Semester II, 2000-2001	Robert Longsworth
English 202 MWF 10:00-10:50 King 241	Rice 128, (440) 775-8571 Office hours: MF, 11:00-12:00, Th 8:00-9:30 am, & by appt)
	E-mail: Robert.Longsworth@oberlin.edu

Medieval European Literature

The Chief Objectives of this course are 1.) to introduce some of the rich Latin and vernacular literature from the European Middle Ages; 2.) to offer some perspectives on the period in which that literature was written; and 3.) to suggest some methods of reading and interpreting literary works from the distant past. The texts chosen for study are important in themselves; but they by no means exhaust the range or depth of important texts that clamor for attention: the choice is embarrassingly arbitrary, and the student would do well to keep that in mind!

Requirements for the course will include:

1. class participation (minimally, in the form of regular attendance; optimally, by engagement in discussion);

2. the submission of at least three prep papers (on dates to be specifically assigned for each student): though these papers need not be polished, they ought to raise questions or propose ideas about the material assigned for the particular day on which they are submitted;

3. a mid-term essay (4-6 pages, due on ) extending the discussion of a work or topic treated in the course; and

4. a final term paper (12-15 pages, due on 15 May) on a subject to be selected in consultation with the instructor. The term paper may deal with works and/or topics covered in the course; but it may also deal with medieval texts or topics not assigned (see the Addendum, below).

 

The Texts for the course will include:

Chretien de Troyes, Complete Romances.

The Portable Dante, ed. and tr. Mark Musa (Penguin).

Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan.

The Song of Roland.

C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image.

Other assignments will be made from works on reserve at Mudd Library or included in a course-pack.

The Format of the course will consist chiefly of lectures, with questions and discussion warmly welcomed.

The Schedule of topics to be considered and assignments to be carried out in preparation for each day's class follows:

Feb 5 Introductory Lecture: About the Course

Feb 7 Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy (copies on reserve in Mudd); also available electronically at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/latin/boethius/consolatio.html
See also Lewis, Discarded Image, 75-90

Feb 9 Early medieval Latin lyrics: poems (in course-pack) by Venantius Fortunatus, Alcuin, Hrabanus Maurus, Walafrid Strabo, Peter Abelard; and "O Fortuna," from the Benediktbeuern MS (widely known as part of the Carmina Burana); these and other poems can be found in Helen Waddell, tr., Medieval Latin Lyrics (copies on reserve in Mudd Library)

Feb 12 Song of Roland, introduction and laisses 1-149 (to line 2008)

Feb 14 Song of Roland, to the end

Feb 16 The Troubadours and Trouveres: selections from William of Orange, Marcabru, Bernart de Ventadorn, Beatritz de Dia, Bertran de Born, Marie de France (in course-pack; further selections to be found on reserve in Mudd Library, in James J. Wilhelm, Medieval Song; Angel Flores, Anthology of Medieval Lyrics; Alan Press, Anthology of Troubadour Lyric Poetry; Frederick Goldin, Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouveres)

Feb 19 Troubadours and Trouveres, continued

Feb 21 From The Mabinogi, Introduction, 1-21; Culhwch and Olwen (119-157); The Tale of Gwion Bach and The Tale of Taliesin (159-181)

Feb 23 From The Mabinogi: Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed; and Branwen Daughter of Llyr (35-72). Note: For another translation, see the Everyman Library version by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones: it is entitled The Mabinogion, and a copy is on reserve in Mudd Library.

Feb 26 From The Mabinogi: Manawydan Son of Llyr and Math Son of Mathonwy (73-109)

Feb 28 Chretien de Troyes, The Knight of the Cart. Note: There are available in Mudd Library several translations of the works of Chretien de Troyes. Another version of each romance has been placed on reserve. In this case, see Burton Raffel, tr., Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart.

Mar 2 Chretien de Troyes, Erec and Enide. Also on reserve is the translation by Burton Raffel.

Mar 5 Chretien de Troyes, The Knight with the Lion. Also on reserve is the translation by Burton Raffel, entitled Yvain, the Knight of the Lion.

Mar 7 Chretien de Troyes, The Story of the Grail. Also on reserve is the translation by Burton Raffel, entitled Perceval: the Story of the Grail.

Mar 9 Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan, "Prologue" and chapters 1-10. Note: There is available in the Conservatory of Music Library a compact disc recording by Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata, entitled Tristan et Iseult. It includes medieval songs in German, Italian, and Provencal&emdash;all based on the legend celebrated in Gottfried's poem. Issued by Erato in 1989, its shelf-mark is CD-3939.

Mar 12 Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan, chapters 11-21

Mar 14 Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan, chapters 22-29

Mar 16 Thomas of Britain, selections from Tristran in Penguin Classic; together with the introduction and all appendices

Mar 19 Later Medieval Latin Poetry: Adam of St. Victor, Sequence on St. Thomas of Canterbury; Stephen Langton (?), Veni, Sancte Spiritus; Thomas Aquinas, Pange, Lingua, Gloriosi; Jacopone da Todi, Stabat Mater; Anonymous, Dies Irae

Mar 21 Legends of the Saints and Fabliaux (in course-pack). From Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend: Saint George and the Invention of the Holy Cross; "Our Lady's Tumbler"; and "The Wife of Orleans." Note: Copies of the Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea) are available in the Art Library.

