ENGL7003: Game of Thrones: Medieval English Political Poetry Eric Weiskott Learning objectives

Singing and/or working (complaint and manorialism) Basic understanding of Middle English language and pronunciation; exploration of the politics of Song of the Husbandman

Crisis (Chaucer, ballads, and Westminster) Reading facility in Middle English language; internalization of the important general argument of Middleton, “The Idea of Public Poetry in the Reign of Richard II”; overview of the career of Geoffrey Chaucer, the most canonical medieval English writer; exploration of connections between English poetry and the royal court at Westminster

Politics in the future tense (prophecy, alliterative meter, and the Wars of the Roses) Basic understanding of the challenging genre of political prophecy; competence in scanning English alliterative meter; comparison of medieval English culture and the ‘medieval’ culture of Game of Thrones; exploration of English national politics in the volatile period of the 1450s, 1460s, and 1470s

An imaginary bomb with real shrapnel (Piers Plowman and the Peasants’ Revolt) Comprehensive understanding of the visio (Prologue and passūs 1-9) of Piers Plowman C; sense of the extent to which Piers Plowman differs in style from much of the rest of medieval English literature; acknowledgment of Langland’s Latin/English bilingualism; comparison of Piers Plowman to the anti-taxation poem “Tax Has Tenet Us Alle”; exploration of connections between Piers Plowman and political events of the 1350s, 1360s, 1370s, and 1380s

Grammar, the ground of all (Piers Plowman and institutions of education) Basic understanding of medieval English grammar schooling and university life; appreciation of the visio/vita distinction in Piers Plowman; comparison of Piers Plowman to the anti-fraternal poem “Allas, What Schul We Freris Do”

Antique modernity (satire, prophecy, prosody, and the Tudors) Understanding of the medieval/modern periodization in English studies; overview of English verse forms available c. 1525; exploration of the sixteenth-century reception of Piers Plowman; comparison of extrinsic and intrinsic perspectives onto poetic activity