Senior Seminar in Comparative Literature

The course will focus on Arthurian romance in medieval French, Welsh, and English literatures.  The figure of Arthur—his image and social function—will be examined in the three cultural contexts with special attention devoted to how his reception in each culture reflects the concerns of that particular milieu. The French works that will be read are Chrétien de Troyes’ romances, Erec and Enide, Yvain, and Perceval; Marie de France’s Lanval and the anonymous lais, Graelent and Guingamor; Robert de Boron’s Romance of the Grail; The Quest of the Holy Grail; and Perlesvaus.  The Welsh works are:  the Arthurian romances, Gereint, Owein, and Peredur; the native Arthurian tales, Culhwch and Olwen and The Dream of Rhonabwy; the early Arthurian poems, “What Man the Gate-Keeper,” “The Spoils of the Otherworld,” and “A Conversation Between Arthur and Guenevere.”  The English Arthurian texts will include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and selections from Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte D’Arthur and from The Alliterative Morte Arthur.  Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain will also be read as will the Irish tale, The Voyage of Bran.

The course is open to students with a competence in reading at least one of the literatures in the original language; all works will be available in English translation.  Particular emphasis will be given to the Celtic aspect of the Arthurian texts.

Course requirements will include a midterm and a final examination, an oral report and a term paper.

BOOK LIST:

Bryant, Nigel, tr.  The High Book of the Grail:  A Translation of the 13th Century Romance of Perlesvaus.  Rochester, N.Y.:  D.S. Brewer, 1996.  (ISBN:  0-85991-510-7)

Burgess, Glyn S., tr.  The Lais of Marie de France.  New York:  Viking Penguin, 1986.  (ISBN 0-14-044476-9)

Davies, Sioned, tr.  The Mabinogion.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2007.  (ISBN  978-0-19-283242-9)

Meyer, Kuno, tr.  Imram Brain:  The Voyage of Bran.  [Reprint] Wales:  Llanerch Publishers, 1995.  (ISBN:  1-897-853-20-3)

Matarasso, P.M., tr.  The Quest of the Holy Grail.  New Haven:  Yale University Press, 1997.  (ISBN 0-14-044220-0)

Raffel, Burton, tr.  Chrétien de Troyes:  Yvain, The Knight of the Lion.  New Haven:  Yale University Press, 1987.    (ISBN 0-300-03837-2)

Raffel, Burton, tr.  Chrétien de Troyes:  Erec and Enide.  New Haven:  Yale University Press, 1997.   (ISBN 0-300-06771-2)

Raffel, Burton, tr.  Perceval:  The Story of the Grail.  New Haven & London:  Yale Univ. Press, 1999.   (ISBN:  0-300-07585-5)

Rogers, Jean, tr.  Robert de Boron:  Joseph of Arimathea, A Romance of the Grail.  London:  Steiner, 1990.  (ISBN:  0-85440-426-0)

Stone, B., tr.  Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  2nd ed.  Penguin Classics, 1974.  (ISBN:  0-14-044092-5)

Thorpe, Lewis, tr.  Geoffrey of Monmouth:  History of the Kings of Britain.  Penguin Classics, 1986.  (ISBN 0-14-0441-700-0)

Weingartner, Russel, ed. & tr.  Graelent and Guingamor: Two Breton Lays.    New York:  Garland, 1984.   (ISBN 0-8240-8914-6)