Susan Crane

This class is essential for anyone interested in the English literary tradition. You'll be introduced to (or much better acquainted with) compulsory works like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Beowulf, Tristram and Isolde, and Le Morte d'Arthur. If you are an English or Creative Writing major you will benefit enormously from taking this class with Susan Crane, specifically. Her knowledge of and enthusiasm for the material makes for a riveting experience. She'll read to you in Middle English and share relevant music and art that make for a thoroughly immersive encounter with this rich period. (She also possesses a David Foster Wallace-like understanding of syntax and grammar that will help you to refine your prose in ways that University Writing never did.) This is easily one of the most rewarding classes I have ever taken. I should also add, after our trip to the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, I've become obsessed with rare books and older forms manuscript production. I don't know if the other professors who teach this class offer as much supplementary insight into the period and material, so I'd suggest playing it safe and taking it with Professor Crane (who also happens to be one of the warmest/friendliest professors on campus).

This was an excellent and interesting class. I took this class for a literature requirement at Barnard because I like medieval history and culture, but I don't think you need to have a prior interest in medieval literature in order to enjoy the class. All the texts are fun reads and don't take too long to go through. Professor Crane is great and she happily answers questions and encourages discussion of the readings. Her lectures are easy to follow and introduce historical and cultural context for the texts. She is really kind and supportive and was awesome to work with for a semester.

I really enjoyed this class. I found Professor Crane to be a dynamic lecturer, who impressively related much of what we were reading to contemporary thinkers like Foucault. I found her to be deeply caring toward her students and also the subject matter. She was a professor who actually wanted her students to succeed in her class, and most importantly put the work in herself to make that happen. For all the essays she had an excellent system for students to turn in the paper on a reasonable time schedule that worked for them, and was very active in helping students meet with her on their topics. Not only that, she was always clear in her expectations for the papers, and they were always fair and fun. Furthermore, in class she encouraged lots of participation, and was incredibly thoughtful in her responses to students. She be clear when someone was misguided, but kindly corrected the student and even found ideas/logics within their comments to rift on. She was the opposite of a typically cocky, "expert" professor, and even though she had more historic context on the era, always guided us with the goal not of forcing her extensive knowledge on us, but sharing and helping the class come to a consensus. A joy!

The workload is what you would expect from an English course at this level. But the material is so engaging it doesn't feel taxing. I was very moved by many of the texts and they served as a respite from my other classes.

Even though I am not an English major, this has so far been my favorite course at Columbia. I love medieval literature and culture and took this as a general education requirement for Barnard. Professor Crane was very kind and obviously loves the subject, and the readings she assigns are all interesting and relatively short, and if anything is unclear she will gladly provide answers in class, through email, or during office hours. She encourages participation in class but this can be in the form of questions about the readings or general comments or opinions. The texts are probably only compelling for fans of medieval art (we read Beowulf, King Arthur, etc.), but it is a great English class and Professor Crane is excellent.

I am a big fan of Medieval literature (didn't even take this class to fulfill a requirement), but Professor Crane is one of the most disappointing professor I have had in my 4 years at Columbia. She's not a stupid woman, but she is certainly not one of Columbia's finest (and there are some very excellent professors in the English Department here). She's very nice and friendly. She reminded me of a kindergarten teacher, which is great, except we're not in kindergarten. She gives very topical lectures, which leave much wanting, and provide little illumination of the many interesting texts. She tries to familiarize you with Medieval culture, but all you really get are fragmented ideas and less than insightful discussions on the texts. There is a required discussion section that they don't tell you about until you get to the class, too (it's not one that you register for). The discussion sections are inane. The TA was nice, but I thought the sections were a waste of time - we never worked on reading Middle English. Sometimes we had paper workshops, which is good if you're a freshman, I guess - but isn't University Writing supposed to cover that? We're in college. There are far better ways to fulfill the pre-1600 requirement for the English majors, and far better courses on Chaucer and other Medieval writers. This course is a waste of time.

This class was a great experience! Professor Crane was engaging and clearly interested in the subject matter, which was itself also quite interesting. There was a nice balance of in-class discussion and lecture. Professor Crane was always very attentive to students and receptive of their comments. The additional activites, such as manuscript reading, Middle English practice, and the trip to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, were also very engaging and connected well to the subject matter. She gave great feedback and comments on the papers as well. Really enjoyed it!

A good class. Prof. Crane chose interesting readings. The class was supposed to be about performance in the Medieval court Lit. I was hard pressed to see the linkage in some of the material chosen. There were 2 papers for the class, both of your own choosing and very easy to research and graded. Overall Prof. Crane was available for questions, she was in control and had interesting topics for discussion.

I loved this class. Learning about the English literary tradition seemed essential for me as a writer (and erstwhile, aspiring academic), but I was worried it might be a little dull. Fortunately, Professor Crane really breathed life into the lectures and and thoroughly immersed us in the material. I ended up finding myself incredibly moved by the texts as a result. Moreover, her Steven Pinker-like grasp of style/grammar was invaluable for--I'm almost certain--everyone. She would address common mistakes made in papers and it was clear that she was filling in gaps that had obviously been neglected by countless professors/courses... Anyone with even the most remote interest in English literature HAS to take this class. And anyone who wants to further develop their academic writing would do well to take ANY class offered by her.

I thought the class was fantastic. I was not a fan of Chaucer in high school, but Susan Crane explores the text in a manner that is just fascinating. I was impressed on the first day by her lecture and even though reading middle english takes a couple weeks to get down--it is worth it. Just paying attention during class and taking decent notes can pretty much get you a good grade. This class is lecture style--with questions permitted--and very valuable.