED: So much Old English in the news! Here’s a link to an article (in the trashy Daily Mail, I’m afraid, but the pictures are good!) about a new archaeological discovery linked to Sutton Hoo: Anglo-Saxon palace found
UPDATE: I’ve uploaded a particularly strong close reading from the recent batch under the Assignments tab in case you’d like to see a model.
Here’s a link to a page where you can see Milton’s “arguments” or summaries for all twelve books of Paradise Lost. Please read all of these so that you have a sense of the plot of Milton’s poem, but pay special attention to the arguments for the books we’ll be reading (1, 4, 5, and 9). Milton added these to the second edition of the poem in response to a request from his publisher. (The Norton includes the argument only for book 1, which is a mistake, I think).
You might also want to take a look at the poet and painter William Blake’s gorgeous illustrations to Paradise Lost:
Finally, a website with lots of different resources for reading the poem. Explore! Darkness Visible
Here’s a brief clip from a recent production of Twelfth Night that played at the Globe Theatre in London and also on Broadway. I show you this one not only because it’s a fantastic production but also because it’s an attempt at a historically-accurate production: the costumes are meticulous recreations of late-sixteenth-century dress and (more importantly for the purposes of our discussion) the women are all played by men.
There is, by the way, another production of Twelfth Night that’s still showing in the city (Pig Iron Players). I haven’t seen it, but the reviews are very good. If you get the chance, check it out!
The weekly assignment for next Thursday is up under the Assignments tab.
Related to that assignment is this short blog post at The New Yorker about “verbal anachronisms”—tv shows that attempt to be very historically accurate but that still use language in ways that wouldn’t have been used at the time: Nobody Said That Then!
The assignment sheet for the close reading (now due February 27th) is now posted under the “Assignments” tab. I’ve also posted a list of sonnets that are off limits (because we’ll be covering them in class). Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions.
So, following up on William’s observation, I looked up “moon, v.” in the Oxford English Dictionary to see whether the particular meaning we were interested in (“to expose one’s buttocks”) would have been available during Chaucer’s day. Sadly, the answer is no.
(If we follow the trail the OED gives us [cf. moon, n, 14], we get closer: 1756.)
That doesn’t mean the concept isn’t available to Middle English readers, of course, but we do want to be careful not to import a particular linguistic meaning anachronistically. This is a great reminder that the Oxford English Dictionary (available for us through the library; from the main page, click on “databases by name,” then “Oxford English Dictionary”) is a fantastic resource and an indispensable one for close reading.
Keep this is mind for your close reading assignment!
