SHORT EXERCISES
These short pieces of work (600 words) are focused around issues of theory or background, and are usually due at the start of a new section of the course (see schedule for dates). They should be personal responses to the set reading, often linking issues from the reading to primary texts; they are not simply summaries of the readings. All three short exercises are compulsory. Look at these more as tutorial exercises than actual essays; while I require full answers (i.e. formal English and not note-form responses) I do not expect you to write much more than the designated 600 words.
DUE DATE: Group 8 14th March, Group 9 15th March
Set reading: Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism, "The Mythos of Summer: Romance", pp. 186-203 (book is on Short Loan)
What are Frye's main ideas about the structure of romance? How are they echoed in "The Knight with the Lion"? Suggest, with detailed examples, how Frye's ideas about the symbolic or mythic qualities of romance might be relevant to "The Knight with the Lion."
NB: the library catalogue has a glitch in it, it doesn't bring up Anatomy of Criticism if you search by author name; it does if you search by title. Give the Short Loan people the shelf number, which is 801.95 FRYE.
Exercise 2: Romance as social genre
DUE DATE: 12th April, in the tut.
Set reading: Sections I and II of Frederic Jameson (1975) "Magical narrative: Romance as genre." New Literary History 7 (1), Autumn 1975.
(photocopy is on Short Loan; the article is also available on JSTOR, here.).What are Jameson's main points about romance as a social genre, in particular its ideological treatment of evil and otherness? How far do his ideas apply to "Sir Launfal"?
Exercise 3: Women in Romance
DUE DATE: Group 8 16th May, Group 9 17th May, in the tut
Set reading: Sheila Fisher, "Women and men in late medieval English romance", in The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance (photocopy on Short Loan).
What is Fisher's central argument about the position and potential threat of female figures in many medieval romances? How does the figure of Britomart, a female knight, either support or contradict Fisher's argument?
ESSAYS
You are required to write TWO essays for this course.
Essay 1: On either "Knight with the Lion", "King Horn" or "Sir Launfal".
Essay 2: On any of the texts covered (obviously not the same one as your first essay) in comparison with a more modern form of romance.
Please note that I will not under any circumstances accept plagiarised work at second-year level. If you’re lucky I’ll refuse to mark a plagiarised essay and will require you to rewrite it. If the essay is already late and is also plagiarised, it will receive a mark of 0. I reserve the right to send particularly bad cases to the University Court, where at best you’ll get a reprimand and will fail the course, and at worst could be expelled. IF YOU ARE IN ANY DOUBT AT ALL ABOUT WHETHER YOU ARE PLAGIARISING, ASK ME TO LOOK OVER A DRAFT.
FIRST ESSAY TOPIC
DUE DATE: Thursday 26th April, before 3.30pm.
Consider the idea of the knightly quest in your chosen text: what is the nature of the journey, both physical and internal, which the hero must undertake? How is its ultimate goal defined? Is there more than one? and why is it so important? You should support your analysis with some close reading of relevant passages.
SECOND ESSAY TOPIC
DUE DATE: Thursday 31 May, before 4pm.
Compare and contrast the representation of the knightly code in one example from medieval or Renaissance romance, and one example of modern romance. How do the texts differ in their definition of desirable and undesirable behaviour for the hero? What has changed or remained constant over time in ideas of right and wrong, particularly in issues such as violence, loyalty and attitudes to women? Most importantly, with reference to the historical contexts of the two texts, try to suggest why these notions have either changed or remained constant.
- Please note that the point here is not to make you do a whole bunch of extra reading; either pick a text which you know (and a surprising number of books you might have read as a kid have Arthurian themes) or a film or short text which you can absorb quickly.
- I do NOT expect you to do background reading in the more modern text you've chosen. I'm interested in the parallels and differences you can find, and what suggestions you can make as to why they exist.
- Your attention should be divided fairly evenly between the actual medieval romance you have chosen and the modern version.
- You might find Northrop Frye useful in talking about basic romance structures.
- Please remember that you may not choose the same medieval romance as you covered in your first essay.
Modern texts can be anything from the 19th century onwards: Victorian poetry or fantasy, modern fantasy romance, film, television, etc. Possible examples include:
- Lord of the Rings, book or film, but I suggest that you look at one of the films unless you are a mad Tolkien fan anyway and know the book quite well, in which case go wild.
- T. H. White, The Sword in the Stone, or in fact the Disney animated movie, if you like.
- Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series, particularly the last one, Silver on the Tree.
- Any film version of Arthurian legend; Excalibur, the recent King Arthur, Mists of Avalon, etc.
- Any heroic film with a battle focus - Kingdom of Heaven, the Orlando Bloom Crusader epic, might be interesting. I've tended to avoid romance versions of classical myth and epic in this course, but many do exist, so if you like you could look at Troy or even Gladiator.
- The Star Wars films are unashamedly romance, knights, princesses and all, although I'd suggest you focus on the first three (Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), they're much better films than Phantom Menace, Clones or Revenge of the Sith, and much more aware of their romance roots.
- There are a lot of romance parodies out there, playing self-consciously with notions of knighthood, heroism and adventure; try The Princess Bride, Shrek (not the sequel, it's more interested in fairy tale than quest) or, if anyone remembers that far back, Willow.
- Fantasy films such as Ladyhawke are very much in the romance mode, as are movies/TV series such as Conan and Xena (if you must!).
- Children's fantasy adventure films may also play with romance motifs. Never-Ending Story is a good example (the original book by Michael Ende is even better); so is The Dark Crystal, to some extent.
- Versions of Robin Hood folklore are often interesting reworkings of heroic romance; the knightly hero becomes something less aristocratic, bow instead of sword, and without the horse, but still rescuing damsels and protecting the weak, and loyal to the (true) king.
- If you're feeling bold and adventurous (which would be appropriate), you could try something a little less obvious - we briefly discussed the Indiana Jones stories as having points in common with knightly quest, for example.
- You could also look at superhero archetypes as modern versions of knighthood - Batman, Spiderman, even The Incredibles makes interesting points about heroism and chivalry.
- Tennyson's Idylls of the King or "The Lady of Shallott". I suggest you choose a short piece from the Idylls, if you're going to use them; don't try to wade through a whole book. There are online versions here.
- Keats's "La Belle Dame Sans Merci." There's an online version here.
- If you are into visual studies and are familiar with the genre, you might even like to look at some of the Pre-Raphaelite pictures of Arthurian stories - some interesting choices made there in terms of what aspects of the heroic myth they choose to represent.
Please remember that you need to check your example with me before writing your essay, unless it's one of the ones suggested above.
