Arthurian Literature: Medieval and Modern

Instructor: Curtis Gruenler English 371, Spring 2005

Office: Lubbers 306 Office phone: 395-7996

E-mail: gruenler@hope.edu Home phone 399-3731

Office hours: MW 3-5, T 2-3:30, and by appointment (Please don’t call after 9 p.m.)

Scholar D. S. Brewer has written that Arthurian literature is “perhaps the largest single body of imaginative literature that the world has known.” We will read only a small selection of this vast body, concentrating on major texts in English and the most influential works of the Middle Ages and the modern revival of interest in Arthurian stories.

Here are some goals that have shaped my choices about how to structure the course and which texts to read. I also want to be responsive to the goals you bring the course, and hope that it will be shaped through a dialogue between my goals and yours.

• To ponder why this tradition has been so enduring. This begins by asking what we find appealing and interesting about it, and takes us to questions about authors and audiences throughout the tradition. It also provides, I think, a valuable take on the question of what any good literature does. What seems to have drawn authors (and other artists) to the Arthurian mythology? What appeals do they give it for us?
• To explore the worldviews of these texts, their conceptions of humanity, divinity, and our world. The older texts, especially, show us a way of looking at the world and ourselves that is quite different from that of 21st-century Americans; this is a big part of what fascinates me about them.
• To discuss recurring themes in Arthurian literature. These include lots of biggies: gender roles, love, friendship and fellowship, identity and maturity, courtesy and virtue, violence and peace, sin and grace, beauty and holiness. Our common focuses will take shape according to the directions of our discussions.
• Make connections between texts. As part of a larger body of material that spans great reaches of time and culture, these texts open up lots of possibilities for interesting connections. For a student of literature, they provide a sort of laboratory for understanding how tradition, allusion, and response to prior works are a major element of literature in general. Because we will be reading various kinds of texts, we will have a good opportunity to consider how different genres (folk tale, historical epic, romance, narrative poem, novel, lyric poem, film) handle the same narrative tradition.
• Connect text and context. Though the speed with which we jump from period to period will limit our ability to place these texts in history, we will begin to see how the same tradition takes different forms in different times and addresses the needs and interests of different cultures.
• Sample the scope of Arthurian literature. There’s an awful lot. Seeing the scope of it helps give a sense of the power of the tradition. And it might give an introduction to further reading (if you haven’t had enough by the end of the semester).
• Consider how mythology works. For English-speaking people, the Arthurian tradition might be said to constitute a kind of home-grown mythology (even if its origins are more Celtic and French). I’m interested in how this tradition might shed light on what myth is and what it does.
• Grow in the practice of friendly, attentive, critical, and insightful reading of literature as well as talking and writing about it. (See the English Department’s statement of goals for English majors.)
• Cultivate our own fellowship of readers and writers.
• Be able to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail with full appreciation and get all the jokes.

Texts

Available at the Hope/Geneva bookstore

The Romance of Arthur, ed. James J. Wilhelm, Garland

Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, trans. William W. Kibler, Penguin

Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur: The Winchester Manuscript, ed. Helen Cooper, Oxford World’s Classics

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Penguin

C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

Available on reserve at Van Wylen library

Norris Lacy, ed. The Arthurian Encyclopedia

Web site

You will use the web site mainly for posting your protocols (see the next item) and reading and responding to each other’s. There will be a link to this syllabus, and perhaps other materials related to the course. To find the web site, choose our section from the list of courses under English at http://courses.hope.edu/. You can also get to this page from KnowHope by clicking “courselinks” from the top bar and then “Course Management System (Moodle).” To access the site, you will first need to create an account by following the instructions you find when you click on the link for our section. Let me know right away if you have any trouble using this site. You will need an enrollment key that I will give you in class.

This syllabus will also be available on my web site, http://www.hope.edu/academic/english/gruenler/.

Links

Here are some links to good Arthurian web sites:

THE CAMELOT PROJECT at the UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER: The place to start for texts and bibliography.

Arthuriana - Arthur Complete: A good gateway site.

VoS - Voice of the Shuttle: Good page of Arthurian links.

Requirements

Protocols. A protocol is a brief, tentative, but thoughtful, creative, and somewhat polished response to the reading for the day. This term comes from a Greek word meaning the first sheet of a papyrus roll that bears information about the whole roll. In diplomacy it refers to a preliminary statement used as a basis for further negotiation. We will use these protocols as a basis for discussion.

I expect a paper of 2-3 pages (500-800 words). Raise a question or two that puzzles you, explore an idea, share the pleasure of a discovery, make connections to other texts or works of art, etc. One format I suggest, at least for starters, is the question paper: ask a good, penetrating, discussable question and then offer the beginnings of an answer. You can end with questions as well. Keep in mind that the main aim is to provoke thought and discussion for the rest of the class.

Some protocols may become seeds for longer papers. As you get going, you may even find yourself following a related theme from one protocol to the next.

Protocols will be posted to the course website at least 12 hours before we meet to discuss the text that the protocol is about, i.e. by 9 p.m. the previous evening. Please read the protocols written for each class before you come to class. I also encourage you to respond on the website to the protocols, either before or after class. These responses may be brief and informal, but I would like to see them be substantive responses, both encouraging and critical, that might help the author revise his or her paper into something longer and better. Responses to protocols will count for part of your grade for participation.

Everyone will write five protocols over the course of the semester, or one every three weeks or so. Each day there will be two or three protocols to read and discuss. I will grade protocols on a 20-point scale.

Essays. For longer writing, you have a choice between two essays of 5 to 7 pages or one longer essay of 12 to 15 pages. For either shorter or longer essays, I encourage you to make use of secondary scholarship on your topic as a way of placing your own ideas in dialogue with those of others. For a longer essay, however, I would expect more in-depth research that covers the bases of both primary and secondary sources that pertain to your topic. The Arthurian Encyclopedia (on reserve) is a good place to start for bibliography. I have a more recent edition that you are welcome to consult as well, and can give you some other bibliographic help.

If you choose to do the shorter essays, the first one will be due on March 8. If you choose to do a longer essay, I ask you to turn in on March 8 a brief proposal indicating the topic you would like to write about and suggesting some avenues for possible research. The second short essay or a longer essay will be due during finals week.

As mentioned above, these essays may develop from your protocols, or they may also relate to the work(s) you choose to review for the class (see next item).

Review(s). As a way of bringing into the class some works that we don’t have time to all read together, I would like to ask you each to review one or two works that are not on the syllabus. (We will decide together during the first week whether everyone will do one or two reviews.)

For your review, please take no more than 10 minutes of class time. Bring a handout that gives a brief overview of the work (i.e. author, title, date, genre, how it relates to the rest of the Arthurian tradition, etc.) and a sample passage from it. That way you can use your time to focus on what you found interesting about the work and how it relates to what we have all read together. You might refer to the sample passage on your handout, even read some of it or have someone in the class read it, as a way of giving us a taste of the work.

I will grade reviews on a credit/no-credit basis.

Attendance and participation. One thing I ask of you in particular is that you come to each class with at least one good question about that day’s reading. We may use these as another way of beginning discussion. I also encourage you to learn each others’ names.

Here is the general scheme I will use for assessing participation:

A: Regular, helpful questions and comments; fully engaged

B: Occasional, pertinent questions and responses; good listening

C: Infrequent, tangential questions or comments; attentiveness questionable

D: Rare interaction; disengaged from discussion; not prepared for class

Two absences will be excused automatically. The next two absences (for whatever reason—illness, family emergencies, athletic contests, class trips, warm weather) can be excused by doing two hours of reading about the authors/works covered that day. Absences beyond the fourth for documented emergencies (such as illness or family emergencies) can be excused by the same kind of reading. All other absences will not be excused and will reduce the final grade by one step each. I expect you to complete assignments (readings and papers) whether you attend class or not.

Schedule

RA = The Romance of Arthur, ed. Wilhelm

Underlined items are clickable links on the web version of this schedule.

Jan. 11: Introduction

Jan. 13: Arthur in Latin Chronicles and Early Welsh Tradition; Culhwch and Olwen. RA 3-58. For much more bibliography and overview of scholarship in these areas, see the web site Arthurian Resources: King Arthur, History and the Welsh Arthurian Legend.

Jan. 18: The Historicized Arthur: Geoffrey, Wace, Layamon. RA 59-119.

Jan. 20: Chrétien de Troyes, Yvain (The Knight with the Lion)

Jan. 25: Chrétien, The Story of the Grail (Perceval)

Review: the lays of Marie de France.

Jan. 27: film, The Natural.

Feb. 1: Further discussion of Perceval, with “Appendix: The Story of the Grail Continuations.”

Feb. 3: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, parts 1 and 2 (RA 399-430).

Feb. 8: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, parts 3 and 4 (RA 430-66).

Feb. 10: Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Tale, Tale of Sir Thopas (handout); “The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell” (RA 467-87).

You can find both Middle and Modern English versions of The Canterbury Tales, and view them on screen together, at Chaucer's Canterbury Tales ~ presented by ELF.

Feb. 15: Winter Recess

Feb. 17: Malory, Le Morte Darthur: introduction, vii-xxvi, and stories of the young Arthur and his knights, 3-32, 50-81

Review: John Steinbeck, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, a translation/adaptation of books 1 and 3 of Malory (VW PR2043 .S67 1976).

Feb. 22: Malory, Lancelot, Galahad, and “The Tale of the Sangrail,” 281-303, 310-372.

Review: Merlin material from RA, 305-64.

Feb. 24: Malory, “The Tale of the Sangrail” continued, 373-402. Handout from Williams.

Mar. 1: Malory, “Sir Lancelot and Queen Guenivere,” 403-67.

Review: Chretien’s The Knight of the Cart (Lancelot)—Sondra.

Mar. 3: Malory, “The Death of Arthur” and Caxton’s preface, 468-530.

Mar. 8: Tennyson, from Idylls of the King: "Dedication," "The Coming of Arthur," "Merlin and Vivien," "Lancelot and Elaine". First essay due.

Review: Spenser, The Faerie Queene—Josh.

Mar. 10: Tennyson, from Idylls of the King: "The Holy Grail" "Pelleas and Ettarre," "The Last Tournament," "Guinevere," "The Passing of Arthur," "Epilogue--to the Queen"

Review: Arthurian art of the Pre-Raphaelites—Jenny; Arthurian photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron—Kat.

Mar. 15: Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, through chapter XXVI.

Mar. 17: Twain (Clemens), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, finish.

Reviews: Howard Pyle, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (an illustrated version from 1903 aimed at what are now called young adults, VW PZ8.1.A788 P5)—Glenn.

Mar. 22, 24: Spring Break

Mar. 29: C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength, through chapter 9.

Reviews: Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra (first two in the series that ends with That Hideous Strength)—Matt; Arthur Machen, The Great Return (1915, the Grail appears in a modern Welsh village; available online at The Camelot Project)—Kristin.

Mar. 31: C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength, finish.

Review: T. H. White, The Once and Future King—Keith.

Apr. 5: Charles Williams, Arthurian poetry, selections (handout)

Review: Charles Williams, War in Heaven (a grail story in the genre of the mystery thriller)—Emily.

Apr. 7: Charles Williams, more Arthurian poetry (handout)

Apr. 12: J. R. R. Tolkien, "Mythopoeia", “Of Beren and Luthien” from The Silmarillion.

Apr. 14: William Morris, “Defence of Guenevere”; Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, “The True Story of Guenever”; Sarah Teasdale, “Guenevere”; Wendy Mnookin, “Guenevere Speaks” (handout).

Apr. 19: Donald Barthelme, The King.

Review: Bernard Cornwell, Warlord Chronicles—Beth.

Apr. 21: Arthurian cartoons and children’s literature.

Apr. 26: “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” See also the Lego version at IFILM - Short Films: Monty Python LEGO.

Apr. 28: John M. Ford, Winter Solstice, Camelot Station.

May 3: final paper due by 5 p.m. at my office or at the English dept. main office (be sure my name is on it so that it makes it into my mailbox). If you would like me to return your paper, please include a self-addressed envelope.