JCCC -- English 241: Major British Writers -- Essay #1: Beowulf and Chaucer -- Fall 1999

Due Date: September 17, 1999 – worth 10 points if complete and turned in on time.
Assignment: Write a four-page essay on Beowulf or one of the tales that we discussed in class from Chaucer.

These medieval works pose particular challenges to readers of the 20th century, and for this paper, I would like you to come to terms with just what a specific work requires of a reader. Have you ever wondered why texts are written the way they are? I want your essay to discuss the reading experience that takes place when you read that specific work or works. What does this mean? Basically, I want your paper to explain what an individual work requires of a reader. Without a reader, the literary work is meaningless. It takes on life only when read -- the reader "completes" the text. Literature requires an active reader as opposed to a passive reader, and this assignment requires you to discuss the active role a reader plays when approaching a literary text. Written works contain "gaps," and it is up to the reader to fill in these gaps by using his or her own interpretations.  I'm interested in HOW you fill in these gaps or unexplained aspects of the text.  While I, personally, tend to wonder about difficulty, that does not mean that difficulty has to be the focus of your essay. I can see how you could write an essay that traces how the text goes about making the reading experience enjoyable. Here are some more specific categories to get your wheels turning.

What poses difficulties as you read the text?

• Why do you think the writer created such difficult passages?
• Are the difficulties inherent in the text (i.e. every reader would experience these problems), or are they only difficult for you?

What provides pleasure as you read?

• Is subject matter more important than style?

What does the text require of a reader?

• Do you have to fill in gaps and spaces that the writer leaves blank? What do you have to assume as a reader?
• Are you required to draw on present or past experience to appreciate the reading experience?
• Does the text require you to accept or dismiss certain beliefs in order to appreciate or understand the material?
• For example, does Chaucer require you to question certain religious beliefs? to question free will? to question the benefits of love? With Beowulf did you have to amend your definitions of honor and justice?
• If you are a woman, how do you respond to the passivity of Emily in The Knight's Tale? Do you favor the Wife of Bath's representation of women?

How much power do you have as a reader in regard to a particular text?

• Does the writer force you to come to his way of thinking?
• Is the writer’s way of thinking evident at all?
• What keeps you from reading anything you want into a text?

In tracing your reading experience, it might be helpful to cite or paraphrase particular passages and then explain why the passage was difficult and what you had to do as a reader to understand and enjoy the passage.  Here are some rules about quoting.   If you are quoting something from our prose version of Beowulf, you need to place the page nos. in ( ) after the direct quotation or paraphrase.  The Canterbury Tales, however, is written in verse, so it is done a little differently.   Usually, with a poem or verse work, instead of putting the page # in ( ), you put the line #s in ( ), as in (ll. 43-50).  However, our text of The Canterbury Tales does not make use of line #s, so simply place the page # in ( ). If you are directly quoting a passage from a verse work, you do need to make it clear that you are quoting from verse, and here's how to do that.  If you are quoting fewer than four lines of text, simply incorporate the quotation within your paragraph and use line breaks / to signify the ends of lines.  For example, here are the first three lines from The Canterbury Tales: "When in April the sweet showers fall/ And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all/ The veins are bathed in liquor of such power" (3).  If you quote four lines or more, you need to break it off from the rest of the paragraph an indent ten spaces from the left margin:

                When in April the sweet showers fall

                And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all

                The veins are bathed in liquor of such power

                As brings about the engendering of the flower (3)  

Compared to other essays on literary works you might have written in the past, this one is much more personal because its main subject is not just the literary work but you, the reader, as well. Just because it may be more personal and more informal than other essays does not make it any less important. I’m asking you to consider what happens to you when you read. Such a consideration is something you can take with you long after this class is over. It applies to more than the works of a bunch of great (but dead) Brits.

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