LIT 2082
MULTIMEDIATED MEDIEVALISMS:
ARTHURIAN AFTERLIVES
M/W 11:50 – 1:10, Olin 202
Prof. Maria Sachiko Cecire
[email protected]
Aspinwall 306
Office hours Tuesdays 2-4
or by appointment (please email)
Speaking of the history of stories and especially of fairy-stories we may say that
the Pot of Soup, the Cauldron of Story, has always been boiling, and to it have
continually been added new bits, dainty and undainty. […] It seems fairly plain
that Arthur, once historical (but perhaps as such not of great importance), was
also put into the Pot. There he was boiled for a long time, together with many
other older figures and devices of mythology and Faerie, and even some other
stray bones of history (such as Alfred’s defence against the Danes), until he
emerged as a King of Faerie.
--J.R.R Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories”
This course will consider how the Middle Ages have been reconstructed in Anglo-American
literature and culture in the past two hundred years, with a focus on representations of King Arthur
and his court. How does a period that is frequently seen as “primitive” and “backwards”
simultaneously exist in popular imagination as the epitome of nobility and chivalry? What do
reimaginings of this period reveal about contemporary ideas of nation, gender, ethnicity, and class?
How do iconic figures like King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and Gawain take on new meanings in
each rewriting? In addition to reading poetry and novels, we will also address the proliferation of
Arthurian material across other media, including painting, prints, film, gaming, and the graphic
novel. Authors will include nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first century writers, and we will read
excerpts from relevant medieval literature to contextualize their work.
In addition to traditional approaches to literary and cultural studies such as close reading and
engagement with critical sources, we will also experiment with digital tools such as Google Ngrams,
online archives, and text analysis software to see how they might cast fresh light on the Arthurian
material that we are studying. You will have the opportunity to explore how these tools can fit into
your study of medievalisms in class, in short assignments, and (if you choose), put them to work for
you in your midterm and final papers.
1 SCHEDULE
Week 1:
January 27:
Introduction and syllabus
January 29:
Pugh & Wiesl, Chapter 1: “Introduction: The Magic of the Middle Ages” and
Chapter 3: “Literary Medievalisms: Inventing Inspirations”
I. The Nineteenth Century
Week 2 – Arthur as National Figure | Digital Scholarship: Google NGram s
February 3:
Pugh & Wiesl, Chapter 5: “King Arthur’s and Robin Hood’s Adventures in
Medievalism: Mythical Masculinities (and Magical Femininities)”
Tennyson, Idylls: Dedication, “The Coming of Arthur”
Excerpt: Malory, Le Morte DArthur, Book I (to page 20, ReservesDirect)
February 5:
Stephanie Barczewski, “‘These Two Names Are National Inheritances’: The
Emergence of King Arthur and Robin Hood as National Heroes” (ReservesDirect)
Excerpt: Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain
Week 3 – Courtly Love
February 10:
Tennyson, Idylls: “The Marriage of Geraint” and “Geraint and Enide”
Excerpt: Chrétien de Troyes, “Erec and Enide” (ReservesDirect)
Alan Lupack, “Chrétien de Troyes and the Beginning of the Romance Tradition”
(ReservesDirect)
à SHORT ASSIGNMENT 1 DUE
February 12:
Tennyson, Idylls: “Guinevere” and “The Passing of Arthur”
Excerpts: Malory, Le Morte DArthur, Book 20 (493-504 and 526-9; ReservesDirect)
Week 4 – Nostalgia and the Backlash | Digital Scholarship: scholarly sites & archives
February 17:
Pugh & Wiesl, Chapter 7: “Medievalisms in Music and the Arts: Longing for
Transcendence”
Excerpts from The Pre-Raphaelites: From Rossetti to Ruskin (ReservesDirect)
www.preraphaelites.org
February 19:
Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Ch. 1-13
http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/yankee/cyhompg.html
Week 5 – Critiquing the Middle Ages
February 24:
Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, 14-33
à SHORT ASSIGNMENT 2 DUE
February 26:
Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Ch. 34-end
2 II. The Twentieth Century
Week 6 – Academic Interventions | Digital Scholarship: text analysis softw are
March 3:
Cantor, “Inventing the Middle Ages” (ReservesDirect)
Tolkien, The Fall of Arthur
March 5:
Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories” (ReservesDirect)
Selected Old English poems (handout)
Week 7 – The Middle Ages and the Child
March 10:
White, The Sword in the Stone, Ch. 1-7
Pugh & Weisl, Chapter 4: “‘Medieval’ Literature for Children and Young Adults:
Fantasies of Innocence”
March 12:
White, The Sword in the Stone, Ch. 8-14
Week 8 – The Middle Ages and the Child II
March 17:
White, The Sword in the Stone, Ch. 15-end
Aaron Isaac Jackson, “Writing Arthur, Writing England: Myth and Modernity in T.
