PS: Middle English Debate Poetry
Fr. 14.00-16.00
Geb. 23.21 Raum U1.83                                                         Beginn: 15.04.2005
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The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English explains the debate poem as a:

... medieval poetic tradition in which opposed parties contest one or more issues. The debate form is very old, dating back to Plato and the Old Testament. Boethius' Consolatione Philosophiae provided the most popular philosophical debate of the Middle Ages, and the form was also very common in secular Latin poetry. In the vernacular it was used for both serious and humorous ends. Often the opposed characters are animals, birds, inanimate objects or allegorical personifications, and the subject of the debate ranges from spiritual problems to personal relationships and petty squabbling covering a variety of topics. The form was used for political allegory and satire, as in Wynnere and Wastoure, for serious philosophical debate and for humour. The Owl and the Nightingale is a brilliant comic use of the genre. The debate may be inconclusive or it may be resolved by a third party. A related form is the parliament involving more than two participants.
(The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, ed. by Ian Ousby. Cambridge 1988:262-263)

Five Middle English debates employing talking birds as opponents have been preserved: The Owl and the Nightingale (c1200); The Thrush and the Nightingale (c1275); The Cuckoo and the Nightingale (late 14th century); and The Clerk and the Nightingale (second half of the 15th century); and The Merle and the Nightingale (late 15th or early 16th century) by William Dunbar. We will read and discuss the first two of these in detail. As a representative of the political debates we will interpret Wynnere and Wastoure.

We shall deal with generic problems, as well as with the characterization of the protagonists, the subjects of their debates and the historical situations defining the communicative environment of these poems.

The texts are easily available in standard anthologies, such as:

Old and Middle English: An Anthology, ed. by Elaine Treharne. Oxford 2000.
[Owl and Nightingale and Wynnere and Wastoure].
English Lyrics of the Thirteenth Century, ed. by Carleton Brown. Oxford 1932:101-107. [Thrush and Nightingale]
or any other edition of these well-known poems.

In addition, the texts and other materials will be available on the university's BSCW-Server. In order to get invited to the Debate Poetry folders, you should send me your name and email address.
(mail to: holteir@phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de)

A general introduction to the Middle English debate poems is:

Francis L. Utley. "Dialogues, Debates, and Catechisms," in: A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050 - 1500, ed. by Albert C. Hartung. New Haven, Conn., 1972: Vol.III, 716-724.

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Voraussetzungen: Teilnahme an Introduction to English Medieval Studies -
                           Part I: General and Part II: Middle English
Leistungsnachweis: Abschlußprüfung (mündl. oder schriftl.)
                             Referat oder Hausarbeit
Veranstaltungstyp: Wahlpflicht M.A./Prom.

Der Inhalt der Lehrveranstaltung ist geeignet für die Zwischenprüfung
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©  Rainer Holtei
last updated
20.09.2009

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