Endless Romance

3 credits · Undergraduate

The great medieval genre of romance both endured and metamorphosed in the early modern period. This course will consider the important transformation of romance in the period by concentrating on two main texts, Spenser's The Faerie Queene, and Cervantes' Don Quixote. The course will begin by looking at a few paradigmatic late medieval romances of the fifteenth century, including portions of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, and the Spanish romance by Martorel, Tirant lo blanc. The main texts will then be considered as examples of the extraordinary reception of the genre, as continuation, elaboration and allegorization in the case of Spenser, and as the foundation of the novel in the case of Cervantes. Central themes such as quest, errancy, and desire will be considered; there will be a limited number of readings on the theory of romance (Frye, Bakhtin, Parker). In conclusion, we will briefly consider much later manifestations of romance, in the work of the Romantic poets. FORMATS: Seminar