Proseminar: Fables and Exempla in Middle English Literature
Fr. 14.00-16.00
Geb. 23.21 Raum U1.83                                                      Beginn: 15.10.2004
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In her entry on ‘Fable’ Margaret Drabble explains the term and its literary tradition as follows:

[...] a term most commonly used in the sense of a short story devised to convey some moral lesson, but often carrying with it associations of the marvellous or the mythical, and frequently employing animals as characters. Aesop’s fables and the ‘Reynard the Fox’ series were well known and imitated in Britain by Chaucer, Henryson, and others, [...]
(The Oxford Companion to English Literature, ed. by Margaret Drabble. 5th ed., Oxford 1985:334.)

Ian Ousby explains ‘exemplum’ in similar terms:

[...] A short narrative tale illustrating a moral point. Exempla frequently appear in medieval didactic works (such as the Handlynge Synne) and in homilies and sermons. They are sometimes employed in secular works, like Gower’s Confessio Amantis.
(The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, ed. by Ian Ousby. Cambridge 1988:333.)

These quotations illustrate that both text forms occur in wide range of Middle English literature, either as complete and coherent texts of their own, or embedded into the framework of other texts. Both text forms seem to be inherently didactic and closely related to universally held moral principles.

It is one of the major objectives of this seminar to give a survey of the tradition of the text forms and of the appearance of fables and exempla in Middle English literature. What is more important, however, is the interpretation of selected texts in various perspectives, i.e. structural, functional and theoretical.

We will start our discussion with the famous Middle English The Fox and the Wolf (Bennett, J. A. W. and G. V. Smithers (Eds.). Early Middle English Verse and Prose. 2nd ed., Oxford 1968:63-76), which will be followed by Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Nun’s Priest’s Tale and two of Robert Henryson’s Moral Fables (John Burrow (Ed.). English Verse 1300-1500.  London 1977: 323-349). After Christmas we will concentrate on Robert Mannyng of Brunne’s and John Gower’s use of exempla.

This preliminary plan reflects the major objectives of the seminar. On the one hand it provides a wide scope of thorough textual exercise, and on the other hand it contains a considerable amount of theoretical and methodological reflection. After having attended the seminar, you should be able to explain the text forms in their most important perspectives, you should be able to discuss their prominent Middle English representative poems, and - what is most important - you should be able to ask intelligent questions and know the way how to find the answers.

Recommended reading:
Various works of reference s.v. Fable or fabula and Example or exemplum.

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Voraussetzungen: Introduction to Medieval English Studies,
                           Parts I and II
Leistungsnachweis: wahlweise: mündliche Prüfung, Referat, 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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