In this class, we will get to know one of the strangest and most difficult literary works of the Middle Ages: Piers Plowman, a fourteenth-century poem which is, among many other things, a consideration of individual ethics, a skeptical exploration of the human capacity to know, and a scathing visionary critique of late fourteenth-century collective life.

The class will also function as an advanced introduction to late medieval literature, and to the intricacies of the period’s social and religious conflicts. Previous experience of reading Middle English is not required, but students should be prepared to quickly gain proficiency.

The required reading text for this class is Schmidt’s marginal-gloss Everyman edition of the B-text (ISBN: 978-0460875097). You may find it useful to consult the Norton student edition with en face translation, and for deeper dives into comparative readings, Schmidt’s parallel-text critical edition.