If you choose option 2 (a term paper), you may select one of the topics listed under B below or choose another with my permission. Doing a term paper will require some research (see section on bibliography below). By research, I mean either using other primary sources (i.e. classical or medieval writings) or secondary sources (written by modern scholars) or both. How much research you do for a term paper depends on your topic and how much time you have available, but reading the equivalent of 4-5 articles or book chapters on a specific topic might be a reasonable amount of research. Option 2 requires you to submit a preliminary research proposal in the form of a 150- to 250-word abstract, plus bibliography (MLA-style Works Cited page) of primary and secondary sources you expect to use. At least one source should be pre-1980.
Bibliographies: in addition to bibliographies on the web, there is a useful bibliography in the Riverside Chaucer (on reserve). The Complete Poetry and Prose of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. John H. Fisher, 2nd ed. (1989) contains a bibliography that is especially useful for students (I have not put Fisher on reserve). Also useful (though dated) is Leyerle and Quick, Chaucer: A Bibliographical Introduction (on 2-hour reserve). The three volumes of The Oxford Guides to Chaucer (on 2-hour reserve) provide excellent starting places for research.
Keep in mind the need to be selective when researching Chaucer: the writings are voluminous, and not all are equally worth reading or accessible to a beginning student. I would be happy to offer suggestions for anyone who is unsure how to find appropriate research materials. If you need extra help on how to present an argument, see me or visit the following web site: orb.rhodes.edu/schriber/Writing_Guide.html. Finally, consider this caveat from Prof. Don Hoffman of Northern Illinois U: "Your paper should demonstrate an understanding of both Chaucer a nd contemporary scholarship/criticism. Your paper should have a clear (and interesting) thesis supported by adequate argument and documentation. No argument is adequate if it does not demonstrate an intelligent familiarity of Chaucer's text. In other words, you must cite Chaucer ("in the original," to risk redundancy), and appropriate secondary material. Please note that citing a secondary source for plot information does not indicate scholarship, it indicates merely an inability to read the text!!!!!"
A. Short Paper Topics
1. Analyze the poetic craft of one of Chaucer's lyric poems (or compare and contrast the techniques of two). You may wish to
consider
such aspects as the use of rhyme and meter, stanzaic structure, style and
diction, tone (serious? humorous? mock-serious?), handling of philosophical
ideas or themes, speaker’s relationship with the audience, etc.
2. Read the story of Ceys and Alcion in Ovid’s Metamorphoses
XI.410 ff. Then write an interpretive essay on The Book of the
Duchess that discusses Chaucer’s adaptation of Ovid’s version of the
story.
3. Write a "Boethian" interpretation of The Book of the Duchess.
What images or ideas from Boethius seem relevant to an interpretation of
the poem? Does Boethius’s work include some major ideas that are
not emphasized or are missing in the poem?
4. Discuss the theme of cosmic or natural order in either The Book
of the Duchess or The Hous of Fame. For medieval
ideas of order you can draw on your reading of Boethius or from the handout
I distribute in class or both.
5. Discuss the significance of male courtly or aristocratic values
or ideologies in The Book of the Duchess. Does Chaucer seem to want to celebrate the values
or practices of his social betters or to call them into question?
6. Discuss the significance of the first-person narrator or persona
in either The Book of the Duchess or The Hous of Fame.
7. Discuss the theme of language in The Hous of Fame.
8. Discuss the poetic craft of the rhyme royale stanza form and how
it contributes to narrative meaning in Troilus and
Criseyde
9. Drawing on the material from the handout on the rhetorical
scheme of effictio, analyze one or a group of closely related pilgrim
portraits from the General Prologue of the Canterbury
Tales. Consider such questions as the relation of individual to
typical features, the use of satire, etc. If you are writing about a
group of portraits, be sure to explain what links the members of the group.
B. Suggested Topics for Term Papers
Note: Many of these topics are much too broad for a 10-page essay
and will require you to narrow the focus to an individual Chaucerian work.
1. The use of classical mythology in a dream vision or in the
Troilus
2. Medieval dream theory and Chaucer’s dream visions
3. The influence of the Romance of the Rose on Chaucer
4. The Book of the Duchess and its sources and analogues
5. The influence of Ovid on Chaucer
6. Medieval pleasure gardens and Chaucer’s courtly poetry
7. The use of Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato in Troilus and
Criseyde
8. The use of The Consolation of Philosophy in Troilus and
Criseyde
9. The narrator of Troilus and Criseyde
10. Medieval anti-feminism and the Canterbury Tales
11. Feminist approaches to Chaucer
12. Courtly love and Troilus and Criseyde
13. The figure of Criseyde in relation to earlier medieval works
14. The Theban material in Troilus and Criseyde
15. Chivalry and knighthood in either Troilus and Criseyde or
The Knight’s Tale
16. Estates satire and the General Prologue to The Canterbury
Tales
17. Medieval theories of love-sickness and Troilus and Criseyde
18. Chaucer and the fabliau tradition
19. Chaucer’s relation to medieval rhetoric
20. Robertsonian/exegetical approaches to Chaucer
21. The theme of marriage in the Canterbury Tales
(Page last updated 03/04/02)