Englisches Seminar - Ruhr-Universität Bochum

050 688 Houwen
Research Übung
Interreligious dialogue in medieval England, 3 CP
2 st. do 16-18 GB 6/137
Description: As part of a co-operative effort to study the various medieval
manifestations of religious dialogue a course devoted to this topic in medieval
England will be offered to selected MA students. Not only are there a few treatises
devoted to this subject in Middle English like A Disputisoun bytwene a Cristenemon
and a Jew, but such dialogues can also be found embedded in travel literature
(Mandeville) and romances (King Alexander; Apollonius of Tyre). In Mandeville, for
example, the author discusses Christianity with the Sultan of Egypt and in the
Alexander romance Alexander enters into discussion with Brahmins.
Aim: A hand-on introduction to research, one aim of which will be the compilation of
a comprehensive catalogue of such dialogues in English literature. It is anticipated
that this, in turn, will be published as part of the Quellenrepertorium zum
interreligiösen Dialog. Participating students will of course be given full credit for their
work!
Procedure: After a few introductory meetings in which the material will be evaluated,
divided and the various methodologies with which it can be approached will be
discussed, it is planned to meet at regular intervals thereafter to discuss progress.
Participating students will be expected to present the progress they have made in
their research in the form of small presentations.
Assessment: the contribution to the repertorium.
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Chaucer’s Ghosts, 3 CP
2 st. mo 14-16 GB 6/137 Nord
(vgl. Vorl.-Nr. 050 626)
Course description:
Famous even in his own day, Geoffrey Chaucer (a1343-1400), author of The
Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde among other works, was praised and
imitated in the fifteenth-century and hailed in literary histories as a Renaissance light
in a dark medieval age from the sixteenth-century on. If Chaucer’s reputation as the