ENGL 237 - Medieval Literature

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

This course serves as an introduction to medieval literature, with a focus on Middle English literatures (c. 1066-1550). Students will become familiar with the linguistic and stylistic features of Middle English, and will read a variety of texts from the period. Special topics for the course will vary from year to year; examples of topics include: Arthurian literature, Chaucer, the Chaucerian tradition, women’s writing in the Middle Ages, transnational/comparative medieval literatures (including French and Italian), medieval “autobiography,” the alliterative tradition, Piers Plowman and the Piers tradition, dream visions, fifteenth century literature and the bridge to the “early modern,” literature and heresy, gender and sexuality in the Middle Ages, and medieval mystical writing. Students will engage throughout with the process of establishing English as a “literary” language; authorial identity; the grounding of English literary tradition; and the role of translation and adaptation in medieval writing. The course will also prepare students who might wish to pursue work in medieval literature at the 300 level, and/or pursue a senior thesis in the period.

Topic for 2018/19b Arthur Through the (Middle) Ages. The figure of a heroic warrior named Arthur originated in the 9^th century. You know about King Arthur today because as a popular figure he has been continually rewritten from the Middle Ages all the way into the 21^st century to serve shifting cultural, political, literary, and artistic tastes and purposes. In this class we read some of the earliest narratives of King Arthur (Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain and The Life of Merlin), and then follow the character and his ever-growing and shifting court as he moves through medieval literature. This allows us to explore the literary themes, forms, and conventions of the English Middle Ages more broadly. Some of the texts we read include (but are not limited to): Laȝamon’s Roman de Brut, Marie de France’s Lanval, Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, and Gerald of Wales’ The Tomb of King Arthur. Finally, this class considers how Arthur appears in contemporary popular culture and what his medieval literary history brings to his representation in modern media. We watch at least two films: Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (a movie that The Guardian termed an “epic fail”). Erin Sweany.

Two 75-minute periods.