Dear all,

Please discuss the following quotation, do you feel it represents your feelings after reading "The Wife of Bath"? If so, how?


"Chaucer´s text is complex and layered, his position is impossible to pin down, his tone inscrutably ironic. Master of indirection, he refuses to nail his colours to the mast in a gesture that fuses complicity with critique. There is no easy way to align ideological sympathies when medieval men write about women" Poplawski, P. et al., 2008

Claudia

Dear all,

First, remember to write a 150 word long post with the title "What women love most" as a reflection of your reading of "The Wife of Bath" by Chaucer, our discussion in class and your own experience. Deadline Wednesday 29.

As promised, you´ll find below a link to the letter that Edmund Spenser wrote to Sir Walter Raleigh as an explanation of his intention in writing The Faerie Queene. Read the letter for next class.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15272/15272-h/15272-h.htm#letter

See you next week,
Claudia

The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale

Hi everyone,

Juan has found a very good website with an interlinear translation of "The wife of Bath´s" tale and prologue. It will be a lot easier to read!! Read both for Wednesday.

http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/wbt-par.htm

Thank you Juan!!
Claudia

The Canterbury Tales

Dear all,

For next session, please visit the following link http://www.librarius.com/ and read "The Wife of Bath´s Tale", which is one of the tales that makes up The Canterbury Tales.

Wednesday class will be entirely devoted to this tale, so please read it.

See you,
Claudia

Chaucer

Dear all,


In the following link you´ll find a short poem by G. Chaucer. It´s been "translated" into readable English, so you shouldn´t have any problems reading it.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/truth-2/

Why do you think Chaucer called this poem "truth"?

What does he mean by "for greed entails hate and social climbing uncertainty? How does it apply to the present world?

What are the religious implications of this poem?

How do you feel after reading it? Does it make sense to you, to your life?

Post your answers and or comment (150 words) before Friday.


See you,
Claudia

Beowulf

Dear all,

You´ll find attached a link to the epic poem Beowulf. Read the argument, chapters I, II, III and XLIII. We´ll do a series of activites based on the reading. The class will take place in the computer lab. See you then.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20431/20431-h/20431-h.htm

Claudia

Dear all,

Welcome to the literature course. This term we are going to study English literature from the epic poem Beowulf to the 19th century novel. The first and second sessions will be devoted to discussing different definitions of literature. Next we are going to analyse how literature can be used in the EFL classroom. The benefits, and possible approaches are going to be presented and discussed.

After that, we will start reading some of the most representative pieces of English literature to understand the context of production, culture, and critical reception. References will be made to how these pieces of literature could be used in the teaching of English as a foreign language.

See you soon,

Claudia