Middle English Literature: An Introduction

Lecture 3 Professor Timothy H. Wilson Department of English, University of Ottawa English 2105 -- British Literature: Beginnings to 1700 A core course in the English Undergraduate Program at the University of Ottawa -- Summer 2020. This is the third lecture: covering the historical and social context of Middle English Literature as well as the intellectual context of Middle English Literature, namely: the medieval synthesis of the traditions of Athens and Jerusalem. The lecture closes with a close reading of Chaucer’s poem “Truth“ as exemplifying this medieval worldview. Time Codes: 0:00 - Introduction 4:36 - Outline of Lecture 7:57 - Anglo-Norman Period (1066-1200) 15:10 - The 14th Century: The Black Death in Boccaccio’s Decameron 45:43 - The Medieval Synthesis of Athens and Jerusalem 58:36 - Stoicism 1:01:10 - The Medieval Cosmos: Ptolemaic Universe, Great Chain of Being, Three Orders of Society, Human as Microcosm 1:10:50