01 MTH2 CAC 10545 SCANLON MU-210
Romance was medieval culture’s most popular non-religious literary genre. It is probably also the medieval genre which has had the largest influence on subsequent history. There is almost no form of modern popular narrative, from the Western to science fiction to the soap opera, which does not draw in some way on the conventions of medieval romance. The most famous medieval romances are those of Arthur. This course will examine the Arthurian legends in some detail, from the early instances in French by Chrétien de Troyes and Marie de France, which we will read in translation, to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to the great synthesis of Malory’s Morte Darthur. The course will also survey the field more widely, to give students a sense of the truly strange and rich variety of the genre in later Medieval England. Other texts will include King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Sir Orfeo, and The Siege of Jerusalem. Three papers and some online exercises.
Reading
Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances.
Four Romances of England: King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Bevis of Hampton, Athelston
The Breton Lay.
Sir Gawain and Green Knight.
The Siege of Jerusalem.
Sir Thomas Malory, Morte Darthur.