FRENCH 1200 - MEDIEVAL EPIC AND ROMANCE

MWF 1-1:50pm, HUM 1B80

Course Website http://spot.colorado.edu/~cowellj/

Professor Andrew Cowell
Eaton Humanities 317
Phone: 492-8270; Email: James.Cowell@colorado.edu
(I check e-mail mornings and afternoons, but not after 5 pm or so)
Office Hours: Monday 10-11,Wednesday 2-3, Friday 11-12. (I'm on campus almost every day, 8-5).

medieval view This course will offer an introduction to the most famous texts of the Middle Ages, covering the period 800-1300 AD. The course will also offer a general introduction to medieval culture and its very different ways of thinking about the individual, society and the world compared to our modern perspectives. We will focus especially on the concept of the hero, the origins of our contemporary ideas on romantic love, and the social changes which brought an end to the Middle Ages and prepared the way for the Renaissance and the modern era.

Jan. 12-14 Introduction to the Middle Ages

Link to copies of the citations from Tacitus and Caesar, plus information on the "Battle of Maldon," all on the Germanic Hero. Link to Aristotles' definition of the classical Tragic Hero.

Jan. 16-Jan. 28 Beowulf

For Jan. 16: read through p. 43/v. 641 (Beowulf has just arrived at Hrothgar's hall, and the queen serves him; he then formally promises to defeat Grendel or die)

For Jan. 21: We will attempt to talk about everything up through p. 71/v. 1061.

Friday, Jan. 23: Reading Quiz on the ENTIRE text

For Jan. 23: we will discuss through p. 127/v. 1040

For Jan. 26: discuss through p. 171/v. 2515

For Jan. 28: discuss through the end

Jan. 30-Feb. 9 The Song of Roland

For Jan. 30: read through section 52. Link to information on the "Peace of God"

For Feb. 2: We will discuss through section 128. (You can skim the very repetitive combat scenes which don't involve Roland or Oliver)

For Feb. 4: Discuss through section 180 (hopefully)

For Feb. 6: Reading quiz on Song of Roland. Discuss through 273.
NOTE: you can SKIP sections 220-227, 232-242. Also, as earlier, you can skim the individual combat scenes, which are repetitive. But pay close attention to Charlemagne's final combat with the emir Baligant, as well as the trial scene (274-end). Other things to pay attention to are: visions, dreams and the like; signs of divine intervention, miracles, and so forth; the roles of the two women Aude and Bramimonde; the symbolic usage of light and darkness, along with high and low; and the symbolics of Roland's death.

For Feb. 9: Discuss 274-end. Also general wrap-up on epics and epic heros.

Feb. 11 MIDTERM ESSAY No. 1 Due (6 pp., typed and printed out)
(Topic will be posted here on Feb. 9 around 1pm. You will have 48 hours to do what is esentially a take-home midterm, and turn it in for class on the 11th.

Feb. 11: I will do a presentation on one of the most famous medieval love affairs, and certainly the earliest widely-documented one in western Europe: Abelard and Heloise. No reading - just listen and take notes. Link to information on Courtly Love. Link to information on Chivalry.

Feb. 13-23 Yvain

Feb. 13: We will discuss through p. 42

Feb. 16: Discuss through p. 80

Feb. 18: Discuss through p. 141

Feb. 20: READING QUIZ. Discuss through p. 172

Feb. 23: Discuss through end.

Feb. 25-Mar.6 Tristan and Isold

Feb. 25: SKIP Prologue; Read/discuss chps 1-5.

Feb. 27: Discuss chps 6-12 but SKIP chapter 7.

Mar. 2: NO CLASS

Mar. 4: Discuss chps 13-23 but SKIP chapter 18.

Mar. 6: SKIP chp 24. Discuss chps 25-29
READING QUIZ on ONE of the chapters discussed: 1-6, 8-17, 19-23, 25-29, 38-40 [As announced in class, the reading quiz will be an intensive examination of a SINGLE chapter of the text this time, to encourage you to develop close reading skills. The chapter in question will be announced ahead of time at the end of the class on monday. The quiz will have some questions that will have required you to have read the rest of the book, in order to see how the chapter in question fits with the rest, but all questions will focus specifically on the single chaper and how it fits the overall themes of the story.]

Quiz will be on: Chapter 28: The Parting

Mar. 9: SKIP chps 30-37. Discuss chps. 38-40

Mar. 11 Marie de France - "Lanval"
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/~jshoaf/Marie/

Mar. 13 Marie de France - "Bisclavret," "Laustic"

Mar. 16 MIDTERM ESSAY No. 2 Due (6 pp.)

Mar. 18-Apr. 6 The Death of King Arthur

For March 18: Discuss through p. 56

For March 20: Discuss through p. 87

March 30: through p. 125

April 1: though p. 155; FINAL READING QUIZ of the Semester! Presentation on St. Augustine

April 3: through end

Apr. 6-10 Fabliaux (Norlin on-line reserve)

April 6: "Hear Me" "The Three Hunchbacks" "The Partridges"

April 7: Extra credit opportunity: earn two letter grades (C > A) on a quiz, or one letter grade on two quizzes, if you attend the following lecture and turn in a one-page, double-spaced summary of the contents:

Sharon Kinoshita, "How to do things in the Medieval Mediterranean" Benson 185, Tuesday April 7, 5-7pm.

April 8: guest lecture

April 10: "The Wife of Orleans" "Berengier of the Long Ass"

Apr. 13: Optional Pre-final Review Session (see posted review sheet below)

April 15-29: Dante, Inferno

April 15: Introduction to Dante and Italian Renaissance

April 17: Inferno, Cantos 1-5

April 20: Cantos 10-13

April 22: Cantos 17, 19-20

April 24: Cantos 26-28

April 27: Cantos 31-34

April 29, May 1 Review

FINAL EXAM Saturday, May 2, 1:30-4:00 pm
Makeup: Friday, May 1, 10:00am

Readings:

All of the texts for the class are in the bookstore except "Lanval" and the "Fabliaux," which will be available on-line.

Requirements and Grade:

Midterm Essay No. 1 = 25%
Midterm Essay No. 2 = 25%
Final Exam = 35%
5 reading quizzes = 15%

Reading quizzes will be on Beowulf, The Song of Roland, Yvain, Tristan and Isolde, and The Death of King Arthur. We will spend around six days on each of these texts. The reading quizzes will be at the beginning of class on the fourth day.

Secondary Resources:

A good general introduction to the works and authors to be considered in this course, as well as to a myriad of other topics, is the multi-volume Dictionary of the Middle Ages, which is designed for the non-specialist, and which has additional bibliographic information for many of the entries. It is in the reference room. (Call # D114.D5)

Good websites for the Middle Ages:

http://www.the-orb.net/
(an on-line source reference book for the middle ages. not jazzy, but lots of info in a reference-book type format)

http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu/
(a site with lots of information about the middle ages, including on-line texts, visual archives, and plenty of links)

http://www.netserf.org/
(a search application specifically for medieval resources on the web)

SPECIAL NOTES:

If you have disabilities which will need to be accommodated during the course, please let me know as soon as possible and I'll be happy to do so if I can. The same goes for special religious holidays and other accommodations of that sort. Un-excused absences for quizzes or exams (i.e. failure to contact me by 9am on the day in question and get my okay to be absent) will result in a zero, unless you have a note from a doctor regarding a medically unavoidable, last-minute situation, in which case a make-up will be arranged.

Remember that you are bound by the CU Honor Code in this class, on all work which you turn in. See www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/ if you have questions.