SoSe 22: PS-Medieval English Literatures: Middle English Alliterative Poetry
Jan-Peer Hartmann
Kommentar
While Old English poetry (c. 700-1100 CE) was almost invariably based on an alliterative metre (that is, on the iteration of the same word-initial sounds in certain stressed positions), most of the surviving poetry from the Middle English period (c. 1100-1500) uses the end-rhyme-pattern that dominated English poetry well into the twentieth century and is still very common today. There are, however, some notable exceptions, including Piers Plowman, Saint Erkenwald, the Alliterative Morte Arthure, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, all of which use alliterative rhyme. Incidentally, these poems are today regarded as some of the best poems to have survived from the Middle English period. And when Geoffrey Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales has the Parson declare ‘I am a Southren man, I kan nat geeste ‘rum, ram, ruf’ (‘I am a southern man, I cannot rhyme rum, ram, ruf’), the emphasis on alliteration (‘rum, ram, ruf’) might even imply that this character at least still associates poetry in general with alliterative rhyme. (As a matter of fact, the Parson is incapable of using any form of rhyme and tells his tale in prose). On the other hand, Chaucer and other fashionable poets from the London area clearly preferred end-rhyme, supporting the view of some modern scholars that Middle English alliterative poetry presented an outmoded or even antiquarian branch of literature on the verge of disappearance. The fact that most of the poems in question engage with the distant past and how may have shaped the present makes their place in the literary canon all the more ambiguous.
In this class we will take a closer look at some of the best-known examples of Middle English alliterative poetry and the way their alliterative form interacts with their thematic content. Since these poems are linguistically more challenging than most non-alliterative poetry in Middle English, students should bring to this class an interest in earlier forms of the English language or, at least, in decoding seemingly mysterious texts. Please make sure to enroll in the Blackboard class before the start of the class. Course requirements: regular and active participation; and a final essay of 2,000 words.
Schließen13 Termine
Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung