LTEN 107 Paper topics Spring 2007
Papers will be collected at the beginning of class on Monday, June 4; late papers may receive fewer or no comments and will receive lower grades, up to one full grade per 24 hours. Only documented legitimate medical or personal emergencies will excuse late work. If an emergency arises, you must let me know as soon as possible and I will do my best to accommodate your needs. It is your responsibility to keep me informed, and, indeed, I can’t help you if I don’t know that there is a problem.
They should be 8 pages maximum, double-space typed, 12 point font with one inch margins on all sides of the page. Your paper should have a title. There is no need for cover sheets or folders. With the exception of the primary sources mentioned for some topics there is no need to consult outside sources for this paper. Please see me if you any questions at all about source use or need help with citations.
Please save all the materials that you use in preparation for writing the paper, (i.e. notes, drafts, outlines etc.). If you do all of your work on a computer, I would recommend making frequent, secure back-ups or printing a hard copy of your work. I’m very confident that everyone in the class wants to produce his or her original work, but if there are any questions about the originality of student work, items such as preparation material can greatly aid in evaluating academic integrity. See references to UCSD policy on Academic Integrity below.
Topics:
1. The Clerk’s Tale has sources in the writings of Boccaccio and Petrarch. Read these two earlier versions and write a paper that compares Chaucer’s version with one or two of his sources. How did Chaucer’s changes to an earlier source impact his version? What does it tell us about his version? [Copies of these sources will be available on reserve for LTEN 107. The citational reference is: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: Nine Tales and the General Prologue, eds. V.A. Kolve and Glending Olson (New York: Norton, 1989), pp.371-391.]
2. Chaucer translated The Consolation of Philosophy, a wonderful text that Boethius wrote while imprisoned and awaiting a death sentence. It treats the role of Fortune and fate in human life and how human beings can approach trial and adversity. For this assignment you should read this text, translations of which will be on reserve for our class at Geisel Library. Pick one of the Canterbury Tales that we have read and discuss how you think Chaucer is using Boethian ideas in it.
3. Write a paper examining the relationship between the Miller’s Tale and the Reeve’s Tale. How does the Reeve “quyte” the Miller? This essay may seem very straightforward, but its main challenge will be to create a thesis that makes a literary argument about the relationship between these two tales. The first step here is to figure out the basic relationship between the tales, the more important step is to develop a thesis that builds on your observations and makes an argumentative statement supported by textual evidence about how you see the two tales interacting with each other. One good way to test for an argumentative thesis is to see if there are any possible counterarguments. If nothing presented could possibly be countered, perhaps the paper is presenting observations but not a thesis.
4. How does the Clerk’s Tale “quyte” the Wife of Bath’s tale? Are we meant to read the Clerk’s commentary on wives as affirming or denying the perspective that the Wife puts forth on marriage. This essay will obviously require that you have a take on what the Wife’s perspective is and then use that to build your argument about the Clerk.
5.In the Knight’s Tale (2987ff), the Man of Law’s Tale (295-322) and the Friar’s Tale (1474-1503) we find speeches that discuss questions of divine design or higher purpose. Compare and contrast two or three of these speeches within the dramatic context of the Tales. How do these speeches function within their respective tales and as responses to one another within the overall dramatic frame?
You are welcome to write on your topic, but to ensure your success, please come and talk to me about it in advance so I can help you with it. Please don’t wait until the last minute as scheduling at the end of the quarter is difficult.
Plagiarism and
Integrity of Scholarship are serious issues. The term “plagiarism,” which comes from the
Latin root, plagiarius (kidnapper), means stealing someone else’s
writing or ideas and passing it off as your own. Please be aware that I will be enforcing
University policies on integrity of scholarship and that violations can result
in a failing grade in the class or dismissal from UCSD. If you have any questions about what
plagiarism or academic dishonesty are, please do contact me immediately and
I’ll be happy to help you learn more about how to cite works you consult,
whether they are printed, internet or other sources. Please also consult the University’s policy primary
on these issues, which can be read at: http://www-senate.ucsd.edu/manual/Appendices/app2.htm.
Some Formatting Guidelines for Citation in Papers
First of all, titles of books, plays, films and long poems like The Canterbury Tales are italicized or underlined. Please put individual sections of the text, such as the “Clerk’s Tale,” in quotation marks. When you first cite a text, you should tell your reader what text you are using. We’re all using the same text, but it is important to learn how to cite properly. For example, if I wanted to cite the first four lines of “General Prologue,” I would format it like so:
What that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veine in swich licour
Of vertu engendred is the flour (ll. 1-4).
This quotation is set off from the rest of the paper (indented five spaces from the left margin).
If I want to quote fewer than four lines, I set them directly into the body of the paper instead of embedding them. The Prioress, for example, is not prone to great curses: “Hir gretteste ooth was but ‘by Seinte Loy,” (GP, l. 120). Note that I have included “GP” for “General Prologue” in my reference. If you have not made it clear where in the CT the lines come from, be sure to include this. When you make your first reference to our book you want to footnote it.[1]
My
recommendation for this assignment is to use only primary texts, i.e. read the
medieval work or works and do your own interpretive thinking. If you do want to see what scholars have had
to say, then books used as secondary sources are cited in the same way as
primary sources are. You’ll want to
make sure which reference in the Works Cited is being referenced, but you can
refer to it using parenthetical page citation.
See the citation format for articles in the Works Cited below. How do you cite an article? Here’s an example, “The Prioress and her tale
have the best of both worlds: they invite challenge, yet leave no opening.”[2] Of course there’s more types of materials out
there to cite besides books and articles. For more than you ever wanted to know
on citation format illustrated here see the MLA Handbook or The Chicago Manual of Style. Both are in the reference section of our
library. Whichever style of citation you use, the most important thing is that
you give credit where credit is due and that you are clear and consistent in
your style. A good website for
exploration documentation is: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html
This handout is based on and
adapted from a handout given to a class by Sue Schweik, a Professor in the
English Dept. at UC Berkeley. When you use someone else's work in any way, you
must cite that work. This includes
websites.
Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The
Condren, Edward I. “The Prioress: A Legend of Spirit, A Life
of Flesh.” The Chaucer
Review 23 (1989): 192-217.