MEDVL 4170

The Archaeology of the Text from Chaucer through the Renaissance

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2017-2018.

This seminar will explore and write about manuscripts, handwriting, literacy, printers, and other issues linking material and social book-making to "literary history." As a class, we will focus on the formative period of English literature: from Chaucer to Shakespeare, roughly, both of which you will read in their original Englishes. Individual projects, however, can take up any period or language so long as this serves as an opportunity to investigate issues where material book-culture meets cultural and literary history—including the theoretical problems of editing something for modern users. The final project will involve a small edition of some work or copy that you study independently, plus discussion of some of the forces or issues that the work or text brings to bear.

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