Le roman renaissant

From the origins of medieval romance in the 12th century, this course traces the history of the genre through the end of the sixteenth century. What was the fate of the knight errant in the modern era and how did the invention of printing transform medieval romance cycles? Did the humanist novel offer a corrective to the vagaries of chivalric romance? Literary works will be read in light of theories of the novel. Readings in Chrétien de Troyes, the prose Lancelot, Rabelais, Bakhtin, Lukács, and others. Taught in French.