MDVL 201

Spring 2020 Part of Term 1

Part of Term 1
Jan 21-May 6

Medieval Literature and Culture

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Credit: 3 hours.

Same as CWL 253 and ENGL 202. See ENGL 202.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2022 for:

Cultural Studies - Western

Humanities – Lit & Arts

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MDVL 201 class schedule data for spring 2020
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	43185	Lecture-Discussion	D	11:00AM -11:50AM	MWF	119 English Building	Matresse, E	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/21/20-05/06/20 Degree Notes: Humanities - Lit & Arts, and Cultural Studies - Western course. Credit: 3 hours Section Info: In this class we’ll traverse the medieval globe, with layovers in Ireland, England, and Germany; China and Japan; and Persia and West Africa, sampling as we go great literary works (all in English translation) from each civilization during the period corresponding to the European “Middle Ages.” Starting out in Ireland we’ll read the outrageous epic The Táin, about a cattle-raid led by the warrior-queen Medb of Connacht against the Ulstermen and their boy-hero Cuchulainn (whose weirdest super-power is his grotesque “warp-spasm”). We’ll then cross the Irish Sea to read the Lais of Marie de France (who lived in England, actually), in which desperate housewives and courtly lovers inhabit a medieval fantasy world at once naïve and sophisticated. On our tour of East Asia we’ll take up Chinese Tang Dynasty poems, exquisitely concise observations of nature, culture, and human emotion; the Tale of Genji, a leisurely narrative about the affairs (and marriages) of the “shining prince” of the Japanese imperial court; and The Confessions of Lady Nijo, a scandalous memoir of the affairs (and travels) of an imperial concubine who became a Buddhist nun and whose favorite book was—the Tale of Genji ! Passing through medieval Iran on our way back to Europe, we’ll read Vis and Ramin, a Persian romance about a queen’s affair with her husband’s brother. Then we’ll make for Germany to compare Vis and Ramin with Tristan and Isolde, a European variation on the same basic story, but in a very different setting and with a very different ending. And finally we’ll venture south into medieval and modern Africa to attend a recitation of The Epic of Sunjata (preserved in twentieth-century oral versions but with roots reaching back to the thirteenth century), whose hero overcomes a physical disability as well as the enmity of the queen stepmother and her own son. Our fifteen-week mission: to explore strange old worlds—to seek out medieval life and medieval civilizations!