/lit/ - Literature

>>14701451
I agree, as far as my knowledge extends in that field. The European evolution of law is a fascinating process, but for me it's part of the manifold socio-political, moral and philosophical ideas of the medieval period (i.e., the notions of chivalry, knighthood, courtly love) that all bear on the question of how the medieval mind experienced life, and how it differs from modern perspectives (an endless and ongoing scholarly debate).

>>10880573
It's pretty slim pickings. I did a full-year OE course and the second half was Beowulf. The first half was made up of shorter poems: The Seafarer, Cædmon's Hymn, The Wanderer, Dream of the Rood, some riddles, etc. Most of what we have are translated saints' lives and mundane documents. Middle English is much more fun.

>>10738420
It's a good list (we could quibble, but I've read around 90% of them). After that, specialize. Find an author or period you want to delve more deeply into. Take a seminar. Have fun. Pick another area. Repeat until you die.

The current stack-in-progress (my secondary field). Right now I'm reading Three Middle English Charlemagne Romances: The Sultan of Babylon, the Siege of Milan, and the Tale of Ralph the Collier (which I don't think made it into the pic). Lots of favourites, but aside from olf classics (Marie de France, Orfeo, Pearl-poet), Christine de Pizan is my latest cool discovery.

For beginners, I'd start with a good Norton, Broadview, etc., anthology. Lots of useful context and glosses to orient one, and excerpts from many longer works so you can figure out which full texts you want to try after.

>>6388463
Ha! You got me. Well, university part-time prof, but still. Well spotted.

What a strange, sad thread. I teach literature courses to undergraduates, and the content will almost certainly never be of specific use to most of them in their careers. However, those who actually do their own work over a few years greatly improve their ability to articulate their thoughts, write or speak persuasively and coherently, do research and consider multiple opposing viewpoints, and gain a great deal of general cultural, societal, and historical knowledge. The job opportunities that (for instance) Medieval Lit directly leads to are essentially non-existent, but that doesn't make the experience useless. Plagiarizing gets you nothing but a grade that you could easily accomplish fairly with a little effort, and the fair approach gives you the personal benefits. You're not beating the system, you're just spending a lot of money and time to get one small fraction of what university has to offer you (the diploma).
Also, this idea:
>Anything that I am "learning" in college will be retaught to me by whatever organization I end up working for
is hilarious. Do you think you can fake any career around until you pick it up on the fly? I doubt you've ever seen a serious job interview process.

>>6300283
Well, I don't get out to restaurants or coffee shops. I'm marking a stack of my students' papers for Medieval Lit (a decent batch, fortunately), and when I'm too tired to handle any more analyses of Lanval, I read a bit of Boethius, edit my current chapter-in-progress on Poe & Lovecraft, read a few funny things from my McSweeney's collections, and go the fuck to sleep.

I'm going medieval on my own ass.