STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

Also listed as German 205

In this seminar we will read and discuss a range of medieval texts where the reader encounters the construction, the imagination, and the experience of alien, fantastic, imaginary, sanctified, and abject worlds. Texts will include visions, courtly novels, and travel narratives. Questions will focus on the figuration of the foreign, the construction of borders and distinctions, the work of the imagination, and the function of the imagination of the alien. A preliminary reading list might include: Visio Tnugdali, Wolfram’s Parzival, Hartmann’s Iwein, Mandeville’s travels, Herzog Ernst. Depending on student interest, we will finalize the list at the beginning of the semester. Students are encouraged to send me their ideas. Everyone should have read Wolfram’s Parzival either in German or in English translation by the first week of class.