Camp, Cynthia
MWF 1 :50 PM
Park Hall 0136
Spring 2025: “Slow Reading, Slow Writing: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”
The tendency of the English professor is to cram as much Cool Stuff into the syllabus as they can. This class is deliberately doing the opposite: instead of giving you a broad survey of Cool Stuff from Middle English literature (roughly 1300-1500), we’re just reading one long poem (and some related poetry), deeply and thoroughly. This is not only the best way to understand these texts well; it also replicates medieval reading practices, as we’ll discuss in class. Our main text, the anonymous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is among the masterpieces of English literature of any period, and will repay the slow, careful attention we will give it. We’ll read some shorter pieces as well – both medieval and contemporary – to frame and deepen our appreciation of this poem.
While engaging in some deliberate slow reading, we will also practice the basic skills of the English major: close reading, word studies, poetry explication, and thoughtful engagement with secondary criticism. We’ll then apply these skills in a formal researched English essay in which you’ll engage deeply and richly with both Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the criticism that scholars have written about it.
If you’re considering graduate school in any field (not just English, and not just medieval literature), this class is for you. If you want to level up your English major skill set, this class is also for you. If you just like to read and write about knotty, complex, mind-blowing stories – even when they’re nearly 650 years old – this class is definitely for you.
Required Texts:
Please note that it is possible to go astray in buying the required text – there are “wrong” versions it. If you are buying on your own (used or new, from wherever you prefer), double check your purchases before clicking that “buy” button.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. Paul Battles (Broadview Press, 2012). Make sure you get the Battles edition linked here, NOT the Winny edition, also published by Broadview. You can buy an e-text directly from the publisher from this link, and that is acceptable for this course.
Daniel Sawyer, How to Read Middle English Poetry (2024). Available as an ebook as well as a print book, and for this one the ebook is fine.
Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing (anything after the 2nd ed; I’ll be using the 5th ed)
I am considering a third required writing text, but for sure we’ll be using these three.
Optional texts:
The Middle English Breton Lays, ed. Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury (ISBN-13: 978-1879288621). You should be able to get a used copy easily. We will be using texts from this volume from Day 1. If you are a paper book person, you will want this, but you can also read these poems for free online.
Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales, ed. Thomas Hahn (ISBN-13: 978-1879288591). If you can get a used copy of this book, I strongly recommend it (there should be lots and lots), but you can also read these poems for free online.
Other texts will be made available as PDFs and/or as online texts.