ENGL 7810 Studies in Comparative Literature
Medieval Arthurian Literature
12:30–3:10 T
James Goldstein
The medieval legends of King Arthur, the knights of his round table, and the ladies who loved them have fascinated a wide range of audiences for centuries, as the stories have been told, retold, and adapted by various hands. Many of us first formed emotional bonds to Camelot at an early stage of life, through children’s storybooks, movies, cartoons, and so on. From the time the legends first began to circulate widely in the High Middle Ages to the present day, a large part of their attraction has been their nostalgic portrayal of “the good old days”—a magical time and place that has sadly vanished. The themes of historical and personal loss thus are very much at stake for readers of Arthurian literature.
But how much basis do the legends have in historical fact? What do we know about the origins of Arthurian legend? How did the legends develop over time? What insights into medieval people and their culture does this literature provide? This course will address such questions by focusing on the developing European tradition from the early twelfth century to the fifteenth century, reading major works of Arthurian literature in translation from Latin, Welsh, Old French, Middle High German, and especially Middle English sources in the original (in editions designed for classroom use).
Major works and authors will include: Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain (the most influential secular narrative of the medieval period); the Welsh Mabinogion; the romances of Chrétien de Troyes (who single-handedly invented the literary genre of Arthurian romance); a selection of Middle English verse romances (Alliterative Morte Arthure, Stanzaic Morte Arthur, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), and Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, the most ambitious compendium of Arthurian tales from medieval England. (Malory and Sir Gawain are two texts that appear on the M.A. reading list for the medieval period.) In addition, we will read the medieval portions of Derek Pearsall’s recent brief survey of Arthurian literature, a witty and insightful work by a leading medieval scholar. Finally, we will also watch clips from some film adaptations, such as Robert Bresson’s Lancelot du Lac and Eric Rohmer’s Perceval le Gallois.
Requirements:
Regular class participation, a fifteen-minute seminar presentation, a research
paper of about fifteen pages, and an essay final exam.