Middle-English Romance in Historical Context 3301-LB2039
The aim of the course is to acquaint the student with the evolution of the genre of romance throughout the Middle English period. The course is designed to see the Middle-English romance in the broad cultural context of the contemporaneous European romance tradition, as well as the ancient, the Scandinavian and the Renaissance epic tradition.
The course will position the romance in the context of the specificity of medieval culture as regards the understanding of history and myth, the influence of the martial tradition of everyday life, as well as the specific nature of the intellectual and economic conditions during the period.
A parallel aim is to discuss the social context of the particular poems, especially in relation to the differences between the Middle-English romanse and the continental traditions. A specific area of interest is the relation between the development of a distinctly English "style" of knighthood in the chivalric culture of the medieval Europe, and the role of the Middle-English romance as a literary record of said changes.
The course also makers note of heterogenous nature of the Middle English culture with elements of orality and literacy existing side by side. The students are acquinted with the basic grids of poetic composition and systems of formulaic versification within the rhymed as well as alliterative poetics.
The reading list reflects the variety of poetic forms and cultural traditions which can be distinguished within the genre, and thus it encompases the early rhymed couplet romance (King Horn, Haveloc the Dane), the popular tail-rhyme romance (The Green Knight, Sir Launfal), the classic longer rhymed romance poems ( Guy of Warwick), the heroic couplet romances and Breton lays of Geoffrey Chaucer (Wife of Bath's Tale, The Knight's Tale, the Franklin's Tale), the alliterative romance and the English offshoot of the European Arthurian tradition (The Awntyrs off Arthur, The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain, The Avowyng of Arthur, the stanzaic Morte Arthur, the alliterative Morte Arthure and the work of Thomas Malory).
Credit for the course is awarded on the basis of an oral examination consisting in a discussion of a given aspect discussed during the course with relation to a particular text or its fragment.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Knowledge
Students will be able to:
K_W02- understand key terminology, well established methods and theories of literary studies within the studies on medieval literature
K_W03- describe methodology and recent developments in English literary studies in relation to medieval literature
K_W04- describe the relation between literature and historical and cultural processes on an advanced level
K_W07 - explain principles of designing literary studies, with special focus on selecting appropriate methods and tools in formulating research questions
Abilities
Students will be able to:
K_U01- employ the terminology and methodological tools from literary studies
K_U02- employ the methodology of literary studies within English studies, respecting the ethical norms and copyright law
K_U04- implement knowledge to describe a problem and identify means to solve it, thereby completing a project in literary studies
K_U11- design one’s own development
Social competences
Students will be ready to:
K_K02- undertake life-long learning and personal development, applying skills and competences to select subjects and projects optimally suiting one’s personal interests
K_K03- value responsibility for one’s own work and respect the work of others, adhering to the professional and ethical norms in various projects and other activities undertaken at work, voluntary services, etc.
Education at language level B2+.
Assessment criteria
- attendance
- participation in discussions
- oral exam
2 absences are allowed
Bibliography
Amodio, Mark (ed.). Oral Poetics in Middle English Poetry. (New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1994).
Barber, Richard. King Arthur. (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2004)
Barron, W.R.J. English Metrical Romance. (London and New York: Longman, 1987).
Baugh, Albert C. “Improvisation in the Middle English Romance.” (London: Norton, 1995)
Bellis Joanna, and Megan G. Leitch. “Chivalric Literature.” (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2022)
Borroff, Marie. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. A Stylistic and Metrical Study. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1962).
Bradbury, Nancy Mason. Writing Aloud: Storytelling in Late Medieval England. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998).
Fewster, Carol. Traditionality and Genre in Middle English Romance. (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1987).
Field, P. J. C. Romance and Chronicle. A Study of Malory's Style. (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1971).
Field, Rosalind (ed.). Tradition and Transformation in Medieval Romance. (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1999).
Foley, John Miles. The Theory of Oral Composition. (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University, 1988).
Gaunt, Simon. “Romance and other genres.” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 200)
Guddat-Figge, Gisela. “The Audience of the Romances.” (London: Norton, 1995)
Hahn, Thomas. “Gawain and popular chivalric romance in Britain.” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 200)
Hahn, Thomas. Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1995)
Hartle, Paul. Hunting the Letter. Middle English Alliterative Verse and the Formulaic Theory. (Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, New York, Paris, Wien. Peter Lang, 1999).
Hibbard, Laura A. Medieval Romance in England. A Study of the Sources and Analogues of the Non-Cyclic Metrical Romances. (New York: Burt Franklin, 1959).
Jones, Robert W. and Peter Cross (ed.). A Companion to Chivalry. (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2022)
Keuper, Richard. Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999)
Krueger, Roberta L (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 200)
Loomis, Roger Sherman. The Development of Arthurian Romance. (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2000).
Loomis, Roger Sherman. The Grail. From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).
McCully, C.B. and Anderson, J.J. English Historical Metrics. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
Mehl, Dieter. The Middle English Romances of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968).
Oakden, J. P. Alliterative Poetry in Middle English. A Survey of the Traditions. (Archon Books, 1968).
Oakden, J.P. Alliterative Poetry in Middle English. The Dialectal and Metrical Study. (Archon Books, 1968).
Saul, Nigel. For Honour and Fame: Chivalry in England 1066-1500. (London: Random House, 2012)
Shepherd, Stephen H. A. Middle English Romances. (London: Norton, 1995)
Vinaver, Eugene. The Rise of Romance. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).
Vitz, Evelyn Birge, Regalado, Nancy Freeman and Lawrence, Marylin (eds.). Performing Medieval Narrative. (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2005).
Wittig, Susan. Stylistic and Narrative Structures in the Middle English Romances. (Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1978).
Additional information
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