If psychologists and anthropologists are the guides to dream territory for the twentieth century, theologians, philosophers, and poets were the explicators of dream-and vision-experience for the Middle Ages. Biblical precedent gave these phenomena the status of divine revelation, from Joseph's interpretations of dreams in the Old Testament to John's vision of last things in the concluding book of the New Testament, the Apocalypse. Dreams arising from physical or psychological human causes had little meaning or interest for medieval dream theorists. However, there was enormous anxiety and debate about how to tell the difference between "true" and "false" dreams. This debate, in turn, inspired an enormous amount of literature, both religious and secular, serious and playful, that made "dream vision" one of the leading genres of the Middle Ages. The author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight wrote Pearl (thought by some to be a greater masterpiece than the well-known romance). Chaucer wrote four: Book of the Duchess, House of Fame, Parliament of Fowls, and Legend of Good Women. The third great poet of the fourteenth century, William Langland, wrote Piers Plowman. We will read these and earlier examples of the genre that set the patterns for them: Macrobius' Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, and Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, The Romance of the Rose. The goal of the course is to introduce students to a major medieval literary tradition, and to develop skills in close reading and effective critical writing. Combination lecture and discussion. Requirements: frequent short electronic journal postings, and two or three 6- to 8-page papers. Students will be evaluated on writing and class participation. Prerequisite: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 25 (expected: 15). Preference to English and Comp/Lit. Studies majors and qualified non-majors. (Pre-1700)