The Medieval Literary Arts: Reconstructing Notre Dame

3 units

How do medieval French writers understand the structures and functions of the human body? What kinds of bodies are considered disabled? Are womanhood, childhood, and old age construed as disabilities? In this course, we will read texts of varied genre -- farces, saints' lives, fabliaux, poems, romances, journals, and chronicles -- as we consider how, if at all, disability exists as a social or literary construct in the Middle Ages. Texts include Philippe de Beaumanoir's Manekine; Courtebarbe's Trois Aveugles de Compiegne; Guillaume de Machaut's Voir Dit; the farce Le Garcon et L'Aveugle; excerpts from Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose, from the Ovide Moralise, and from Christine de Pizan's Mutacion de Fortune; poems by Rutebeuf, Deschamps, and Molinet; and critical and theoretical texts from the emerging discipline of disability studies. Texts will be available in modern French; no prior study of Old French language is necessary. This course counts toward the seminar requirement for the major. Prerequisites: Fr 325 or Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WashU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for undergraduates.