Spring 2005

E 379N • Multi-Media Middle Ages- HONORS

Course Description

RESTRICTED TO MEMBERS OF THE ENGLISH HONORS PROGRAM

This course investigates the literature and culture of the Middle Ages in a variety of media, both verbal and visual, and in different historical periods ranging from the Middle Ages itself to our present century. We will read medieval romances, lyrics, and short narratives as well as adaptations of “the medieval” in various “modern” contexts, Victorian, American, post-modern, cyber, in order to survey the imaginative worlds inspired by and originating in the Middle Ages. We will seek to map the terrain of a number of cultural and literary fields that redeploy the Middle Ages and its literary products, including: novelizations, film, music, art, television advertisements, cartoons, children’s literature and toys, video games, and internet sites.

Grading Policy

Students will write two essays of 4-5 pages each, and then develop a prospectus leading to a term paper of 10-15 pages. Writing will be worth 70% of the grade for the course. Attendance is mandatory and will be taken rigorously. As part of the “seminar” format of this course, students will be asked to deliver at least one presentation to the class and to contribute to discussion on a daily basis.

Papers are due in class no later than the date listed on the syllabus. Late papers will be penalized at a rate of one letter grade per class meeting.

Texts

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (Norton, 2000)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (trans. J.R.R. Tolkien)
Thomas Malory, Morte D’arthur (Norton, 2003)
Tennyson, Idylls of the King
William Morris and Edward Byrne-Jones, The Kelmscott Chaucer (1896)
Aubrey Beardsley, illus. Le Morte D’arthur, Third ed. (JM Dent, 1927; orig. 1894)
Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)
T.H White, The Once and Future King (1977)
Sting, “Ten Summoner’s Tales” (A&M Records, 1993)
“I racconti di Canterbury” (Dir. Pasolini, 1972)
“A Knight’s Tale” (Dir. Brian Helgalund, 2001)

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