SoSe 22: S-Literatures of Medieval Britain: Religion, Agency, and Authority in Middle English Romance
Joshua Easterling
Kommentar
An introduction to late medieval vernacular romance in England, this course explores the problem of authority, in both its religious and political dimensions, as these were expressed in the poems that we will read and discuss. At the heart of these poems, which often foreground the ideal of a spiritually advanced and not only courtly medieval laity, is the relationship among various religious movements that trace their origins to the twelfth century and its cultures of reform. We will address above all the extent to which variations among the different and at times rival cultures within and outside the religious (that is, clerical and monastic) forum helped to shape the representation of authority in these and other romances. The Speculum Vitae by William of Nassington (fl. 1320), for example, disparages the Middle English romance Sir Ysumbras by arguing that this and other such romances give expression to the moral vacuity of lay culture and therefore provide readers with no genuine or “authentic” images of piety.
A similar tension is traceable in the representation of penance in the primary works that we will read in this course, including and especially so-called “hagiographical romances,” wherein a central tension conerns the respective notions of authority by religious and lay (i.e. aristocratic and courtly) elites. Aside from two romances by Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400), the Knight’s Tale and the Man of Law’s Tale – both exquisite examples of narrative control and poetic elegance – we will read Sir Gowther, the stanzaic Guy of Warwick, Sir Orfeo, Emaré, Sir Ysumbras and excerpts from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. .
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Knight’s Tale, Part 1 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Knight’s Tale, Parts 2-3 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Knight’s Tale, Part 4 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Man of Law’s Tale, Parts 1-2 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Man of Law’s Tale, Part 3 Sir Ysumbras.
Sir Gowther Emaré.
Sir Orfeo.
Stanzaic Guy of Warwick, ll. 1-1692.
Stanzaic Guy of Warwick, ll. 1693-end.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, selections 1.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, selections 2.
TEXTS: .
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tale, ed. Jill Mann (Penguin, 2005). ISBN-13: 978-0140422344.
The Middle English Breton Lays, eds. Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury (Medieval Institute Publications, 1995). ISBN-13: 978-1879288621.
Four Middle English Romances: Sir Isumbras, Octavian, Sir Eglamour of Artois, Sir Tryamour, ed. Harriet Hudson (Medieval Institute Publications, 2006). ISBN-13: 978-1580441117.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. Laura L. Howes (Norton, 2021). ISBN-13: 978-0393532463.
Stanzaic Guy of Warwick, ed. Alison Wiggins (Medieval Institute Publications, 2004). ISBN-13: 978-1580440882.
Schließen14 Termine
Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung