Culture and Anarchy on the Coast of Bohemia

Authors

Malcolm Richardson Louisiana State University

Abstract

The paper describes the experience of teaching the early English literature survey at Louisiana State University during and immediately after the "Katrina Semester" of Fall 2005. It describes the critical roles Louisiana State University faculty and students played — working with the medical centers for New Orleans evacuees and hosting parents and relatives in their apartments and dorms — and then the reactions of students as LSU re-opened as a teaching institution in the following weeks. In general, although they were relieved to be back in class, students were highly reluctant to discuss the disaster directly in connection with literature, even with obvious connections such as King Lear. Lear, however, brought to the surface family conflicts nearly all were undergoing, although these were not discussed in conjunction with the storm's aftermath. However, they were more engaged than usual with The Canterbury Tales, possibly because of its sense of societal failures, of people who neglect responsibilities to others, and of a society on the edge of collapse, all presented with Chaucer's distance and irony. In general, the classroom served as a stabilizing influence in their lives, and although they were intellectually disengaged, the presence of the familiar classroom structure was important therapy in itself.

Author Biography

Malcolm Richardson, Louisiana State University

Malcolm Richardson is Taylor Professor of English at Louisiana State University, where he has taught Medieval and Renaissance literature and language since 1986. His major interests are the history of English, 1300-1530 and the history of vernacular writing during the same period. His latest book is Middle Class Writing in Late Medieval London (2011).