Would you like to read the oldest and most mysterious works in the English language? Enroll in this course to read beautiful and enchanting works from the medieval period. Learn about warriors and maidens, kings and queens, philosophers and fools, sinners and saints! This course will bring you into a lost and foreign world, which is preserved only in its magnificent literary monuments. Taking this course will give you a great perspective on the history of English literature.
课程名称：中世纪英国文学/Medieval English Literature
主讲教师：Leonard Neidorf
研究专长：中世纪文学，英语史
哈佛大学博士，刚刚受聘南大外国语学院教授
课程简介和目标：
This course offers a survey of literature composed in English between the years of roughly 700, when the first English poems begin to be written down, and 1400, when Geoffrey Chaucer becomes the first author of English literature to acquire international fame and determine the course of subsequent literary history. The course is organized principally around the genres and forms that were most characteristic of the medieval period. During this period, the literary culture that flourished was very different from that of the modern world. Because books were rare and literacy was restricted, the characteristic form of modern literature – the novel – was not used. Instead of writing long prose narratives, medieval authors tended to present their ideas in poetic compositions that were conducive to oral memorization and consumption. Poetry was used in the medieval period not so much for the expression of an author’s subjectivity, as it is today, but for the exhortation of communities and the transmission of traditional forms of knowledge. By studying this ancient literature, which was composed under such alien circumstances, students will not only learn about the foundations of English literature; they will also improve their ability to analyze and understand cultures that differ considerably from their own.
全英文授课和讨论，欢迎感兴趣的同学自10月13日起登陆教务系统报名。
上课地点：仙2-405
上课时间：每周三9-11节
语言要求：要求选课学生英语非常流利（advanced proficiency）
教务处
10月12日