Class Time: MWF
Class Place: Rayzor Hall 302
How to reach me:
Office: Rayzor Hall 327
Office Hours: Wednesday 2:00 to 4:00 PM and by appointment (you can always catch me after class)
e-mail: westphal@rice.edu
Telephone: 713-348-4192
This course will examine the medieval tradition of King Arthur that arose in northern Europe from the beginning to the invention of printing. The objective of this course is to achieve a thematic, historical, and structural insight into some of the best examples of medieval storytelling and understand why they continue to cast a spell over readers today. You may want to try your own hand at Arthurian storytelling after you have learned the building blocks. The course also lays a foundation for the study of pre-modern literature, the medieval and early modern world, and the national cultures of France, Germany, and Britain.
The readings are divided into four groups. Beginning with a section on the origins of the legend, we will look at the scant but tantalizing written evidence for an historical Arthur in the period when the Celts lost control of England to the Saxons. We will also read an example of early Welsh story telling to seen how myth and fiction became entwined with the historical accounts to create a figure rooted equally in fact and fantasy. We will learn something of the royal and noble courts of history that supported the Arthurian poets and looked to Arthur as a model king and even an ancestor.
The next segment of the course is devoted to the knights of the Round Table and their adventures in medieval romance. These are the first writings since antiquity that depict men and women in complex, emotionally-charged relationships, often in contrast with social norms that favored celibacy or marriage over love and passion. We will learn about chivalry, the philosophy of love and warfare that crystallized in the fantasy of Arthur’s court and gripped the literary imagination of Europe for centuries.
We will then turn to the grail, the spiritual ideal that ultimately transcended the chivalric way of life. Here we will read a longer work written in Germany—and considered the masterpiece of medieval German literature—that features the unlettered fool Parzival. Through, grace and courage, Parzival becomes master of the world’s most precious object—a thing descended from the heavens but connected to the earth and all its abundance. We will see the impact of medieval Christian piety on the grail story as it is retold by men of the Church who linked the grail to the passion of Christ. Interestingly, these same storytellers gave us some of the most interesting tales of Merlin’s magic, both demonic and angelic, as we will see in this course segment. Why did the religious imagination also produce tales of the magical supernatural?
We will end the semester with a look at the biography of Arthur that emerged over the course of centuries, with particular emphasis on the fall of Camelot and the death of the king. We will watch as Arthur becomes a figure of tragedy, doomed by the internal contradictions of his own, ideal society, and betrayed by the ones he loves most. Ironically, this doomed outcome is perhaps the greatest expression of the Arthurian ideal. The ambiguous role of Queen Guinevere will also be a topic of discussion as we progress through this part of the course. We will note that the historical realities of civil war are tangible in this late medieval tragic vision of Arthur, giving it another dimension of reality.
Books and Materials Required for the Course:
Wolfram von Eschenbach. Parzival. Trans. A. T. Hatto. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1980. Available in the Rice Bookstore.
Additional readings can be obtained on electronic reserve from Fondren Library (you can download them at home); others will be circulated in class.
Method of Evaluation:
Four In-Class Writing Assignments @ 15% apiece
Three unannounced quizzes for a total of 15%
Final Examination During the Exam Period for 25%
Note on evaluation: Success in this course depends on keeping up
with the reading, attending class faithfully, and contributing your thoughts
and insights to the discussions. Classes
will last for the entire scheduled period on Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday. 75% of the course grade rests on
work done during the class periods.
Make-up assignments will be given only for reasons of athletics,
illness, or family affliction, with a written excuse from health services or
other authorized person. You are
expected to contact me to make arrangements for make-up work within a week of
the missed assignment, or, in cases of severe illness, as soon as reasonably
possible. There are no provisions for
additional work in this course.
8-23 Introductions
8-25 Arthur in the Latin Chronicles, 547 CE through 1019 CE
8-27 Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum britannie (History of the Kings of Britain), circa 1138 CE, pp. 166-69; 192-211.
8-30 Geoffrey, pp. 212-241.
9-1 Geoffrey, pp. 241-261.
9-3 Arthur and the early Welsh storytellers: Culhwch and Olwen, 11th c., written down in the 14th c.
9-6
LABOR DAY
9-8 Wace, Roman de Brut, 1155 CE, pp. 227-267
9-10 Wace, Roman de Brut, pp. 267-335
9-13 In-Class Writing Assignment #1.
9-15 Chrétien de Troyes, Erec and Enide, ca. 1169 CE, pp. 37-71.
9-17 Erec and Enide, pp. 71-101.
9-20 Erec and Enide, pp. 101-122.
9-22 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Marriage of Geraint, from Idylls of the King, 1859-1885.
9-24 Tennyson, Geraint and Enid, from Idylls of the King.
9-27 Marie de France, Lanval, 1170s-1180s?
9-29 Lyrics of Courtly Love, 1126 through the fifteenth century CE.
9-30 Chrétien de Troyes, The Knight of the Cart (Lancelot), 1170s CE, pp. 207-238.
10-4 The Knight of the Cart, pp. 238-269.
10-6 The Knight of the Cart, pp. 269-294.
10-8 In-Class Writing Assignment #2.
10-11 MIDTERM RECESS
10-13 Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival, circa 1200-1210 CE, Chapters 1-2.
10-15 Parzival, Chapters 3-4.
10-18 Parzival, Chapter 5.
10-20 Parzival, Chapter 6.
10-22 Parzival, Chapter 9.
10-25 Parzival, Chapters 15-16
10-27 La Queste del Saint Graal (The Quest of the Holy Grail), from the Vulgate Cycle, 1215-1235, Departure; Parting.
10-29 La Queste del Saint Graal, Lancelot at Corbenec; The Holy Grail.
11-1 The Prose Merlin, from the Vulgate Cycle, pp. 305-348.
11-3 The Suite du Merlin, second quarter of the 13th c., pp. 348-363.
11-5 In-Class Writing Assignment #3.
THE DEATH OF ARTHUR AND THE FALL OF CAMELOT
11-8 Le Morte Arthur (Stanzaic), circa 1350, lines 1-1671.
11-10 Le Morte Arthur, lines 1672-2459.
11-12 Le Morte Arthur, lines 2460-3969.
11-15 Morte Arthure (Alliterative), late 14th c. pp. 491-527.
11-17 Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte D’Arthur, composed 1469, printed 1485 by Caxton, Caxton’s original preface, Book I, Chapters 1-7.
11-19 Le Morte D’Arthur, Books XX and XXI.
11-22 Tennyson, the Passing of Arthur, from Idylls of the King
11-24 In-Class Writing Assignment #4.
11-26 THANKSGIVING
11-29 Mark
Twain, A
12-1 A
12-3 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, chapters XVIII-XX;
Final exam circulated in class.