H. White's The Sword in the Stone,” ReservesDirect
March 18:
MIDTERM PAPER / SHORT ASSIGNMENT 3 DUE (TO ASPINWALL 306 BY NOON)
March 19:
Disney’s The Sword in the Stone
Anna Caughey, “Once and Future Arthurs: Arthurian Literature for Children”
(ReservesDirect)
Week 9 – SPRING BREAK – Read Books III and IV of White, The Once and Future King
Week 10 – The Psychologized Arthur
March 31:
White, The Ill-Made Knight
April 2:
White, The Candle in the Wind
III. Media Proliferations
Week 11 – Cinematic Medievalisms | Digital Scholarship: w orking with m edia
April 7:
Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail
Pugh & Weisl, Chapter 6: “Movie Medievalisms: Five (or Six) Ways of Looking at
an Anachronism”
Excerpts from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (ReservesDirect)
April 9:
King Arthur
Littleton and Thomas, “The Sarmatian Connection” (ReservesDirect)
Richard Wadge, “King Arthur: A British or Sarmatian Tradition?” (ReservesDirect)
3 Week 12 – Experiencing Arthur
April 14:
April 16:
Pugh & Weisl, Chapter 8: “Experiential Medievalisms: Reliving the Always Modern
Middle Ages”
King Arthur / KA2 gameplay on YouTube
à SHORT ASSIGNMENT 4 DUE
TBD
Week 13 – Teen Arthuriana
April 21:
Avalon High: Coronation
April 23:
Avalon High: Coronation
Week 14
April 28:
Advising Day
April 30:
TBD
Week 15 - Senior Project Boards – no class
Week 16 – Wrap Up
May 12: Paper Peer Review
May 14: à FINAL PAPERS DUE (TO ASPINWALL 306 BY NOON)
EXPECTATIONS
What to bring: a) the correct edition of the text(s) we are discussing, when this has been specified,
and b) any secondary reading in hard copy. Laptops will not be admitted to the class except in special
circumstances, pre-approved by me. You may not bring food to class at any time, but drinks are
fine.
Academic integrity: Plagiarism is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “[t]he action or
practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft.”
Bard takes academic honesty very seriously, as do I. See the Student Handbook
(http://inside.bard.edu/doso/handbook/) under “Learning at Bard” for Bard’s policies regarding
academic integrity.
Academic Etiquette: I will try to respond to student emails in as timely a fashion as possible, but
be aware that I do not respond to email between 6:00pm – 9:00am Mon-Fri, or on weekends.
Please plan your emailing accordingly.
4 Blog: We will maintain a course blog throughout the semester, where you will post your short
assignments by 8am on the day that they are due (in addition to the essay-style hard copies that you
will hand in to me in class) so that your classmates can see your findings. Please be sure to sign up
to the blog in the first week, as your invitation will expire after this time. You are encouraged to use
this blog as a place to post any findings and musings related to the course, and to comment on your
classmates’ posts; this kind of activity will bolster your participation grade.
Grading:
Participation
Short Assignments
Midterm Paper3
Final Paper
20%
20%
25%
35%
Attendance1, preparation, discussion, blog activity
4 assignments of 2-3 pages, 5 points each2
5-6 pages
7-10 pages
1
Attendance policy: Each student may miss one class over the course of the semester without a
negative impact on your grade, no questions asked. Each missed session beyond the first will
reduce your final grade by one level (A to A-; A- to B+, etc.). If lateness becomes a chronic
problem, this will begin to count towards absences. For special circumstances, please see me.
2
Scoring: These will be scored on a scale of 1-5, where 5 points denotes outstanding work and 1
point denotes unsatisfactory work, with 0 points for incomplete assignments.
3
Paper submission policy: Late papers are accepted, but will be reduced one level for each day
late, beginning immediately after the session at which the paper is due. I do give extensions, but
they must be requested at least 48 hours in advance.
Readings (Available for purchase in the Bard bookstore):
Pugh & Weisl, Medievalisms: Making the Past in the Present, 978-0415617277
Tennyson, Idylls of the King, Penguin Classics, 978-0140422535
Tolkien, The Fall of Arthur, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 9780544115897
Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Dover 978-0486415918
White, The Once and Future King, Ace, 0441627404
Cabot, Avalon High: Coronation (Book I: The Merlin Prophecy), HarperCollins
978-0061177071
5