Mar 23 Italian Poetry of the 12th and 13th centuries: St. Francis of Assisi, "The Canticle of the Creatures"; Guido Guinizelli, "The Gentle Heart"; Guido Cavalcanti, "A Lady Begs Me," "Concerning a Shepherd Maid," "Of an Ill-Favored Lady," "To Dante Alighieri"; Dante Alighieri, "To Guido Cavalcanti," "To a Short Day and a Great Ring of Shadow," "I Seek to Make My Speech a Yawp," in course-pack; with supplemental poems available on reserve in Angel Flores, Anthology of Medieval Lyrics
Mid-Term Essay due

SPRING BREAK

Apr 2 C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image.

Apr 4 Mark Musa, introduction to The Portable Dante; Dante, Divine Comedy, "Inferno," cantos 1-4. Note: there are many translations of the Comedy. Two are available on reserve in Mudd Library: one by Alan Mandelbaum and the other by John Sinclair. The Italian text, as well as translations by Henry Cary and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, can be found at http://www.divinecomedy.org/divine_comedy.html

Apr 6 Dante Alighieri, "Inferno," cantos 5-20

Apr 9 Dante, "Inferno," cantos 21-34

Apr 11 Dante, "Purgatory," cantos 1-17

Apr 13 Dante, "Purgatory," cantos 18-33

Apr 16 Dante, Vita Nuova

Apr 18 Dante, Divine Comedy, "Paradise," cantos 1-13

Apr 20 Dante, "Paradise," cantos 14-25

Apr 23 Dante, "Paradise," cantos 26-33

Apr 25 Giovanni Boccaccio, Filostrato. Note: this work is on reserve in Mudd Library, and can be found under its Italian title (Il Filostrato) or in a collection by R. K. Gordon, tr., The Story of Troilus.

Apr 27 Boccaccio, Decameron. Read the Proem and Day One. Various translations of the Decameron are available on reserve in Mudd Library. An entire web-site devoted to this work can be found at
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/dweb.html

Apr 30 Boccaccio, Decameron. Read Day 10, and especially the final tale (number 10)

May 2 Petrarch, from the Canzonieri (in course-pack)

May 4 Dafydd ap Gwilym, selected poems (in course-pack)

May 7 Christine de Pisan, selected poems (in course-pack); note: the text and notes for Ditie de Jehanne d'Arc can be found at http://dc.smu.edu/ijas/cdepisan/index.html

May 9 Francois Villon, selected poems (in course-pack)

May 11 Desiderius Erasmus, In Praise of Folly. Various translations are available on reserve in Mudd Library; the Wilson translation may be found either at http://smith2.sewanee.edu/Erasmus/etp.html or at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1509erasmus-folly.html

May 15 TERM PAPER DUE

Medieval English literature has been ignored completely in the course, because it is dealt with in other courses. In French, the vernacular drama was extensive: see, for example, Grace Frank, The Medieval French Drama (1954). And the Romance of the Rose, written by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun (a recent translation into English was made by Charles Dahlberg and published in 1983), was an important and influential encyclopedic allegory that dealt with what has come to be known as "courtly love."

In German, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival (an English translation by Hatto was published in 1980) is a treatment of the legend of the holy grail. (As part of the extensive literature about King Arthur, it and other works from other languages have been treated in R.S. Loomis, ed., Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages.) The Nibelungenlied (tr. Frank Ryder, 1962) was a popular Germanic epic tale from the 12th century (or earlier) -- see A Preface to the Nibelungenlied by Theodore Andersson (1987); and the lyric poetry of the minnesaenger -- of whom Walther von der Vogelweide is the best known -- is quite substantial (see Olive Sayce, Poets of the Minnesang, 1967).

The Old Norse Poetic Edda (tr. Carolyne Larrington, 1996) is a collection of poems and lays from the 13th century. The Younger Edda of Snorri Sturluson (tr. Jean I. Young, 1954) is a remarkable exposition of the art of skaldic poetry and its roots in Norse mythology. The Icelandic language developed from Old Norse, and it became the vehicle for a fascinating kind of heroic narrative known as the saga. To pursue these topics, see Carol Clover and John Lindow, Old Norse-Icelandic Literature (1985) and Margaret Ross, ed., Old Icelandic Literature and Society (2000).

Medieval Spanish literature, which has been sadly and regrettably omitted from the course, is rich and extensive. The Poem of the Cid, Juan Ruiz's Book of Good Love (tr. Elizabeth MacDonald 1999), the chivalric novel Amadis of Gaul, and lyric poets with roots in Arabic and Jewish cultural history are merely a few of its literary exemplars. See, for example, Tatiana Fotitch, An Anthology of Old Spanish (1962), and Richard Chandler, A New History of Spanish Literature (1961).

The best-known Celtic literature of the Middle Ages includes the sagas of Ireland&emdash;especially the Ulster Cycle, central to which is the Tain bo Cuailnge, or Cattle Raid of Cooley, ably translated by Thomas Kinsella; and the Finn Cycle, dealing with the heroic figure of Cuchulainn. The best introduction to these stories is still to be found in T. P. Cross and C. Slover, Ancient Irish Tales (1936). See also Jeffrey Gantz, Early Irish Myths and Sagas (1971), Myles Dyllon, Early Irish Literature (1948), and Kenneth Jackson, A Celtic Miscellany (1972).

An Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature, ed. Robert Lambdin and Laura Lambdin (Greenwood Press, 2000), is available in the main reserve collection of Mudd Library.

For the historical background to this period, we have the great good fortune of having available to us Marcia Colish, Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 400-1400 (Yale, 1997)&emdash;on reserve for Professor Colish's course (History 304) and in bookstores around the world!