Medieval Lyric

Graduate / Professional

Medieval lyric is famously mobile, whether we consider the ways it was composed and performed, or the ways in which it was transcribed or recorded, or the paths it took around the Mediterranean. This course explores the trajectories of medieval lyrics from a variety of perspectives. We journey from Al-Andalus to Occitania, to Sicily, to Tuscany, to Umbria, to Paris, to Calais, and across the Channel to East Anglia and London. Authors include Arnaut Daniel, Thibaut de Navarre, Gace Brulé, Jean Renart, Adam de la Halle, Dante, Guido Cavalcanti, Jacopone da Todi, Giacomo da Lentini, Machaut, Deschamps, and many anonymous and understudied, but inventive English songs and short poems. Focusing on a selection of lyrics each week (with translations provided where appropriate), we range widely through such topics as the idea of voice, the relation between lyric and narrative, poetry and music, and song and translation, guided by the central issues of place, encounter, and (often gendered) power dynamics. Key questions include: Is there a theory of lyric in the Middle Ages? What can contemporary thinking and writing about lyric teach us about verse surviving from 600–800 years ago? What can medieval lyric contribute to contemporary debates about lyric? Our materials include lyrics that were recorded not only on parchment and paper but also on walls and in stained glass, on tombs, in tapestries, and on domestic objects, clothing, drinking cups, and rings. Through manuscripts, objects, words, images, and music we aim to uncover a sense of the inventive freedom at work in the lyric forms of the past. T 1:30pm-3:25pm