Topics:
- analysis of historical texts (chronicles)
- analysis of legal texts (laws, charters, wills)
- analysis of religious texts (sermons, homilies)
- analysis of private correspondence
- analysis of late medieval and renaissance drama
- analysis of poetic texts
The seminar will focus on reading and analysis of selected Old, Middle and Early Modern texts. Each text is presented as a self-contained whole with a glossary, philological commentary and basic information on its literary background.
The aim of the seminar is a) to provide students of the history of the language with a wider empirical basis; b) to encourage the students who aim to pursue their study of historical linguistics and/or English medieval literature to develop a firmer philological grasp of medieval English.