| SES # | topics | readings |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Courtly Love Tradition Introduction | |
| 2 | Domination and Desire | Selected authors. Selected Troubadour Lyrics. |
| 3 | Dolce Stil Nuovo | Dante. La Vita Nuova. i-xxi. Guinizelli, Guido. Al cor gentil. |
| 4 | Ennobling Love: Sublimation and Subjection | Dante. La Vita Nuova. xxii-xlii. Cavalcante, Guido. Sonnets. xxii and xxiii. |
| 5 | Historical Background: Secular Politics | |
| 6 | Historical Background: Church Politics | |
| 7 | Florentine History and the The Divine Comedy | Dante. Inferno. i-xi. |
| 8 | Epic and Romance | Dante. Inferno. xii-xxii. De Vulgari Eloquentia. |
| 9 | Moral Perversion and Linguistic Distortion | Dante. Inferno. xxiii-xxxiv. |
| 10 | Confession and the Practice of Penitence | Dante. Purgatorio. i-xi. |
| 11 | Nature and the Power of Love | Dante. Purgatorio. xii-xxii. |
| 12 | Ecstatic Desire | Dante. Purgatorio. xxiii-xxxiii. |
| 13 | Moral Cosmology | Dante. Paradiso. i-xi. |
| 14 | Visions of the Ideal Society | Dante. Paradiso. xii-xxii. |
| 15 | The Ends of Language | Dante. Paradiso. xxiii-xxxiii. |
| 16 | The Plague of Language | Boccaccio. Decameron. Prologue; I. Introduction, i, ii, iii; II. vii, ix; III. i, iii, x. |
| 17 | Comedy and Tragedy | Boccaccio. Decameron. IV. i, ii, v; V. iv, x; VI. Introduction, v, vii, x, Conclusion. |
| 18 | Rhetoric and Redemption | Boccaccio. Decameron. VII. i, ii, vi, viii, ix; VIII. i, vii; IX. ii, vi, x; X. v, x, Epilogue. |
| 19 | Historical Background: The Fourteenth-Century Renaissance in England | |
| 20 | Britain and the Myth of Trojan Origins | Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. I. 1-469. |
| 21 | Ricardian Politics | Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. I. 470-1090. |
| 22 | Free Will and Determinism | Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. II. Petrarch, Sonnet cxxxii, "S'amor non è." |
| 23 | Mediators and Mediation | Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. III. |
| 24 | Multiplicity and Indeterminacy | Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. IV. |
| 25 | Tragedy and Transcendence | Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. V. |
| 26 | What Is This Thing Called Love? Conclusion |
Table of Contents
Study Materials
Readings
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Readings are also listed by session.
Required Texts
Please observe the specific editions and translations while buying or borrowing these texts.
Alighieri, Dante. La Vita Nuova. Translated by Mark Musa. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0192839357.
———. Inferno. Translated by Allen Mandlebaum. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1982. ISBN: 0553213393.
———. Purgatorio. Translated by Allen Mandlebaum. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1983. ISBN: 055321344X.
———. Paradiso. Translated by Allen Mandlebaum. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1986. ISBN: 0553212044.
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. Translated by G. H. McWilliam. 2nd ed. London, UK and New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1972, 1995, 2003. ISBN: 0140449302.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. Troilus and Criseyde. Edited by Barry Windeatt. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 0192832905.
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