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Conversations With and About Women
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A Unit Project by Christina
Richardson
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The fun and the excitement of teaching AP English Literature lies in two things: first and foremost, my amazing students. They are definitely the best and the brightest and they deserve to learn something about the literature of the past and their language. The second thing is the ability to tailor that learning around my own interests, bringing in texts that allow for deep philosophical discussions. When dealing with late medieval and Renaissance texts, those discussions center around the literature itself, the authors, the historical time periods, the burning unanswered questions that remain to this day, and the impacts these texts have had on our own lives and on our own modern literature. I know that, for most of my students, this is the only time they will get to look back in a literary way and make friends with those who have come before. Just as Chaucer knew that he was living in a special time, my students learn that they are, too, on the cutting edge of major changes in the world and in our own society. Learning from the past can only help us recognize ourselves and how far we have come or -- and this is always exciting -- how much like the past we have stayed. After beginning the new year with a discussion of the four summer reading books that were assigned in the spring (two specific texts and two of comparable quality of their own choosing), I launch into this unit.
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Texts: -- excerpts from the following: Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human Boccaccio, The Decameron Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales De Navarre, The Heptameron Fonte, The Worth of Women Keats, “Isabella” King, The Renaissance in Europe King and Rabil, “The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe” |
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I. A brief history of the English language [lecture and class participation] • As an overview, I spend two or three days on this. We talk about Old English, Grimm’s Law, the Great Vowel Shift, the Romans, Celts, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, King Arthur, and many other such topics. We “end” with Middle English and its three main English writers: Chaucer, Langland, and The Pearl poet.
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II. Chaucer and The
Canterbury Tales
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Each class member is given a pilgrim that he or she must research
(e.g., what is a franklin in general, and what is Chaucer’s Franklin
like?). As we read the Prologue, each student’s expertise comes
into play in explaining what Chaucer is saying.
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Everyone in the class will memorize the first 19 lines of the
Prologue.
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As a long-term assignment, each member of the class is given the
name of another member of the class and will secretly write a
section of our “Class Prologue” about him or her. Students are
instructed to write in the manner of Chaucer, i.e. iambic
pentameter, rhyming couplets, a sense of humor, etc. They will
e-mail their sections to me, I will put them together, and we will
read the poems together on the last day of this unit (in conjunction
with a small class party!). I give them sections of the poems from
other classes who have done this before them so they can see what I
am asking of them.
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Homework: Read three tales: “The Knight’s Tale,” “The Wife of
Bath’s Tale,” and “The Prioress’s Tale.”
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In class, spend time in discussion of each of the tales separately
and then compare and contrast. Conversations: time period (end of
Middle Ages, beginning of Renaissance), roles for women, comparison
of the women shown in these tales, the role and reputation of the
church, class and status, Chaucer’s strengths and viewpoints.
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III. Background information
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Homework: Read excerpts from King’s text, specifically including
“At Home and In the Piazza” (137-165) and “Holy Women” (179-187).
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Conversations: relate this information to the three completely
different portraits of women as read in Canterbury Tales;
discuss the change from Medieval England to Renaissance England.
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IV. Boccaccio and The
Decameron
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Homework: Read the Prologue, 3.10, 4.5, 10.5, 10.10. [Additional
possible readings: Keats’ “Isabella” and Chaucer’s “The Franklin’s
Tale” and “The Oxford Scholar’s Tale.”]
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Conversations: comparison to Chaucer; depiction of women and the
church; discussion about how Boccaccio and Chaucer were once briefly
together in Florence -- discuss the similar tales and their
settings. Who is more successful?
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V. Background information
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Homework: Read King and Rabil’s Introduction.
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Conversations: predictions as to what the students are about to
read and how it will relate to Chaucer and Boccaccio, specifically
with regard to the depiction of women by a woman writer.
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VI. Moderata Fonte, The Worth
of Women
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Homework: Read “First Day” and selections from “Second Day”
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Conversations: discuss the difference(s) between men writing about
women as opposed to a woman writing about women; social conventions
of the time, including love and marriage, women’s status, abuse,
friendship, and education and knowledge; comparison to the women in
CT and Decameron.
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VII. Marguerite de Navarre,
The Heptameron
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Homework: Read the Prologue and various selections; the selections
chosen will depend upon time constrictions
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Conversations: the significant differences between this work and
Boccaccio’s, including the frame story fact/fiction, bourgeoisie vs.
aristocracy, the honesty and humanness of the characters, and the
links between stories.
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VIII. Homework: Read excerpts
from Harold Bloom’s
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In this text, Bloom maintains that Shakespeare invented character
and personality and that, before him, literary characters were
one-dimensional.
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Conversations: regarding all four writers, debate his thesis. Put
class in debate “teams” with some arguing with Bloom, some against.
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Have a full-fledged debate on the subject, following specific rules
and guidelines set up for this specific event, using specific
examples from the texts for support.
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IX. The fun: the party and
class reading of their own prologue..
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Daily classroom participation
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The possibility of a number of brief plot-summary “pop” quizzes to
ascertain if they are actually reading. The number of these will
completely depend upon what happens during class participation.
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Students will write their own individual thesis-driven papers on an
idea triggered by the texts and classroom discussion. The papers
are graded on the rubrics used for the AP Literature exam.
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