Medieval Romance

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course will introduce students to medieval romance, one of the most popular genres of medieval literature and one that gives us some of the best-loved literary characters of all time, including Lancelot and Guinevere. We will study the genre of romance, including Arthurian romance and other varieties, from the genre's inception. We will pay particular attention to the form of story-telling that it popularizes, the concept of love that it systematizes, the constructions of masculinity and femininity that it values, and the notion of heroism on which it depends. We will read many texts in their original Middle English, but no prior knowledge of Middle English or medieval literature is expected.