Approaches to teaching the Middle English Pearl / edited by Jane Beal and Mark Bradshaw Busbee.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Beal, Jane, editor.

Busbee, Mark Bradshaw, editor.

Series:

Approaches to teaching world literature ; 143.

Approaches to teaching world literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pearl (Middle English poem)--Study and teaching.

Pearl (Middle English poem).

Christian poetry, English (Middle)--History and criticism.

Christian poetry, English (Middle).

Study skills.

Local Subjects:

Christian poetry, English (Middle).

Study skills.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xi, 262 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : The Modern Language Association of America, 2018.

Summary:

The moving, richly allegorical poem Pearl was written in Middle English by the anonymous poet who likely also penned Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In Pearl, a man in a garden, grieving the loss of a beloved pearl, dreams of the Pearl-Maiden, who appears across a stream. She teaches him the nature of innocence, God's grace, meekness, and purity. Though granted a vision of the New Jerusalem by the Pearl-Maiden, the dreamer is pained to discover that he cannot cross the stream himself and join her in bliss-at least not yet. This extraordinary poem is a door into late medieval poetics and Catholic piety. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," surveys the many resources available for teaching the canonical yet challenging Pearl, including editions, translations, and scholarship on the poem as well as its historical context. The essays in part 2, "Approaches," offer instructors tools for introducing students to critical issues associated with the poem, such as its authorship, sources and analogues, structure and language, and relation to other works of its time. Contributors draw on interdisciplinary approaches to outline ways of teaching Pearl in a variety of classroom contexts. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 Materials

Classroom Texts 23

The Instructor's Library 36

Part 2 Approaches

Introduction to the Essays 53

Historical Approaches and Contexts

The Authorship of Pearl 60

Teaching the Language of Pearl 66

Teaching Pearl in Its Manuscript Context 72

Public Pearl 80

Literary and Theoretical Approaches

Teaching the Allegory and Symbolism of Pearl 87

Structures of Meaning in Pearl 96

The Relationship between the Pearl-Maiden and the Dreamer 104

Pearl, Pedagogy, and the Poetics of Enshrinement 114

Christological Meditations in the Works of the Pearl Poet 122

Comparative Approaches

Teaching Pearl with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 131

Teaching Pearl with Its Sources and Analogues 139

Pearl as a Gateway into Middle English Poetry: Comparative Approaches 148

Teaching Pearl When Teaching Tolkien 156

Specific Classroom Contexts

The Trope of Translation in Pearl 164

Performing Pearl 171

Voicing the Debate 180

Teaching Pearl and Landscape 188

Pearl and Medieval Dream-Vision Traditions in a Graduate Seminar: Genre, Mode, and Gender 197

Pearl and the Bleeding Lamb 209.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (235-258) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Approaches to teaching the Middle English Pearl.

ISBN:

9781603292917

1603292918

9781603292924

1603292926

OCLC:

954536434