Approaches to Teaching the Poetry of John Gower

by Yeager, R. F.; Gastle, Brian W.

• ISBN13: 9781603291002
• ISBN10: 1603291008
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-08-01
• Publisher: Modern Language Assn of Amer

Summary

A poet who wrote fluently in Middle English, Anglo-French, and Latin, John Gower typifies the English Middle Ages. His economical and sober style, the topics he addressed--marriage, love, chivalry, social class, law, and religious faith--and the depth and breadth of his references to earlier literature, myth, and folktale made his work attractive not only to contemporaries such as Chaucer but also to later poets such as Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton. Gower is increasingly acknowledged as a poet whose texts offer unique opportunities to teachers wishing to introduce their students to the riches of medieval literature and culture. The essays in part 1, "Materials," review the available editions and translations of Gower's works, compile useful electronic resources for teaching, and discuss the sources and analogues and critical work on his canon. In part 2, "Approaches," contributors make recommendations for teaching the historical context of Gower's writing, involving topics from estates theory and law to confession and medicine; for examining his language and rhetoric in the classroom, including reading his work aloud; and for studying his works in various theoretical and comparative ways, with a special focus on his relation to classical as well as other Middle English authors. A final section considers the various classroom contexts in which Gower is taught, from community college to graduate school.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Gower in Context	p. 1
Materials
Texts for Teaching	p. 7
The Instructor's Library	p. 17
Electronic Resources	p. 26
Approaches
Historical Approaches and Context
Teaching Gower's Reception: A Poet for All Ages	p. 31
Social Class in the Classroom: Gower's Estates Poetry	p. 36
Teaching the Confessio Amantis as a Humanist Document of the First English Renaissance	p. 42
Bodily and Spiritual Healing through Conversation and Storytelling: Genius as Physician and Confessor in the Confessio Amantis	p. 53
Teaching Gower and the Law	p. 59
Language, Literature, and Rhetoric
Teaching Gower Aloud	p. 67
Hearing Gower's Rhetoric	p. 77
Gower before Chaucer: Teaching Narrative and Ethics in "The Tale of Tereus"	p. 83
Gower's Triple Tongue (1): Teaching across Gower's Languages	p. 91
Gower's Triple Tongue (2): Teaching the Balades	p. 100
Learning Gower by Editing Gower	p. 104
Theoretical Approaches
Teaching Gower's Liminal Literature and Critical Theory	p. 110
Gender, Sexuality, and Family Ties in the Confessio Amantis	p. 119
Postcolonial/Queer: Teaching Gower Using Recent Critical Theory	p. 127
Comparative Approaches
Gower and The Canterbury Tales: The Enticement to Fraud	p. 136
The Hag Transformed: "The Tale of Florent," Ethical Choice, and Female Desire in Late Medieval England	p. 143
Teaching "The Tale of Constance" in Context	p. 159
Gower Teaching Ovid and the Classics	p. 172
Specific Classroom Contexts
Gower in the Community College Curriculum	p. 180
Chaucer by Default? Difficult Choices and Teaching the Sophomore British Literature Survey	p. 188
Teaching Gower in the Medieval Survey Class: Historical and Cultural Contexts and the Court of Richard II	p. 194
Gower in Seminar: The Confessio Amantis as Publishing Opportunity for Graduate Students	p. 202
Notes on Contributors	p. 209
Survey Participants	p. 213
Works Cited	p. 215
Index	p. 233
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