In fourteenth-century London, Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower were “frenemies.” Chaucer was the upwardly mobile bureaucrat, ready to poke fun at everyone; Gower was the well-heeled and straitlaced lawyer. Their bodies of poetry, spanning four decades and three languages, influence and respond to one another. We will read the two poets side by side, with attention to topics of mutual relevance such as multilingualism, politics, literary form, source study, and social status. This seminar has no overlap with the syllabus of ENGL6041: Game of Thrones: Medieval English Political Poetry. No prior knowledge of Middle English required. Gower’s French and Latin texts read in translation.
units
I. Coordinates
London frenemies?
Choosing a language
II. Attractions
Sources of romance
Love, death, and Ovid
III. Values
Writing (for) women
Politics: 1381
IV. Dimensions
Lyric form and metrical form
Authorship, manuscript culture, and antiquarianism
[pictured: John Gower (?)]
Eric Weiskott 