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by Sue Kropp
Jennifer Bryan
•
Williams College, B.A.
• UCLA, M.A.
• UCLA, Ph.D. (in Anglo-Saxon, Medieval, and Women's Literature)
JUNE 3, 2002--For Jennifer Bryan, medieval literature is a living, breathing body of work. Bryan, an assistant professor of English, enjoys surprising her students by introducing them to the irreverent world of medieval writers through a combination of Middle-English texts and modern films.
"I think most people have this weird master template in their head that says medieval literature is too boring to enjoy," says Bryan. "What I really like doing is getting my students to discover things they never would have expected within the literature--the silliness, the humor, the familiarity of people and situations. Medieval literature is a wonderful resource because you can use it to talk about feminism, post-modernism, or even deconstructionism. There's really no limit to the genre, and I enjoy watching my students realize and embrace this fact."
Combining her interest in medieval English romances with her love of Monty Python films, Bryan used Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail to talk with her students about romance within English literary tradition.
"From early on in English literary history, serious romance ran against the grain," Bryan says. "Romance is always portrayed in a rather satirical, parodic way, and Monty Python's Holy Grail illustrates how this tradition continues in English film and literature even today."
A Q&A with Jennifer Bryan
Research Interests
Current Course Offerings
Next Year's Classes
Oberlin Students Take on the Middle Ages
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